http://futurembta.com

FutureMBTA Map on a journal

Thanks to Brain over at Boston Coasters I am now selling my FutureMBTA map on a variety of products. I got this journal (which will be available soon) and haven’t been able to stop holding it since. I’ve added a link on the sidebar and on FutureMBTA.com, or you can also click on this image.

I started working on this new map until real life got in the way and forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I got an email from the owner of Boston Coasters who said he was a fan and wanted to start a line of products for the FutureMBTA. I realized the map he wanted to use was the one I hated (and would probably look crappy when resized) so I dug through my files and found this new one I had been working on. A few nights of intense redrawing produced what feel is my finest map and probably the (truly) last future MBTA map I will ever make.

What makes this map different? For one thing it is the only map I’ve made that incorporates my Green Line/Urban Ring which shows how you can create a network of light rail that will work as both a suburb-downtown connector (the Green and Brown Lines) and an inner city ring line (The Yellow Line). There is also the North-South Rail Link which will enable DMU/EMU service for new stops in inner suburbs where existing commuter rail exists but currently does not serve (This is the “Indigo Line” which runs along side the regular commuter rail). Someone left a comment on one of my sites asking why I hadn’t created a unified master plan for expansion. This is the first step. I have some time off this week so I plan on further explaining what this map proposes, sort of like a thesis for the FutureMBTA.

So pretty soon you will be able to have this on coasters, journals, posters, messenger bags, etc, over at Boston Coasters. I have also created different desktop background sizes available over at FutureMBTA.

Edit:
I also have this map with inverted colors because I think it looks bad ass.

Capital construction and expansion would be handled by this parent authority or by another authority under the parent authority. The purpose of this new authority will be solely for the expansion and planning of transportation throughout the region. The new authority would not be limited to transit expansion but all aspects of infrastructure expansion in the Commonwealth; this includes highway, freight, and water port facilities.

For example the North South Rail Link would make MBTA operations much more flexible and attract many new riders but the construction costs would be so high that it would require the MBTA to realign funds from operation improvements to debt payments, thus limiting the usefulness of the entire project.

I finally got off my but and moved my Future MBTA to its own website: http://futurembta.com.

Part 1: JP to Back Bay

I started by walking back up South Huntington Ave and Huntington Ave to get some pictures of some interesting buildings I had seen the day before. The sun was shining bright but was ducking behind clouds now and then which was frustrating when trying to line up a shot only to have the sun move behind a cloud when I took the picture.

Off Brigham Circle there are two streets I used to love walking down when I went to WIT, Wigglesworth St and Worthington St (word to awesome British names). Most of the housing around Mission Hill are either ugly modern high rises or tired old triple-deckers. These two streets, and only these two streets, are lined with stately and handsome townhouses that look like they were picked up from the South End and planted down on the other end of town.

Further down Huntington Ave I walked around the campus of WIT. I cannot believe I went there, not because it was a bad school but because I could never see myself fitting into the townie-frat boy crowd there (I have changed since I went there but I still cannot see my past self there). I guess that’s why I left. I have seen a lot of change and a lot of places in the 4 years since I left WIT but the place and the people look timeless (about 2001).

I turned down Ruggles St to check out a new dorm being built by Northeastern next to the Ruggles Orange Line station on Columbus Ave, a stretch of highway with a park on one side and an empty lot on the other. This area was where acres of land was cleared in the 1960s to build a gigantic interchange for two highways that thankfully were never built. The new Orange Line and Southwest Corridor park system were supposed to help bring back the area, but the basic laws of real estate still applied (location, location, location) and the “neighborhood” is now only comprised of housing projects and a large police station.
The new dorm is horrendous. It is completely out of scale with the area, though when the area only has a couple of short buildings surrounded by fields being out of scale isn’t much of an issue. The main problem is the use of precast concrete panels that are painted to look like brick and already suffering from water damage despite the building being nowhere near complete. The projects across the street are literally nicer and in better condition. Northeastern has been building new dorms on the Huntington Ave side of the tracks for years and they have always been attractive and well built. I guess this shows what the university thinks of it’s poor neighbors.

I next walked down Tremont St heading north. The South End has two parts; the area above Mass Ave (the gentrified area full of artists and gays), and the land south of Mass Ave (projects, abandoned lots, a highway, and then what’s left of Dudley Sq.) If you stand at Mass Ave you can see the difference clearly when you look north and then south. I had never ventured south of Mass Ave so walking up Tremont St seemed like something I needed to do to get the full South End experience.
What I found is an area that shows signs of life despite extreme social issues. Tremont St is lined with old walk ups next to new or newish affordable housing. The side streets are a mix of old school low-rise projects next to new affordable housing that you probably wouldn’t think where projects unless someone told you. The streets where still sterile and devoid of life since it seemed that this was new housing, though I think this is the result of the new approach to dealing with failed projects; rip them down and put up mixed income housing. Will it work? Time will tell.

Up on Mass Ave you come to the area where the wealthy elite of Boston first built their mansions and townhouses, only to abandon them for the even more luxurious Back Bay. I made a quick detour up Mass Ave to inspect an infill project I had read about. It was very nice, contextual with red brick but modern in form. I especially liked the tall thin windows it used. I have a huge issues with most windows used in standard housing construction nowadays. I find them short and fat, not unlike the average American. This building, along with the new housing I had just seen, proved that you can work within the urban row house context and still be modern and interesting.

I made my way up Columbus Ave, which at this point is lined with stately brownstones that look straight out of Fort Green or Park Slope in Brooklyn. Most have first floor additions that are now funky retail stores, signs that I am now in YUPy territory. I weaved my way down side streets between Tremont and Columbus, admiring the variety of houses along quiet streets designed along the lines of London Squares; a median of elegant trees and rainbows of flowers running down the center of the street.
I walked down Warren Ave and turned on to Dartmouth St. Here I took another detour to explore Tent City. Tent City is an affordable housing development built after some Boston residents protested the lack of affordable housing in the city by setting up a tent city on cleared land across the street from Back Bay Station. The development is notable because it gracefully transitions from the low rise South End to the skyscraper canyons on the Back Bay. It also was one of the first post-modern housing developments that used contextual architectural elements instead of being just another brick box (a number of these bring boxes line Tremont St and Cloumbus Ave which seriously clash with the highly detailed townhouses.)

I walked down to the Prudential Center to see the new Mandarin Oriental hotel going up. I still don’t know how I feel about it. The massing is nice but I think the details are far too sparse for a building in such a prominent location. I think something like the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan would be more appropriate; Gothic elements or perhaps a darker colored brick.

I hopped on the Green Line at Hynes and made my way to Park St for lunch. I never realized how spacious the Green Line stations are in the Back Bay. The arched ceilings give them the feeling of an asp in a modest cathedral. I don’t think a Bostonian would ever, EVER, think of a T station like a cathedral but seeing them after being used to New York station with their low ceilings and dark interiors makes the T stations feel much less oppressive.

Part 2: Downtown Crossing, Government Center, and the North End Parks

One of the most exciting areas in Boston, IMO, is Downtown Crossing. Once the Herald Sq of Boston (Macy’s and Gimbels vs Filene’s and Jordan Mash), DTX fell on hard times when people began to move out to the suburbs and the retail followed. In the 1970s and 80s the area was known as the Combat Zone, high crime and a flourishing sex industry pushed out anyone who hadn’t left for the suburbs. Through intense community activism and help from City Hall the area was slowly cleaned up and became a bustling retail crossroads once again. But when a number of key anchor tenants, Barns & Noble and HMV, left the area started to falter. Then Macy’s bought Filene’s and decided to close the original Filene’s (which just happened to be across the street from Macy’s).

Over the last 7 years the city has pushed to revitalize the area. A number of new condo towers have gone up, along with new hotels and office towers, which has helped bring more street life to the area. Suffolk University and Emmerson College have begun fixing up old theaters and converting abandoned buildings into dorms. Two buildings currently under construction, 45 Province St and One Franklin, a new tower going up on the site of the former Filene’s building (though incorporating the historic building in the new tower) has me most fired up for the revitalization of DTX.

From here I explored the area a little bit, not knowing where I really wanted to go. I made my way up to City Hall and realizing I had never actually been inside, decided to check it out. The metal detector guy noticed my camera in my bag going through the machine and commented on how nice it was. The first thing that struck me was how open the building was. From the outside it looks like a huge bunker but inside it is light and airy with natural light coming in all over the place. No wonder it is a bitch to heat and cool. The doors to the courtyard were closed and the security check point gave the building even more of a fortress like feeling than the building already has. Still I think it is gorgeous and in desperate need for a modern makeover.
I had heard there was a giant model of downtown Boston up in the Boston Redevelopment Authority office so I went up to see if I could get in to see it. The receptionist told me I needed to have someone open the room for me but she couldn’t find the person with the key so she just sent me down the hall (seriously, I think they are far too trusting to send a scruffy hipster kid down through their offices unescorted). The door to the model room was closed but if you’ve ever seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, it kinda looked like that room Indy goes into to find the real burial spot of the Ark. The lights weren’t on so the models of the towers were back lit by the sunlight coming in from the window. Mayor Menino has proposed building a 1,000 ft tall tower in the Financial District and the model for the tower commands the entire room (which is saying a lot when you have a room sized model of every building in downtown Boston). I immediately realized that if this building was ever constructed it would be the Prudential Building 2.0 and we would all regret it. The tower fails for the same reason all modern buildings do, it looks great as a conceptual model that an architect can show a person powerful enough to get it built. I went back down the hall, picked up some info on the BRA and internships and headed out.

I next headed to see the new North End Parks built after the Big Dig. I had seen the Chinatown and Financial District Parks (not very inspiring) but hadn’t seen these. Right off the bat I noticed a huge design flaw; the parks where elevated (due to the presence of highway off ramps below them) which blocks a pedestrians ability to see users of the parks. All you see walking down the street is a wall of shrubbery. Above, on the parks, there are nice lawns where you can sunbathe or play games, along with a promenade under a pergola which will actually be very nice in the summer time.

The old Central Artery was described as a giant gash cutting though the city. To take the analogy further, the new parks are very much like a giant scar. The newly planted grass and trees represent a scab. The area still feels disconnected from the rest of the city, but like all wounds, will heal in time. Buildings will be built around the parks to connect the city and bring in people, and the plantings will evolve and mature. The scar will remain but the wound will heal.

Up at North Station you can just start to see the wound healing. A new mixed use apartment building is going up where once an elevated train track ran. The lots next to it are barren, awaiting brighter economic conditions, but the streets are laid and the lamps are in. The Bullfinch Triangle will soon be repaired.

I hopped on the T to head over to Lechmere and on to Kendall Sq.

Part 3 and the rest of my journey tomorrow.

The first thing I noticed was how much the T had changed. When I left Boston in 2006 there was much to be desired. LCD signs that had never worked or would only ever tell you not to smoke, and station announcements that told you nothing about your next train, not that you could hear them in the first place. Welcome to the future, Boston, or at least at the Back Bay station, as you can imagine how surprised I was to see an LCD sign that worked and announcements that told you 1) if there were any delays AND why and 2) when a train was coming. Also there is mad signage about different bus lines you can connect to (which they always had but where hard to find), info on the new fares, and system maps that actually showed the current system, not the system in 1990. Way to go Dan G. The Charlie Card system is nice too, I had used it once before but this was back when it was only at a few stations which meant you had to buy a ticket AND a token.

I met up with Ian and went back to his apartment. I had only been through Jackson Sq once while riding my bike, maybe 5 years ago. I stopped to figure out where I was and kept moving. Centre St is a lot more cleaned up nowadays. I always knew JP was gentrifying but I didn’t imagine how much had changed since the last time I’d been though.

I had to work today at the Marriott in Copley Sq, stuffing bags for the conference for 8 hours. It sucked but I am now done volunteering (they only allowed you 8 hours) and now have the rest of the week to see and do what I wanted. If I was smarter I probably would have just hopped on the Orange Line and gone back to Ian’s place for a long nap, but I am not.

When I first went to college in Boston it was at Wentworth Institute of Technology which is located on Huntington Ave in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. I didn’t so much love the school as I did the area. I have fond memories of walking around the Fens, going to parties on Mission Hill, and learning photography by taking pictures of the apartment buildings and old townhouses that are prevalent in the area. The place was originally built as an urban suburb for upper middle class Bostonians around the new Fenway, a park system that was ingeniously designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to store flood water from the Muddy River and Stony Brook. Like all posh neighborhoods everywhere, the upper middle class soon moved out to greener pastures, leaving the area to fall into decay. The thing that saved it was the multitude of colleges, universities, and institutions that call the Fenway home. Today almost all of these once fashionable dwellings are home to fraternities and dorms.

As I walked down Huntington from the Prudential Center I didn’t really notice anything new. The area around Northeastern was quiet with only a few students walking around. It was Sunday afternoon so I didn’t expect it to be the crazy hurricane of class-bound youth it usually is. One thing that did catch my eye was a new dorm that had been built right before I left WIT. I had seen it many times but this time it seemed smaller to me. How odd I thought. The MFA is currently constructing a new wing, which is always something that they were promoting when I lived next door to it but never thought they would actually raise the cash for. Apparently the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is too, which even though I lived across the street I have never been to. Mental note…

When I left WIT, the Institute was in the process of vastly expanding it’s campus, first by building a series of dorms, and then eventually a few new academic buildings. They had a dorm under construction when I left and I never got to see it completed. It looks really nice. It is post-modern and contextual with many small details that relate to the old apartment buildings in the area. I thought it was going to look cheap when I saw pictures but it fits in well.

Further up the street I noticed things starting to change. WIT had purchased two gas stations next to their dorms and demolished them. They occupy small triangular lots which will make any new buildings on them interesting by default. There used to be this funky little diner/bar on the corner of Longwood and Huntington that we always walked by on our way to parties/Stop & Shop. It had this great mural on it of I think a jazz performance, along with some graffiti. It added a little bit of urban flavor to the area, which was known for being one of the roughest places in Boston. This now is a newly refurbished office which you would think new if you had not seen the old building.

I remember this stretch of Huntington in my mind as almost noir, dark and dirty, a place we would go because they had liquor stores that usually didn’t card, vacant storefronts, and dark figures walking down the street that you tried to avoid making any kind of contact with. Today Brigham Circle is almost clean, and hip. New stores with neon colored signs line the street; new diners and pizza joints. The area was beginning to gentrify when I was there and it looks like the college kids finally took it over.

Further down the way things start to get a little dirty again, but not for long. New condos are going up and old apartments and triple-deckers are starting to go that way too. The low income housing development know as Back-of-the-Hill, an ugly 80s era brick monstrosity, is being redone in a very contemporary way, which in 20 years will be seen as a monstrosity once again.

I had forgotten how much I love Jamaica Plain. The way it sits on this hill above the Muddy River, the way the light hits the funky houses, the beautiful old triple-deckers and single family homes that the same upper-middle class moved to from areas like the Fenway when street cars allowed them to flee to the suburbs. The houses are cared for and the streets are quiet. JP was, in my mind, always hip. I used to come here for parties in high school, much like I got parties in Bushwick today, and both had that feeling of “sluming it”. I hadn’t walked through it since some time in 2003 when some friends in the Industrial Design program at WIT thought there was a hardware store there with some obscure supply we needed (IIRC they didn’t have it.) The area is very much like Medford or Arlington. There are areas where there are mansions as well, though I didn’t walk past them tonight.

I crested the hill as the sun was setting. I have become so accustomed to the strong light in New York City that I had forgotten how soft and special it can be on a quiet Sunday in Boston. It brought back memories of driving around with my dad, maybe out in Brookline or through Arlington, Medford, and even Revere. It was a comforting feeling, the light a light blue with yellow-orangey highlights on the slowly moving clouds. A storm was passing which in one direction looked dark gray but in the other looked pastel. There wasn’t much traffic and the amount that was there fell into the background as all the memories of walking down this same street, and of the many others, came rushing back. This is why I made this trip.

Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia transit maps! I finally got around to doing something with all these transit maps I was making. Unfortunately Google is weird about what maps they allow and don’t allow you to embed on a web page so for the time being I am just posting links to the maps. They are just first drafts but all the lines are there. When I have more time I plan on going through and adding more information to each map. Someone asked me to include stations which is on my to do list but because Google Maps already has stations with information about them for most cities I am going to hold off on this.

San Francisco Transit
Philadelphia Transit
Boston Transit

I have also redrawn the New York & New Jersey Subways map so each line has a nice image in the information box that leads to the line schedule at MTA.info.

Lastly, here is a new map of the MBTA as it should look today with the Green Line and Blue Line extensions marked as in planning and the Indigo Line (Fairmount Branch CR) distinguished as an actual rapid transit line. I heard a story that at a community meeting a few years ago someone in the audience mentioned that the branch was not on the map, which confused the people from the MBTA because it was. What the man really meant was that the line was marked as commuter rail (which is what it is) and not rapid transit. If you want to get people to think about it as rapid transit you needed to show it as a rapid transit line on the map the same as the Red or Orange Lines. This doesn’t mean it will be converted to heavy rail, which is not a good idea since this is the only other route into the city from the southwest other than the Southwest Corridor, but you can change the way people perceive the line just by changing how wide the line is on the map (which is one reason I like maps so much).