Rememberance of people & things past ...

In Cambridge MA this neighbourhood commemorates people with signs. Virtually every corner was named after someone. A veteran. A resident.

Nothing special was done the corner to designate it a "square" as far as I could see, it was still the small inner city intersection of two residential streets.

But it certainly gave an amazing sense of history, of continuity, of neighbourhood, of topophilia, to the area. There were individuals here before you, who made a difference. Who were they?

If I was doing this in my west side neighborhood, I think signs honouring residents would be the start, but they could also commemorate events, geography, history ...

History is written by the victors, so the saying goes, and history tends to commemorate the upper classes who have the means to memorialize it.

For every cute wooden house in Upper Canada Village there were dozens of families huddled in tents, which are conspicuously absent from the village.

In citiies like Ottawa, neighbourhoods with clusters of academics and senior civil servants (or neighbourhoods that interest these classes) will get historic commenorations, like Sandy Hill, The Glebe, and Lowertown. Dundonald Park, surrounded by large victorian/queen anne homes, gets a historic name board; Plouffe Park gets a standard sign board. There is less history for the poor.

Sculpture you can use

These two stainless steel sculptures or art installations were very entertaining. They proved to be irresistable attractions to many passers by. These girls used them for impromtu gymnastic exercises. The little boy in the picture spent a lot of time running up the slope trying to get to the top. He never did, but had lots of fun trying.

These pieces were on the short part of the pier at Rowe's Wharf in Boston. There is a gent sitting on the sea wall to the left. The arch through the buildings is on the immediate right.

I cannot imagine Ottawa having such a useful installation. First black mark: its interactive. Secondly, it's fun. Third, there aren't any instructions. Fourth, bureaucrats would panic at the notion someone might fall and hurt themself. Yes, for sure Ottawa could provide such an installation, but only if it were fenced off or guarded. Now, if we ever that scrap metal tree proposed for Nepean Point behind the National Gallery, perhaps a local wall climbing club could ascend it ...

Our Lady of the Condos, archly

The Ashcroft proposal for redeveloping the Sr of the Visitation site on Richmond Road got a rough hearing the first time out. I am not a great fan of public meetings where dialogue and idea sharing is replaced by sound bites, but hey, it takes all types. And it does serve for some people to vent.

The proposal had many reasonable elements, such as keeping the wall along the sides and back, additional setbacks for the 4-5 storey structures in the back half. It had some I didn't like too much: the height and size of the middle building (a hotel, perhaps?) and the overall height of the Richmond frontage. Intensification is the name of the city's growth strategy, and that means redevelopment of properties.

One element that really intrigued me was the proposed arch along the Richmond frontage. It kept the old buildings cloistered, rather than the more typical opening up of a sight line to the road. The Arch through the building looked a bit small, but it needs to be in scale with the old monastery. I thought the Ashcroft proposal was a good start, an excellent basis for more dialogue.

Now the city has hired three outside reviewers to go over the plan. Hey, if Dark brings light to the Lansdowne, it might work for the Glebe-lite.

While in Boston recently, I sought out the Rowes Wharf development simply because of its big arch through the building. Now the scale is rather different from Richmond Road: it's by the Ocean, the adjacent buildings are HUGE, its wa-a-a-y more RICH than anything we are proposing. And it makes a very fine space, a fine portal. Here are some photos, including some up through the cupola which forms a sort of light tube right through a dome-top room which must have neat views 360 horizontally as well as up and down.

Rowe's Wharf building, Boston.

When walking through the arch, building entrances are to right and left.

View through to the Ocean from the street. Note cupola room above. 

From the piazza looking straight up through the dome, the cupola room, out to the sky.

Boston bike box

A bike box is a painted area in front of the stop line. It permits cyclists to advance to the head of the queue of vehicles and go into the intersection first. It is especially useful when making turns. The motorist must stop at an advanced stop line considerably short of the intersection where motorists are used to stopping. It protects the safety of cyclists for left, right turns and straight through motions.

In Boston, I saw one hundred percent respect by motorists for the bike box. Otherwise, motorists were quite aggressive. Every car stopped at the advanced stop line. In London England, no motorist would be caught dead respecting a bike box.

Boston motorists were aggressive. So were pedestrians. Walk signals at most intersections were pitifully slow, late, delayed, or otherwise made inconvenient for peds and catered to motorists. The walk signals counted down from the first moment the walk signal came on (Ottawa's count down only on the dont-start phase).

Fenway Park, Boston

Note how the stadium seating cantelevors out over the public street. This would certainly save space at Lansdowne Park and add some interest to walking along Bank Street.

Advertisement outside the stadium. Click to enlarge and read the text.

How would Ottawa bureaucrats cope with signs that prohibited stopping on such variable dates, times, and durations?

Around the outfield there were bars. Entrance was off the street. There was a garage door that opened up to permit viewing of the field. A wire mesh kept the balls away from the customers. I do not know if a game ticket was required for these bars, or if the show was free. At the back of the bar, was a raised washroom with a window above the men's facilities so that patrons never lost sight of their beer, their table, or the game.

Boston trash

Conventional plastic-bag-lined garbage containers were rare. These compactor models were ubiquitous. There are solar panels on the roof of the can to power it.

It was necessary to pull the door open quite a way before placing the garbage in the compartment and closing the door. It was not possible to insert a hand or arm into the container.

Periodically, the compactor compresses all the garbage into a smaller pile, so the can needs not be emptied so often. Nothing blows around either. Here is a row of three containers, for bottles/cans, trash, and paper.

The top two pictures were of models used in Cambridge MA and the bottom one is of the WMI containers used throughout Boston itself. The end panel has an advertising sleeve with a Boston U advert.

Boston granite

Boston makes impressive use of granite for many things. There were granite curbs everywhere, and granite bollards:

This low curb lining the pedestrian sidewalk on a recently redone street has generous use of granite for some pavers and low curbs. Note the little post to mark the indent for the bench. Also envy the lush planting in the boulevard.

In addition to this little granite posts, big ones were used for street signs in a few places.

Granite curb marked with rust from the snow plow blade. This was in a park and ride lot for the LRT/subway.

Here is granite milled into a curb for the end of planter strip separating aisles of parking in the park and ride lot.

In Ottawa, granite curbs are used on Parliament Hill and parts of Confederation Boulevard.

Boston artwork

Many buildings in Boston (and neighboring Cambridge) are old, and require regular maintenance to the exterior brick, granite steps, stone foundations, etc. So I was not surprised to see these piles of sorted construction materials in the yard of Radcliffe College (Harvard U).

All around me was the steady clink clink of bricklayers and masons restoring the steps and walls of one of the ancient colleges.

But upon closer inspection, I noticed this sign:

                                                     Please don't climb on the exhibit

Boston bike priority

Construction on a bridge made for narrower lanes and congestion. Cyclists were encouraged to take a full lane. Motorists fell behind them patiently.

Bike rack choice

There is an imposing architect-designed bike rack in the foreground that complements the building style. Despite the generous locking rings, the rack is not popular, as evidenced by the jam of cycles on the traditional rack just beyond.

Boston cycle path

The following pictures were taken on the cycling path along Vassar Ave in Cambridge (Boston) MA. Vassar goes through the MIT campus, and recent streetscaping had been done to narrow the road, add boulevard trees, and a bike path which was heavily used when I viewed it on several occasions. In the picture below, it transitions from on-road to being at the same grade as the sidewalk, set back from the street by a row of trees.

Despite being in front of the most prestigous engineering school in the world, there is a puddle in the path.

The path was blue asphalt where cars and cyclists shared pavement. Here is a car crossing of the path. Note the car has to rise up a slope about six inches which helps convey the message to the driver that they have left the car realm:

Note also the paving change where the sidewalk is crossed by the driveway.

The photo below shows another example. The path is set back from the travelled portion of the road about 16' -- the width of the parking space plus the boulevard with trees. The example below allowed vehicles to access a small parking and loading zone. Other crossings were at building entrances (drop off and pick up zones) and into very large parking garages which would have a similar traffic volume to many residential streets.

Here is a closeup of the sign that advises motorists to watch for cyclists and yield to them:

Here the path passes by the parked cars in the distance, the path is blue where it crosses a driveway, and has rougher textured pavers and then ped pavers where it crosses a major pedestrian path at an intersection (foreground):