Tag: Harvard

Thank you to everyone who came on the Cambridge to Allston Walk

Thank you to everyone who came on the Cambridge to Allston Walk

On July 25th WalkBoston staff, board, and community members braved a stormy forecast for a Harvard construction walk that started in Cambridge and ended in Allston at a local eatery. During that time, everyone managed to stay dry while learning more about Harvard’s construction endeavors, and a little history along the way—Lowell House Bells, the origins of Weeks Bridge, tunnels under Harvard, and so much more! Thank you to Joe Beggan, Linda Kuczynski, and Ed Leflore for sharing your knowledge along the way with the group.

Make sure to join our mailing list to stay in the loop about future walks, or let us know where we should plan to lead a walk next (especially if you want to speak along the way)!

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

Event: Cambridge to Allston Walk

We will meet on the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) steps that face the Lowell House construction site. To reach the MAC steps from Harvard Square, walk down Dunster Street, cross Mt. Auburn Street to Winthrop Street (one block south of Mt Auburn Street). Take a left onto Winthrop Street at a right onto Holyoke Street.

Joe Beggan, WalkBoston board member and Senior Manager for Transportation Planning at Harvard’s Allston Initiatives program will lead the tour from Cambridge to Allston.

In Cambridge Linda Kuczynski, Project Manager for Harvard’s House Renewal Program, will discuss the construction activities at Lowell House and the larger program that is transforming the University’s Neo-Georgian River Houses.

Once we leave the MAC, we will walk to the Weeks Bridge to take a moment to discuss the bridge and enjoy the river views. We will then cross the river and pass through the Business School Campus to the i-lab on Western Avenue. We will be joined in Allston by Ed Leflore, Principal and Founder of CSL Consultants, to talk about Harvard’s consultation projects in Allston including the new Science and Engineering Complex on Western Avenue.

Our next to last stop is the “Grove” at Barry’s Corner. We will finish the walk at Zone 3 Allston’s “Aeronaut Allston” summertime musical beer garden series for food, drink and conversation. EDIT: the beer garden closed for the chance of rain, so we’re ending at Our Fathers, the restaurant across from the Grove.
Event: Unchoking the Charles River Throat

Event: Unchoking the Charles River Throat

How can walking & biking connections to the river parklands from Allston, Brookline, and Downtown be part of the MassDOT I-90 Allston Reconstruction?

RSVP on Eventbrite or Facebook

April 10, 2018 6:00 – 8:00pm Fort Point Room / Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress St

Presentations by:

Joe Beggan, Harvard University
Alan Mountjoy, NBBJ
Mark Dawson, Sasaki
Michael Nichols, Esplanade Association

Panel discussion and audience Q&A moderated by ArchitectureBoston editor Renée Loth with:

Jim Aloisi, Former MassDOT Secretary
Antonio DiMambro, urban planner
Tom Doolittle, Boston Society of Landscape Architects
Emily Saul, November Project Boston co-leader
Kishore Varanasi, CBT

Discussion will include:

  • Wadsworth Path, an at-grade People’s Pike path connecting Allston Village, West Station, and Franklin St footbridge
  • Footbridges over at-grade I-90
  • Separated paths on boardwalk/fill in the “throat”
  • Straightened path under BU Bridge & rebuilt Grand Junction / Soldiers Field Road Bridge

Media from the campaign (in case you missed it):

Cambridge: Harvard University Map

Cambridge: Harvard University Map

Walking distances are shorter than you imagine. Harvard is centrally located – a 20-minute walk leads to lunch, exploration, relaxation, and services for your errands. This map indicates 5-minute walking increments. It helps you plan your route to work, a meeting, or lunch and lets you estimate how long the walk will be. Combine walking with the MBTA. Use transit one-way, walk the other way. Get off a stop early and walk the rest of the way. Discover your surroundings & community. The Harvard campus and its Cambridge setting are complex and interesting. Find a destination where you see new things, and walk there.

Click for “Cambridge Harvard Walking Map” PDF


Click for “WalkBoston’s Harvard Walking Map” on Google Maps

Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475 (Allston / I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike Interchange Improvement Project)

Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475 (Allston / I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike Interchange Improvement Project)

April 24, 2014

Patricia Leavenworth, P.E., Chief Engineer
MassDOT
10 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116

ATTN: Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 606475
Delivery via email to dot.feedback.highway@state.ma.us

Dear Ms. Leavenworth,

WalkBoston is pleased to provide comments on the Allston I-90, Massachusetts Turnpike Interchange Improvement Project and the April 10, 2014 public meeting. We are also pleased to have been invited to participate in the project advisory group.

We write to note the issues that we hope will be addressed by the project, some of them to be included in long-range planning and others to be included in project design – but all of them will contribute to the successful reclamation of a large and important piece of the City that has for too long been disregarded as a part of the surrounding community.

1. Project scope – The scope of the project needs to extend far enough along the Turnpike to look at bigger picture auto circulation, including access between the Longwood Medical Area, the Fenway, Back Bay and the Turnpike and relief of traffic at the Bowker Overpass and on Storrow Drive. Addressing these major vehicular demands will potentially provide significant opportunities to enhance the regionally important open space, walking, running and bicycling assets along the Charles River.

2. Pedestrian access throughout the project – Scoping of the project should include guidelines for designs to facilitate pedestrian travel through the project and into surrounding neighborhoods.

3. Air rights development – Intensive use of the air rights above the rail yards and the Turnpike can be foreseen as part of any long-range plan. Ramps and access roads, the mainline of the Turnpike and the commuter rail yards should be designed to accommodate development of the air rights.

4. Land uses in the newly available land – The needs of the community and adjacent institutions should guide development, rather than the needs of traffic to and from the Turnpike. Traffic needs should not limit the explorations of the potential uses of the land.

5. Affordable housing for residents of Allston – Housing goals should be outlined early to permit inclusion in all aspects of the study.

6. Minimize the impacts of regional traffic on neighborhood streets – The alignment and connections of turnpike on and off-ramps should be designed to minimize cut through traffic and to protect the integrity of residential areas.

7. Rail Yards – The design for reconstruction of the rail yards should minimize the number of required tracks (possibly looking at other locations to provide some of the necessary rail yards) and provide footprints for the supporting columns that enable air rights development above them.

8. Commuter rail station – The design of a new West Station should be advanced to a point where its location and likely dimensions are known, to allow for planning its access to proceed as part of this project. Station access should be provided for both sides of the rail tracks between North Allston and Commonwealth Avenue.

9. Reconnecting Packard’s Corner area and North Allston – An impenetrable wall of rail tracks and the Turnpike will separate the two parts of this neighborhood forever, unless provision for crossing is planned from the beginning, either with air rights or with bridges, or both.

10. Transit access – Bus, commuter rail and other modes of public transportation should be considered as part of the overall design at a very early date.

11. Turnpike main line – The lanes in the new portion of the Turnpike between Agganis Way and Cambridge St. should be separated sufficiently to allow for the construction of supporting columns for new uses on air rights above the Turnpike.

12. Turnpike access ramps – Access ramps should be designed in spare and efficient ways that afford the maximum use of the land for non-transportation purposes. Short tunnels should not be excluded from consideration.

13. Storrow Drive Alignment – A long-range plan for the area should include relocation of a portion of Soldiers Field Road away from the river. All access to and from the Turnpike and Cambridge Street should take this into consideration and not preclude potential options for connections.

14. A new park along the river – Relocation of Storrow Drive away from the river allows expansion of the adjacent parkland, which is now very narrow and constrained.

15. Connecting the area with the Charles River – Alternatives should be examined for connections between development in this area and the river for both pedestrians and bicycles.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide input to the project.

Best regards,

Wendy Landman
Executive Director

Bob Sloane
Senior Project Manager