Posts tagged Boston
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Transportation across the nation: from fantasy to reality
Boston’s big blank Boylston wall: The Globe’s Alex Beam criticizes Boston’s new Mandarin Oriental, whose long, flat facade lacks cafes or stores and (at least in Beam’s opinion) looms too darkly over the street. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Boston to Baltimore to Bloomingdale, oh my! edition
Close a road, reduce delays? We know that reducing lanes for cars can improve pedestrian safety, help a neighborhood, and lead to less traffic in the long run. But even Level of Service-minded traffic engineers can get behind closing certain roads. As the Economist reports, researchers studied Boston’s road network and determined that too many alternatives create more delay… Keep reading…
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Transportation across the nation: Mistakes of the ‘70s edition
Bulb-outs in Boston? Boston’s record on livable streets and Smart Growth is decidedly mixed, with good projects surrounded by bad transportation practices. There may be hope if the ideas in this Globe article come to Boston. Via Streetsblog. Keep reading…
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Boston’s new planner not a fan of starchitecture
The Boston Globe has a Keep reading…
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Dinner links: Kansas outdoes everyone else edition
Buy a Chrysler now, and lock in your destructive lifestyle! A great Tom the Dancing Bug satirizes Chrysler’s offer to lock in $2.99/gallon gas to new buyers. How long until they go bankrupt? Who cares! Since when did US automakers think about the future? Via Richard Layman. Keep reading…
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Really cool 1954 Boston subway diagram
Vanshnookenraggen has this amazing historic drawing—part map, part artistic rendering—of the Boston subway and elevated rail system as it existed in the mid-twentieth century (sometime between 1929, when the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line opened (lower left), and 1964, when the MBTA replaced the MTA and gave the lines color designations). Keep reading…
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Stopping the bank invasion
Belmont, Massachusetts is the latest town to consider zoning rules that let them keep their downtown from being taken over by banks. Banks can pay higher rent and generate less noise than other establishments, so landlords love them, but a good downtown needs a mix, and banks don’t generate foot traffic nights or Sundays. Via Richard Layman. Keep reading…
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Public spaces on public radio
Roger Lewis, architect and Washington Post columnist, discussed urban public spaces on the Kojo Nnamadi show on WAMU today. (Cleverly, in the membership drive appeal during the show, the WAMU staff referred to the public square-like nature of public radio). Lewis talked about many interesting topics, like the evils of single-use zoning, and about Rockville Town Center, which… Keep reading…
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Why buildings aren’t better
Boston’s architecture critic gives his reasons: care, cash, and consensus. I agree with some of the points and disagree with others—I don’t think architectural disagreement is a new thing, and there were plenty of bad cookie-cutter buildings in the past that are gone now. Keep reading…