Can Institutions Spawn Development?

On my day off I walked down to Fort Point in South Boston to see the new Institute of Contemporary Art building.

Fort Point is a kind of interesting place. It used to be mostly industrial manufacturing uses (it's where Necco wafers used to come from), but it's now being redeveloped as residential loft space and office space. It's a little hard to tell how it's going to fit into Boston as a whole. It's got wide streets and shiny new office buildings that would fit into LA or San Diego quite well, but are odd for Boston.

So, anyway, back to the ICA. It's gotten a lot of press this month. Both Metropolis and Newsweek had articles on it recently.





The building was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, one of those odd architectural entities that has somehow managed to get real famous without actually completing a major building. The building reminds me roughly of a stool that IKEA had a couple of years ago. It's an interesting design, although I think mechanical stuff on top really detracts from the overall look. It'll be interesting to see how the space is actually used.


For me however, the biggest question is the surrounding area. It's parking lots all around, which leads me back to my original question. Do institutional buildings spawn development?





I was reading recently about the filling of the Back Bay neighborhood. Down there, the state donated land to several institutions (a couple of churches, MIT, the BPL, the MFA and the old Museum of Natural History, for example) prior to selling plots for private development. Right now, the area surrounding the ICA consists of a Silver Line subway station, the World Trade Center and the ICA. Will this effect development, or will simply keep the surface parking lots cost effective for their owners?

Read more...

I guess I'm a little late in blogging about this, but better late than never.

J & I drove up to Canada last weekend for my birthday.

Or to be more specific, we went to Quebec, which is/is not Canada.

It's a very interesting switch going from the Northern US into Southern Quebec. In northern Vermont (which I just realized on this trip is French for Green Mountian), it's all wooded and hilly and untouched by the hands of men and so on and then you cross the border and it looks like you've somehow been magically transported to southern Minnesota corn country, but with French signs.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Montreal, which by my count is the fifth biggest city in eastern continental North America* at a little over one million in the city proper. Socially, it's probably one of the most interesting places I've ever been. The language issue alone is fascinating. I don't know how many times I heard conversations where one person was speaking English and one person was speaking French and it all was completely natural. It's also (like Boston) a very young city, though there were definitely more young families in Montreal. No one in Boston ever has kids.

We spent a good portion of our time shopping and eating, both of which are quite fun (and not super expensive).

I'm an especially big fan of the Poutine, which is french fries covered with gravy and cheese curds. mmmmm.

Architecturally, Montreal has some beautiful turn of the century townhouses (like most of the east coast). Part of what I find really interesting however, is that Montreal, as a French city ruled by the English, used mostly French residential architectural styles instead of the British (mostly Victorian) architecture that you see in other North American cities from the same period.

Some of the neighborhoods also use really tall iron-railed outdoor staircases on their townhouses which have a lot of character, but must be killer (literally) in the winter.

Besides the turn of the century, the other big period of prosperity that added a lot of building must have come during that unfortunate architectural period from the late 60's to the early 70's. The Tour de Montreal, for example, was built for the 76 Olympics.

It's an interesting enough building (tallest sloping tower in the world) but it's set in the middle of a giant moonscape of concrete that felt uncomfortable, to say the least.

The transit was really good all around. As a walker, I sometimes forget that one of the best arguments for good integrated transit is that it reduces congestion for everyone. Driving was noticeably not stressful, despite the size of the city and the subway was good (and quiet, since they use rubber tires on the trains). They also had really great bikepaths.

Instead of making the bikes ride on the streetside of parked cars, the path was on the sidewalk side with the parked cars blocking the moving cars from the bikers. It seemed like a nice solution that will keep bikers safe from cars and cars safe from bikers.

We went to the Biodome, which was also a building from the 76 Olympics that has been converted to a zoo.

We climbed to the top of Parc du Mont Royal, which is a park that was designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted (Central Park, the Emerald Necklace, ect) that sits on the top of a mountain that is right in the middle of town. It's got great views, and it's pretty remarkable how much you feel you are in the wilderness right in the middle of the city.

We also went to a few museums, including The McCord museum of Canadian History (which was good) and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (which was a little disappointing, since the only exhibit at the time was on a building in Boston).

So yeah, I guess that's about all I have to say right now. Here's a few more pictures. I'll probably get the rest uploaded over the next few days.












* New York, Chicago, Toronto, Philadephia Montreal. If you include non-continental North America, Havana and Santo Domingo are also larger, they both fall between Toronto and Philadephia

Read more...

I find it completely bizarre that a country that I was in three months ago had a military coup today. It's really strange to think that we easily could have been there today. Thailand was the country that we liked the least out of the ones that we visited for a lot of reasons. The tourists were overwhelmingly disrepectful of Thai culture, for one, and the city was sprawled like a bad version of Los Angeles, but what made me the most uncomfortable was the complete omnipresence of the military. It's easily the most militarized society I've ever been in. All of which probably sounds really weird considering Thailand is/was a "democracy" and the rest of the countries surrounding it are dictatorships. I don't know that I really have a point here. I just found it weird.

Read more...

I wanted to take this, the occasion of my 25th birthday, to remind everyone that the Massachusetts Primaries are next Tuesday, and to throw my bloggy endorsement behind... da da dah dahhh... Deval Patrick! And no, it's not just because he looks vaguely like Barak Obama (though I'm willing to admit that might be a factor). Everything that I've seen leads me to believe that he's the best candidate on urban issues, especially housing and transportation.

As far as the primary goes, you have to be registered 20 days in advance in order to vote, so it's too late if you aren't registered already (although you should register now to vote in the november election). If you are registered as belonging to one of the two major parties (Republican or Democrat) you can only vote in that primary. If you are unaffiliated or wrote in one of the minor parties (Green/Rainbow, Socialist, Libertarian), you can vote in either primary, but not the other. As every pole I've seen has the Democrat leading both the (horrible) Republican and the (passable) Green/Rainbow candidates by more points then there are people who haven't decided yet, it seems that right now whoever wins the democratic primary will be the next Governor. So VOTE!!!

Read more...

J managed the world's best birthday surprise today.

She managed to get ahold of a friend from schools family's season tickets to the sox, which put us about 10 rows behind homeplate at the most expensive ballpark in the country.

It was easily the most fun baseball game I remember. The fans are amazing, the stadium is amazing, the food is not too bad (and they have Guinness on tap). It reminded me of being a kid in '87 and '91 when the Twins were World Series teams and the fans were really into it (and the Metrodome was full).

Red Sox beat the Royals 9-3. Ortiz homered.

Read more...

The Hancock Tower Just Went on Sale...

... I checked the cushions of my couch, but I'm still $999,999,997.64 short. Anybody wanna chip in?

Read more...

The Worst Thing That Can Possibly Happen to a Person

So, I got to the subway station today and realized that I had forgotten my book. A 35 minute train ride without a book? Yuk. After digging through my bag I finally found a copy of Mao's Little Red Book hidden in it's depths. Better than nothing.

Today was the first day of the semester. I had my first design class. I've been really excited and I think it's going to be great. The teacher is an female architect from New Delhi (by way of Austin). There's no text, just a sketchbook and some colour pencils. It's going to be really fun. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I designed houses for fun. I've also got Social Problems and Urban Budget & Finance.

In other news... I got a promotion at work. I've got my own store now and the pay is much better, but I've still been a little blah about it. It's like Jim from the Office says, "Right now it's a job, but if I move any higher it becomes a career. And if this were my career..." You get the picture. But I've still got three semesters until I get my degree, so I might as well do something a little more challenging and get paid for it.

J and I are going to Montreal in a couple of weeks for my birthday. I'm really looking forward to it. We're staying in a nice bed and breakfast. I'm looking forward to seeing Parc Mont Real (designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted) and the Biodome. And of course the general joie de vie. If anybody's got any recommendations up there let me know.

Read more...

I went downtown a couple days ago to pick up some of the monthly magazines that I really should subscribe to, Metropolis and Dwell, for example. Anyway, I was leaving when something else caught my eye. ArchitectureBoston, which I do occasionally pick up, has Eastie on the cover! I don't think I need to say what a giant leap that is. The article are mostly pretty good. I'd say that the magazine did a good job of both celebrating the culture that exists in East Boston as well examining the changes that are happening. Here's a snippet from the intro:

Most Bostonians don't really know East Boston, despite the fact that many of them drive through or fly over it on a regular basis. And most of the have no idea of the magnitude of the change that is underway... (Eastie) is a microcosm of issues that are playing out in many communities across the country, issues such as waterfront development, conversion of industrial lands, reuse of obsolete buildings, changing identity, transportation and open-space pressures, and an increasingly diverse population...

I think that's a really good intro to the issues the we're facing.

When I first moved to Eastie two years ago, I choose it because it was relatively cheap, safe and had good transit. I would say that for the 6 months or so, we were hoping to move into the city more at some point, but now I don't really feel that way anymore. The process that we've been living through here has been an invaluable learning experience. You find yourself at times loving the new improvements, like the parks or some of the new buildings, and at other times lamenting what is being lost, like the two beautiful brick buildings on Chelsea Street the were removed for some reason last year.

The magazine also points out some of the things that might "protect" East Boston from some of the changes that really hurt the South End years ago when it was going through the same process. We have smaller building footprints, which makes it tougher for a GAP or Starbucks to move in. We are a large percentage owner occupied (usually with tenants as well in the same building) which makes it harder to displace people, and, the neighborhood is full of community activists who are used to challenging the airport.

At the same time, we've got almost 2000 new luxury condo units coming in. It's hard to imagine that that won't change the change the neighborhood significantly.

Anyway, I might post some more on this later... but I need to get going... I'm so bad at conclusions...

Read more...