Redesigning Boston
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Rendering courtesy of Sprout | Dec. 21, 2016
With development booming and a new year looming, we asked local designers and architects from a range of disciplines what element of Boston’s built environment they’d like to see reimagined in 2017. Here’s their blueprint for tomorrow.
Tweak the T
Surprise, surprise: Multiple designers suggested America’s oldest subway could use an update. “Every improper Bostonian has had to fight their way onto a packed train, only to see that a car a bit farther down was nearly empty,” says Jordan Nollman, CEO and founder of Sprout, a Boston studio that’s designed everything from apps to electric razors to labels for hard cider. “To help create a better overall experience and even distribution of riders, Sprout proposes designing a Smart Mat System using LED lights that would be retrofitted into the yellow safety mats in every T station. This would allow riders to know which cars have the most available space. Each train would be outfitted with sensors that know how full a car is and can relay that information to the Smart Mat and people’s smart phones. Before a train approaches, the lights will direct passenger traffic to the cars that are least crowded. This would also be paired with a redesign of the T’s app that would help users get up-to-the-minute train locations, ‘beat-the-rush’ notifications and occupancy levels. Sprout would also bring social connectivity to the app, with community-based reporting of issues and schedule changes.”
Meanwhile, Eric Gunther, co-founder of Boston design and technology studio Sosolimited, turned his attention to an invisible but inescapable part of Bostonians’ daily commute. “If you ride the subway in Boston, you’ve heard the beep, that high-pitched sound that plays when you tap your Charlie Card to enter. It might make you wince. You might not notice it at all. Either way it has made its stressful little mark on you for the day. At least once a month I think about how I would redesign that sound,” Gunther says. “I’d make it a softer, more rounded sound, with a tail that rings out as you pass through the gate. It has to cut through the noise of a crowded subway station, but I’d make it more natural sounding. Less machine and more acoustic. I’d give it some variation, maybe even encode it with useful information for commuters. I’d make it a warm, welcoming sound with a friendly melody that says, ‘Thanks for riding the T. You’re safe down here.’”
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Logo mockup courtesy of JSGD
Give the Mass. Pike a Makeover
The Mass. Pike transitioned to all-electronic tolling in October, so the old booths are coming down, but another fixture on the road hasn’t changed. “The Mass. Pike logo is due for a major branding facelift,” says Jessica Maniatis, owner and creative director of JSGD, a South Boston graphic design agency whose clients include beauty fave Follain and the Together music festival. “The way people are driving on the Pike has changed, and what was once touted as the ‘World’s Most Modern Superhighway’ is still sporting a pilgrim hat. We’re envisioning a clean typographic approach that emphasizes their newly streamlined driving experience.”
By Jacqueline Houton | Photo Credit: Kastrup sea bath: Vibeke Sonntag / Copenhagen Media Center
Reconnect to the Water
Water, water everywhere—but in Boston, where water makes up nearly half of the city’s 90 square miles, you wouldn’t always know it. “This past June I was on the Boston Climate Bridge tour of Copenhagen, and I was struck that they are doing a much better job of reutilizing their former industrial waterfronts,” says Gail Sullivan, managing principal at Jamaica Plain’s Studio G Architects. She was part of a delegation of 20 architects, engineers, policy experts and other professional women who traveled to Copenhagen this summer to share knowledge on sustainable development efforts, and she got some great ideas from the Danes. “Copenhagen has used much of the canal frontage for new cultural institutions like the Opera House designed by Henning Larsen Architects. You can see the number of boats, some public and some private, plying the water. They taxi people across the canal regularly.” Sullivan envisions water buses linking points along the Charles River, like Watertown Square, Lechmere and Charles Street, as well as stops in the Harbor, such as East Boston, Aquarium, Rowes Wharf and Fort Point Channel. “This would increase public transportation options, reduce burden on road infrastructure and most importantly reduce wasted commuter time while providing great opportunities to enjoy our metro area from the water.”
Sullivan also imagines a swimming pool in the Charles—a concept the Charles River Conservancy is already pursuing through its Swimmable Charles Initiative—and in the Harbor as well, picturing “a beautiful light structure surrounding and protecting a swimming and sunbathing spot,” much like the Kastrup Sea Bath, an award-winning sculptural structure designed by White Arkitekter. “Water ‘pads’ in the Harbor could provide great opportunities to get engaged with our water, which is the reason Boston was founded here in 1630,” she adds, suggesting that such floating pads could support a cafe, exhibits or a home for house boats. As for the Charles, she’d also like to see a destination restaurant on the river, perhaps near the former Publick Theatre site, and a permanent structure for canoe and kayak access—Copenhagen even has an area dedicated to kayak volleyball.
Revive a Grande Dame
“Every time I take a bus to South Station or downtown, I see this beautiful building that has been neglected and boarded up for as long as I can remember,” Travis Blake says of Hotel Alexandra, an 1875 building crumbling on the corner of Mass. Ave. and Washington Street. The Church of Scientology purchased the property in 2008, planning to renovate the building for its new Boston headquarters. But those plans never materialized, and the Gothic beauty has languished for years. Blake, who works for Sousa Design Architects—a firm that’s designed dozens of restaurants around town, including the Gallows, located a half-mile down the street—would like to see it revitalized, with retail or a hospitality space on the ground floor and apartments or condos above. “I envision this space where the historic architectural details could be exposed and integrated with modern textures, materials, lighting and furniture to create a visually stunning destination,” Blake says. “Restoring the exterior to emphasize the inherent beauty of the Gothic-style architecture with the banded sandstone, wrought-iron gates and stone detailing, along with the updated commercial space, would help reinforce this building as a central landmark in a somewhat forgotten area of the South End.” He may get his wish. Having purchased an office complex in Allston last year, the church put Hotel Alexandra up for sale, and a source close to the project says it could be under new ownership early in the new year.
Give Boston a Brooklyn
“In a city full of higher learning, innovation, culture and vibrance, Boston’s built environment somehow lacks personality; it’s reserved, packaged and mass-produced,” says Erik Rueda, CEO of Chelsea’s Erik Rueda Design Lab, which has crafted Mac Mini-embedded conference tables for travel biz Kayak and apothecary-inspired counters for online pharmacy PillPack. “In New York, Brooklyn acts as its artisan asylum, a borough rife with talented craftspeople, designers, artists and creators that inject into their work that vitality that Boston hasn’t quite unlocked. New York is brimming with beautiful, hand-made, contemporary furniture and interiors. They have personality. They are made by people you can talk to and easily visit,” says Rueda, who imagines a design district that would help artisans connect with customers. “Walk into a local workshop, have a cup of coffee and chat about your idea. This happens to us often and we love it.” It may happen more in 2017, when Rueda plans to turn the floor above the lab into a collaborative office space where designers, architects and fabricators can share their networks and knowhow. “We’re building a design guild,” he says. “There is something so special about locally sourced anything. Let the growing maker community breathe life into the built environments that are the heart of Boston.”
Get Us from Point A to Point B
There’s a reason that old wives’ tale about Boston’s roads being built on cow paths has lingered for so long. These three pros had thoughts on making it easier to get around town, whether on foot or behind the wheel.
“I would love to see a redesigning of the city so that Boston’s neighborhoods feel more connected,” says Liz Pawlak, vice president of Design Museum Boston. “This doesn’t have to be a huge physical undertaking or an expensive redesign.” Consider the ideas that came out of the museum’s Urban Innovation Festival, a three-day hackathon that took place under an I-93 overpass in July. “Ten teams paired with local residents designed prototypes to make the area between South Boston and the South End more livable and connected,” Pawlak explains. “The museum is working to produce the winning design, the Urban Hike, created by the team from Fidelity Labs, which would connect SOWA to the Greenway and downtown with a trail of markers leading folks through exciting points of interest in different communities. We imagine applying this concept to link other neighborhoods as well. The potential for design to transform and unify the city is huge!”
“Before we dream up robotic Dunkin’ Donuts clerks, let’s start with the basics, like street signs, traffic lights and clear lane delineation,” says Andrew Smiles, creative director of Tank, a Cambridge design firm whose clients include MiniLuxe, TEDxCambridge and Reebok. He points to the Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report, which ranked Boston dead last in its look at 200 American cities, noting that a Boston driver is 167.6 percent more likely to have an accident than the national average. “Is that because we’re all Massholes? Possibly. But perhaps we’re Massholes because there are street signs on the left side of the street pointing you right, or on the right side pointing you left. There are signs hiding other signs, and signs hidden in trees obviously placed there in the fall (yes, leaves do grow back—every year). It’s astounding how Boston has managed to complicate what should be the most simplistic of design challenges: Get me from A to B without using Waze or Google. What we need is an Erik Spiekermann approach to reimagining our Boston wayfinding system,” Smiles says, nodding to the designer who’s helped Germans make their way through Berlin’s metro and Düsseldorf’s airport. “Let’s start with the simple shit first.”
“Mayor Tom Menino’s vision to take 1,000 acres on the South Boston waterfront and design and develop it into the first officially labeled innovation district in the U.S. underscores Boston’s commitment to lead in innovation,” says Tom Burchard, vice president of customer experience design at Altitude, a Somerville firm that’s pretty innovative itself, having worked on projects like WikiFoods’ edible packaging as well as a “Netflix for cocktails” concept with app-enabled “smart caps” to facilitate perfect pours. “From the ICA to District Hall to the Innovation Center, the area is a literal definition of innovation…. So much so it’s created a mass invasion of professional, tech and innovation companies who vacated the traditional downtown neighborhood for a spiffier waterfront address, even luring GE, one of the nation’s largest companies.” The problem, in Burchard’s view? “Our Disney Tomorrowland ideals have a road and traffic management system that feels more like Frontierland, with a 20-minute drive from one end to the other. What this area desperately needs, and clearly deserves, is a bypass loop that allows quick and easy circumnavigation of the Innovation District, providing people with an innovative experience commensurate with the new vision.”
Reroute the RMV
“I moved to Boston eight years ago, and like many new residents, decided to apply for a Massachusetts driver’s license. Shockingly I ended up making four trips to the RMV to finalize what should have been a simple, one-visit process in the 21st century,” Michael Hendrix recalls. “The headaches persisted from tracking down the correct forms, to providing proof of residence, to driving to the North Shore to sort out insurance in a new state—not to mention the ‘take-a-number and wait’ process! A colleague shared her recent experience with me, and it turns out the inconveniences are still the same. What should this look like in the digital era?” Hendrix is a partner and executive design director at IDEO Cambridge, no stranger to municipal challenges: The firm helped redesign Boston.gov for the City of Boston in 2016, streamlining a digital labyrinth that previously had nearly 50 motley microsites for different departments. “Two of the great characteristics of the digital era are decentralization and network collaboration,” Hendrix continues. “In this world we can easily share information between organizations, we can verify identity and we can automate services. The RMV is ripe for these improvements, which will not only create efficiency but a better customer experience. It’s not hard to imagine verification through digital network activity (see Lenddo.com, for example), documentation verification via blockchain technology, and activation and communication through a social platform like Facebook. Boston is historically known as the ‘hub of the universe.’ We can show that leadership position today—not by being the center of control—but by being the convener of collaborative networks. Redesigning the RMV is a great example of how we can use this power to improve services in our city—even for something as mundane as a driver’s license.”
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