The Hub on Causeway (née TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

CSTH said:
What problem are we solving here, gents?
Click to expand...

Removing the O’Neil building and fixing the street grid while adding lots of developable land that as of now are random roads that wrap around the building causing tons of dead space that can be developed while adding an easy to follow street grid.

So to answer your question: developable land that did not exist before on a street grid.

Those blocks obviously wouldn’t be single buildings. Add cross streets as needed or storefronts between buildings, court yards...whatever you want.

You could fit all the needs of the O’Neill building in a taller building with a bunch more space to rent out. Then you have all those other parcels to develop as well.
 
stick n move said:
Removing the O’Neil building and fixing the street grid while adding lots of developable land that as of now are random roads that wrap around the building causing tons of dead space that can be developed while adding an easy to follow street grid.
Click to expand...

Govt should sell parcels in prime development spots and move or rent cheaper accommodations elsewhere whenever possible. O'Neil building could be dealt at a large profit vs whatever it cost to build it. City would reap new tax revenue with private development instead of currently off-tax rolls property and whatever govt agencies are in the building now could lease space in new presumably taller structure. Same concept as the ridiculous transportation building on Kneeland St that the state should be accepting bids for as we write. No need to have govt entities like the transportation dept occupying prime downtown real estate.
 
I can see benefits of making the folks in charge of our transportation infrastructure actually commute to, from and through the busiest transportation hub areas in the state.
 
statler said:
I can see benefits of making the folks in charge of our transportation infrastructure actually commute to, from and through the busiest transportation hub areas in the state.
Click to expand...

Somehow I kinda doubt the bigwigs are taking public transit...

More likely they have a car and driver and get to work at off peak hours.
 
stick n move said:
So to answer your question: developable land that did not exist before on a street grid.
Click to expand...

Got it.

How about:

- tighten up the weird triangle around the last tenement
- make the new street your proposing a pedestrian street or gallery
- redevev oneill as appropriate.

I just dont think you're gaining a lot of developable space by moving levrett-bound traffic from one side of the oneill parcel to another...
 
Your creating a traffic nightmare by forcing hundreds of cars to go to causeway and drive the new street to get to North Station garage during events. The intersection of lomasey/causeway is already a traffic mess during regular daytime traffic.
 
It can be adjusted as need be. I like the last picture that someone made the best that one seems like it would work pretty good. Anyways it was just an idea no big deal and if we want to really get in depth we can make a new thread and hash out the fine details.

Charlie_mta said:
That would look something like this:

27686250769_5a9fe6fee6_b.jpg
Click to expand...

I like this much better than the one I made haha. You could throw a cross street or ped space/corridor half way up the left yellow block that aligns with the ped corridor in NST-the one in nst that turns and heads towards causeway n call it a day. At the other end it would also align with the ped corridor that will be built when the basketball city garage goes up. So that would be adding to the pedestrian walkways and street grid of the area. Build a tall govt building on the plot next to south station to house all the employees displaced from the O’Neil building with room for plenty more offices. Then build whatever is needed on the other parcels and this is now an even denser completely rebuilt transit oriented neighborhood with a nice street grid.
-Must keep last tenement though.

The left plot could hold probably 3 towers and the right probably 2. That’s a lot of money in the sale of those plots. I think they should explore this. The O’Neil building is short too that’d be pretty easy to take down, then just relocate them into brand new office space when completed. Then with all the other lots in the area this could become its own substantial skyline with high FAA clearances allowed.


datadyne007 said:
One-way streets invite excessive speed and should be avoided.
Click to expand...

It’s only 1 way for a block.
 
Last edited:
stick n move said:
It’s only 1 way for a block.
Click to expand...


I think that 1-way setup would be a traffic nightmare for more reasons than just speed. Lomasney way is a major input/output for the Leverett Connector (Storrow/93/Route 1) and Cambridge. You have a ton of traffic coming from Staniford, Causeway, and Merrimack that continues onto Lomasney to head out of the city. By adding in another intersection you'll either have to make the misaligned Portland Street intersection bigger, or add yet another set of lights to an already congested area. You're going to increase the backups involving vehicles heading to Lomasney from Merrimack and Staniford. From a vehicle standpoint, it makes things worse. And even though the scale is better (and any streetwall is better than the O'Neill), I'd wager the pedestrian experience would be worse as well. It's already a major pain to cross Merrimack, Causeway, Staniford or Lomasney at that intersection (Help Me Hank covered how bad it is a little over a year ago). Adding another major intersection (and dealing with the one way traffic loop) won't make it any better.
 
datadyne007 said:
One-way streets invite excessive speed and should be avoided.
Click to expand...

In this instance though it would be hard to find another way. Traffic is already horrible there, add in another intersection 10 feet from the other and you've got a disaster.

Maybe just make the new street a skinny one way going north with access only available from Causeway going westbound and Portland Street. Keep the other street a two way.
 
A better solution would be to re-bulldoze the entire West End and former Govt Ctr, rebuild it all with more height, narrower roads but many more of them. Blow up the ONeil on the same plan.
 
Fuck it just make causeway st pedestrian only. go big or go home.
 
can we take all posts since 2070 and put them in a Crazy Street Grid Pitches thread?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top