Enhancing pedestrian access and neighborhood integrity in Boston's North End : a mixed use approach utilizing the existing highway structure

Abstract

I set out to explore for this thesis the development of the Central Artery Project and the future planning of downtown Boston. After investigating the history of the artery, visions for Boston's redevelopment and different stages of the construction plans from the transportation authority, I have spent some time discussing the project with several of its planners and designers. As a result, I found that many of the decisions which made for its development had been made for political and financial reasons. Design ideas generated by the community which did not comply with the engineering and traffic constraints were suppressed by the authority and ignored by the official publications. Although many of them were published and given awards by artists' groups. Because of the political aspects of this project, community organizations such as the Broad Public Participation Group were largely neglected. Only those public voices which have been selected to bolster the views of the Boston Redevelopment officials were heard. In my opinion, by accepting the engineering and traffic constraints on the development of the surface of the depressed artery, designers overlooked the original goal which had been to create a pedestrian environment for the community. As a result, I focused my attention on creating an environment for the pedestrian. I would accomplish this by transforming parts of the existing artery into a new pedestrian experience rather than by demolishing it completely. The use of this kind of solution may trigger many of us as architects to look for inventive ways to build.