530 Western Comments for BCDC

[Bostonm...@aol.com]

2/1/16

 

To:  The Boston Civic Design Commission, David Carlson

 

Fr:  Tim McHale, Brighton Resident, Member of the IAG

 

Re:  Project Review of 530 Western Ave., Brighton

_____________________________________________________________________

 

This is to offer personal comments on the design of the above mentioned project.  The proponent has presented the project two times to our neighborhood group.  Please consider the following comments as you review the project:

 

1.  The Charlesview Housing, just down the street, is considered a standard for development in our neighborhood.  Good architecture, sustainable materials (brick), permeability, open space, sidewalk widths, and massing are very important values.  A second look at the design is warranted with this in mind.

 

2.  The 530 Western Ave. project is a "Gateway" to our community, this is probably the largest portal.  Its purpose is to create awe, wonder, and excitement as one enters the community.  The project could increase its stature by incorporating a plaza or courtyard on the corner.  It would visually and physically welcome people and provide a place for people to congregate and slow down.  The 530 project has proposed utilizing every square foot of the site.  The open space is severely lacking for both residents and permeability.  Perhaps the courtyard/plaza concept could mitigate this.

 

3.  The sheer walls and massing of the proposed building is too great.  Along Western Ave, there is over 200 LF of wall that is not broken up with articulation or balconies.

 

4.  The intersection where the building sits is a subject of much discussion.  Many players and sources of funds exist.  We can get it right with the proper management of the players.  One likely scenario is that the number of lanes will decrease from five to three thereby opening up significant area in front of 530 Western, allowing for a courtyard/plaza.

 

5.  The site across the street is the Speedway.  This landmark historic site is under design by another developer.  A discussion could happen between the two proponents to ensure a design that gives both the Speedway its historic respect and the 530 project its goals.  A "Gateway" has two sides.

 

6.  The second level of parking along Waverly Street will bring large delivery trucks into the vicinity of the adjacent homes.  Noise and congestion from this activity could be mitigated if trucks were brought in through the first floor parking garage.

 

Thank you for your review of these comments while considering the project.  Our goal as community members is to make good projects great.   We appreciate your critical eye on this project to help make it the best one possible; while understanding the constraints on the developer.  

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Tim McHale
102 Litchfield Street
Brighton, MA 02135
617-787-2122 land
617-797-1129 cell
bostonm...@aol.com

[Jane McHale]

Great comments Timmy!

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[Eva Webster]

Tim, you wrote in your comment letter to the BCDC:

"The intersection where the building sits is a subject of much discussion.  Many players and sources of funds exist.  We can get it right with the proper management of the players.  One likely scenario is that the number of lanes will decrease from five to three thereby opening up significant area in front of 530 Western, allowing for a courtyard/plaza.”

Here is the intersection as seen on Google Earth:

A close-up showing road markings directing traffic:

And a shot showing the existence of four lanes even past Lothrop Street:

So it seems to me, Tim, that there are really four northbound lanes, not five — but the one next to the sidewalk, along the stretch between Lothrop St. and Western Ave., is wider than any of the other three lanes.  One approach would be to widen the sidewalk there, so there is room for street trees (that would be really nice, would make it feel residential, and greatly improve the pedestrian environment — the tree planting strip would buffer pedestrians from the vehicular traffic).  The other approach would be to use that extra lane width for an exclusive bike lane (though the bike lane might or might not be directly adjacent to the sidewalk).  Good luck sorting it out with Harry which approach should prevail ;-) 

However, in all honesty, you can’t even think about eliminating traffic lanes. If anyone tried to reduce these four traffic lanes to only three, we would get Market Street north-bound traffic backing up all the way past Guest Street, maybe even all the way to North Beacon St. — making it a total mess of all streets in that area (Guest St. is going to become VERY busy when Boston Landing is finished and fully leased/occupied).

I realize that many local residents would like the Western Ave. intersection to become just a regular, modest, easy to navigate, “sane”  intersection — but that is wishful thinking. It simply does not square with reality. It’s a major, very complicated road system that cannot be tamed to the degree some people think it should be tamed.  You cannot have a typical orthogonal (shaped like a cross) intersection design in that location — instead of an orderly cross, you have a spaghetti wrapped on a fork. And with all the development happening now and in the coming years in North A-B, Beacon Yards, and Watertown too, this intersection will be getting more and more traffic on all roads that run into it. 

And just as it is now, of the four northbound lanes, you will always need the two lanes on the left side to accommodate left-turning traffic toward Watertown, and to Cambridge (via Greenough Blvd.)  The next lane, in the middle, has to allow cars heading for Soldiers Field Road to go straight, and the right lane is for turning right onto Western Ave.  It works!

We usually have a hard time accepting this in life — but not everything that we think is bad can be made better.  Sometimes “bad” can only become “badder” when you start messing with it.  There is a reason why that location has never before attracted substantial residential development — the place has always been a busy crossroads — and this will continue to intensify.  Knowing that, we need to be preserving traffic lanes – not getting rid of them.

Creating a needless traffic bottleneck in that spot would lead to gridlock throughout Brighton in rush hours.  Someone may say, “Good, people should stop driving cars” — but the reality is that nobody drives for pleasure, plus gas and insurance cost money — people drive because they HAVE TO.  Also, we don’t have just local traffic — we have regional roads carrying regional traffic. The whole Greater Boston economy depends on people’s ability to swiftly move themselves and goods around.

The most important things that this complex intersection needs, in my opinion, are safe pedestrian crossings, sensible bicycle infrastructure, and beautification (brick-paved islands with nice planters, for example).  The place also needs a new name.  Saying “the Western Avenue/Leo Birmingham Parkway intersection” is a mouthful.  I love historic names — so I’m thinking something like Speedway Square, or Speedway Corner (the former seems to roll off the tongue a little more easily).  I don’t think that anyone would interpret the name as an invitation to speeding.

Eva  

[Harry Mattison]

Is Birmingham Parkway really as good as it can be? Should we abandon efforts to make it better?

The Market Street Bridge (between WGBH and The Stockyard) has 2 northbound lanes

After you cross over the Pike, the road widens to 3 northbound travel lanes and 1 parking lane.

After you pass Lothrop Street, the parking goes away and the median strip shifts. The result is:

• 56 feet for northbound traffic (4 lanes that function as 5)
  
• A 10 foot wide asphalt median strip
• 22 feet for two southbound lanes

Overall, this section of Birmingham Parkway is 88 feet wide. For comparison, the Mass Pike near The Stockyard is 106 feet wide.

There are 3 northbound lanes between Lincoln St & Lothrop St. Do we need a wider road between Lothrop & Western Ave? In any case, the City can do traffic counts, analyze the data, and do temporary trials with jersey barriers and traffic cones to see what happens in real life. 

Nonantum Road along Community Rowing and Daly Field was originally built with 4 travel lanes. Now it has 2 plus a turning lane.

Greenough Boulevard in Watertown had 4 travel lanes. It is being rebuilt to have 2 lanes in some sections, 3 in others.

To conclude, please consider this section from a 2014 study by MassDOT and DCR

Further on-street improvements can be made to the Market Street/Birmingham Parkway corridor to enhance the connection from Brighton Center to the river. The intersection of Western Avenue and Birmingham Parkway can be improved with the addition of new, high-visibility crosswalks connecting to the reservation. Birmingham Parkway should be considered for a lane reduction here. Narrowing from four to three northbound lanes would allow for a curb extension to facilitate the pedestrian crossing.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/news/public-meetings/materials/crb-reccommend-a-b.pdf

Regards

Harry

[Eva Webster]

Harry, I like the idea of testing it with jersey barriers, but it would have to be done after Boston Landing is completed and fully leased out. Also, we’d need to see how the traffic flows after one of the large sports events (hockey?) that are going to be taking place there.

Please don’t jump to the conclusion that I’m opposed to traffic improvements in “Speedway Square" — not at all.  I think they are needed, and I’m all for it, as long as the ideas that people may have do not result in worsened vehicular traffic (I really think that the Market St. corridor cannot take any blows to its capacity). When I drive on Market Street northbound, it’s a relief to get out of its narrow corridor onto the wider Birmingham Parkway — so l think we should try to keep generally as a Parkway, and not try to make it as tight as Market Street.

The bridge over the Turnpike has two lanes in each direction. The northbound lanes then fan-out to three lanes, and then to four lanes as they near Western Ave.  The reason it’s good for the traffic is that it lets more cars evacuate the intersection in a shorter amount of time — so drivers don’t waste time and gas waiting for a change of lights, and there are no traffic back-ups to interfere with traffic coming out of Lothrop St., Lincoln Street, or Guest Street (and people who have to get onto Waverly St. have an easier time).

If you narrow 4 lanes to 2 lanes right at the  Western Ave. light, it will take twice as long to move the same amount of cars, and the green light cycle for the drivers will not necessarily be able to process all the cars during one cycle.  How many times you approach traffic lights on busy but narrow roads, and you don’t make it through the green, and you have to wait through a long red light until another green light appears (and idling cars are a major source of air pollution).

I experience that sort of thing frequently on Chestnut Hill Ave. trying to cross Comm. Ave. going to Brighton Center (there are only two lanes there), and it’s often exasperating. It’s definitely a bottleneck, and no one appreciates it.

If Tim wants some kind of plaza in front of 530 Western Ave., the chances of it happening on the public land are not great because it would take room away from a critically important road, and make an exclusive bike lane less likely.  Even just widening a public sidewalk (into the road) is tough because of the storm drains that would have to be relocated.  Also would having a plaza there be a pleasant place to sit, right with all those cars there? I doubt it. 

Isn’t the Speedway building going to have a large interior courtyard for public use?

The development at 530 Western Ave. is supposed to have a very wide sidewalk right on the corner (I think they said 20 feet) — I would just plant some trees there (it would be good for the residents quality of life), and shift attention to getting wider sidewalks along the long parts of the building where they are too narrow in the current plan.

Eva

[Harry Mattison]

The flow of cars on Birmingham Parkway towards Western Ave is limited by this traffic light at the intersection of Market and Lincoln. More activity on Guest Street does not change this intersection or the capacity of the Market Street Bridge.

Also, the ice rink that New Balance is building has a capacity of 650. For comparison, that less than 1/10th of BU's Agganis Arena which seats 7,200. Harvard's hockey rink seats 3,095. 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/10/22/warrior-ice-arena-seat-just-dedicated-solely-skating/vc7qxwWzbhjwIm1X2iqyfL/story.html

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