The Birth of Charlesview

In the last year or so, the Allston-Brighton TAB has been regularly running a history contest -- name that building in this old photograph -- by Allston-Brighton resident historian Bill Marchione.

In two recent issues (here and here), the TAB has switched over to printing an interview by historian Jim Vrabel of Bernard Redgate about the public activism in the 1960s trying to block the Boston Redevelopment Authority's plan to remake part of North Allston at Barry's Corner -- starting with a plan to tear down more than 50 houses.

The BRA ultimately got their way by tearing them down to make way for the Charlesview Apartments:

VRABEL: Didn’t you have some kind of system to warn residents when the city inspectors came out?

REDGATE: We had a truck horn connected to the leads from a car battery that we mounted on a cart, and we would sound it as we rolled it through the neighborhood if a stranger was spotted, letting everyone know that we were being invaded...

VRABEL: In 1965, after those first evictions and demonstrations, Mayor Collins appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission to restudy the plan. What were the commission’s recommendations and what happened?

REDGATE: My mother thought we had come to an agreement. She wanted to have housing built on the property that had been cleared and give the houses that were still standing back to their owners and let them remodel them. That was what the commission recommended. But then it didn’t happen, and they turned around and demolished the rest of the houses and put up that awful housing (the Charlesview Apartments).

The TAB piece includes a sad photo of residents apparently watching their houses being demolished.

The TAB's interview is particularly timely, showing how history doubles back upon itself. Harvard University has recently struck an agreement with the owners of Charlesview to swap the land with 6.9 acres a half-mile west along Western Avenue. The owners, Community Builders Inc., have proposed 400 units of housing at the Brighton Mills site to replace 213 units of housing at Charlesview, and the BRA is currently reviewing their Project Notification Form under the Article 80 large project process.

Harvard's Outgoing President on the New Allston Campus

Outgoing Harvard President Derek Bok has released his June 2007 President's Report to the Board of Overseers (covering the 2006-7 school year). It was also published in hardcopy form as an insert to the most recent issue of the Harvard Gazette.

In his June 2007 report, President Bok writes:

Work on developing Allston has also gone forward on schedule. In December, the University filed a master plan to describe how the property might be developed over the next 50 years. Under the direction of Stefan Benisch, architectural drawings for the first complex of science buildings are nearing completion so that construction can begin within the year. Architectural plans are also underway for extensively renovating a large building in Allston that will house the University’s art collection during the long-awaited renovation of the Fogg Museum and then provide permanent space for Museum staff and for galleries dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

Hmmm... he seems to have gotten the date wrong for the release of the master plan, which actually came out in January, not December. I wouldn't blog on this little technical mistake if he hadn't continued on writing about...

..."renovating a large building in Allston that will house the University’s art collection."

For those who have been paying attention in the last six months, Harvard is currently still on record with a proposal to put their art storage/museum in a new building at Barry's Corner. In December 2006 they discarded their April 2006 plan to renovate a large building in North Brighton (not technically North Allston) in favor of the Barry's Corner idea.

Has Harvard's President just served notice to the community that they are returning to their April 2006 building renovation plan for the art storage/museum facility, abandoning the December 2006 Barry's Corner plan?

I have heard a number of people say that President Bok has been generally uninvolved in the Allston Campus project, at least in comparison to former President Larry Summers. My guess is that Bok used old information when writing his June 2007 report, and just hasn't been paying much attention to the Allston Campus this past year.


I can just imagine a memo from Chris Gordon, head of Harvard's Allston Development Group, to President Bok after reading this report. (Note for the uninitiated: this is known as satire... or at least an attempt at it.)

June 19, 2007

To: President Bok
From: Chris Gordon

Re: Allston Campus Talking Points

Have you read the latest report that I left on your desk about Harvard's 50-year master plan for its Allston Campus? We wrote a version of it as an Executive Summary (draft), so that it wouldn't take you much time to scan through it.

Did you read through all the other stacks of documents I keep leaving with your secretary? Or are you just piling them in that corner of your office under the sign labelled, "Drew"?

Let's make a few things clear. I suggest memorizing the following talking points, so that we can try to be on the same page when speaking or writing publicly:

1. We want the art museum to go into Barry's Corner in a big new building close to neighborhood houses, not an empty, mothballed, existing building further west. It's important to leave those empty buildings empty. The empty buildings have a very important purpose called the "interim use plan." Very, very important.
   
2. The Allston Campus is a focused development: focused on being, well, a little bit of everything. Originally, we thought it would be a "science campus," but other people had other ideas, like professional schools, cultural activities, or housing. So we decided to define "science campus" as including systems biology, chemical biology, bio-inspired engineering, innovative computing, public health, education, athletics, business, art museum, performing arts, undergraduate housing, and graduate housing. Just don't say "science campus" anymore -- it's so 2002. Or, if you do, be expansive in your definition.
   
3. "No significant impact" on the neighborhood. Approximately 1000 employees will be moved into North Allston to work at the Science Complex, but we'll be reducing traffic, not increasing it. Read our traffic study. Or just repeat: "No significant impact." I'll get you a bumper sticker for your car, or we can have someone paint the phrase on the back of your car.
   

Please read this memo, as well as those other documents in the corner. It's important that we avoid misunderstandings like that in your 2007 President's Report.

Harvard's Cambridge Street Mess

According to Harry Mattison's report from the most recent subcommittee meeting of the Harvard Allston Task Force, the Harvard planners seem to be addressing only the issue of Stadium Way -- not of the more pressing traffic and transportation problems.

I present the following hypothesis: the success or failure of Harvard's traffic plan for Allston will hinge on how they deal with the intersection where Cambridge Street reaches the Charles River (IMPNF, Figure 3-5, annotated):

Harvard's own numbers, estimated using a model constructed in collaboration with the Boston Transportation Department, shows that 43% of their morning automobile traffic will exit the Mass Pike's A-B tolls and enter this intersection. (IMPNF, Table 3-5)

Q: How many cars will this be at the end of their 20-year master plan?
A: 8,145 * 0.43 [morning] + 7,775 * 0.33 [evening] = 6,068 cars per day (IMPNF, Table 3-4; IMPNF, Figure 3-5)

Q: How many cars currently pass through that intersection daily?
A: 28,464 (HUAM PNF, Table 3-1)

Q: What percentage increase in traffic will Harvard's Allston development cause on this intersection?
A: 6,068 / 28,464 = 21%

That intersection is already far, far too crowded. No, it suffers from gridlock. Until Harvard and/or the City fix the intersection, nothing else will really matter.

Construction Mitigation Ideas from Harvard Allston

Harry Mattison's blog contains a description of two options Harvard is considering/rejecting for construction mitigation in their Allston development project (the Science Complex).

Boston College and its neighbors are not at the point to begin discussing construction mitigation strategies... but Harry's pictures are a good start to get us all thinking about how to minimize construction noise and visual ugliness.

The meeting is covered in today's Allston-Brighton TAB:

Carry on the discussion about this on the BC Neighbors Forum...