Site Visit - 9.14.13

Site Visit – 51 High Street, Boston, MA

Saturday, September 14 2013

2:30pm

Overcast with a light wind from the Northwest

66 degrees Fahrenheit

I arrived at the site at approximately 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon expecting to see more activity than I did. Most of the foot traffic was focused on the connection between South Station and the Greenway. The open area known as Dewey Square was mostly vacant except for a few homeless people. One woman was drying her clothes on the highway railing in front of the site along Purchase St., there were heavy rains the night before. Walking through Dewey Square I saw mostly tourists carrying maps or using their devices for directions or information. I saw one dog walker utilizing the green space between Summer St. and Congress St. Bicyclists rode mainly through the area with the vehicle traffic, had they stopped there would be no bike racks for them to use. On High St. there was next to no foot traffic aside from the occasional tourist or a security guard watching me take pictures. Vehicle traffic mostly centered near the South Station area and the highway off ramp at Purchase St. The proximity to the airport was obvious with the sounds of jet planes flying over the area at a steady rate. The closeness to the harbor was evident in the sounds of seagulls and the smell of the ocean. The building itself has seen better days. It's an old four story building sandwiched between two taller, modern buildings. Scaffolding covers the ground floor on High St. There is an interesting mix of modern and traditional buildings on this block. It might be worth a try to keep the façade of 51 High St. to continue that dialogue. Closer examination of the façade shows that there is very little to work with. There is a steady breeze blowing up High St. from the northeast to southwest. I’m wondering this breeze a result of the surrounding building configuration or the current weather pattern. In general there is little activity in the area at this time. It will be informative to come back here at a time when there is an event at Dewey Sq. or at the height of the morning rush hour.  

The next mural is scheduled for installation on the ventilation building in Dewey Square. A piece by Matthew Ritchie will replace the current installation by the Brazilian twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known as Os Gemeos. 

Site visit

I got to visit the site this morning. My experience of it was very quiet and there was very minimal foot traffic. The parkway did have a steady flow of vehicular traffic. The high st side did offer a much more pleasant walking experience as far as noise and had a steady breeze moving through that corridor. You also hear some sense of the natural environment on high st as well, a few gulls and chirping birds were heard. The Chinatown/ leather district border was a lot more lively with pedestrian and vehicular traffic, as well as by the fort point channel area during this weekend slot. The area is lacking the vibrancy of color now that the mural has been painted over. I am going to see if I can make it over there during the farmers market to experience how that can influence the site.

The use of storm water mitigation can have a fairly great impact on the block of our site, there are very little places on this block to allow water to infiltrate into the ground aside from a few tree boxes in the side walk. There are quite a few areas which could be retro'd in to allow for some storm water mitigation existing planter boxes and raised beds along the roadside. The mix of granite paved sidewalks and concrete could also be improved upon as well to be utilized in the overall system.

site visit

eddie vaughn
site visit: sunday 9-15 @ 2:45

weather:
sunny
few clouds
constant breeze perpendicular to site
smells like Chinese food

after arriving to the area from the t the first thing i began to observe were the people. on a sunday there was very little people walking around and even fewer walking in front of the building. there was only 1 bum begging for money on the summer st side and one bum setting up camp at the doorway on high st side. on the weekend it seems that there are more families/ couples than commuters. on the st in front of the site a couple of people would walk past it on avg. about 45 seconds. the only activity going on around was the re-painting of the wall. from the t stop the site is very easy to get to. because it is so tiny the building is easily overlooked unless you know what to look for. car wise there is slow traffic on the highway side and even less traffic on the high stside. the traffic on the highway side is completely constant. not alot of honking going on. on the st in front of the building there are 2 car lanes and 1 bike lane. poor st drainage which gives me an opportunity to engage there. there is only one st light in front of the building. daylight starts early and leaves the building at 3:30. there are small sections of landscape out front that can be used to tie in the site to the area. the front door is at the same level as the tree tops from the park. as the sun starts to go down it beats really hard on the side walk. animals are walked past the building so incorporating them will bring in more people. some places around the site include, parking garage, mbta hq, cafe, hair place, vision place and an American Express building. after the observation each of these items can be incorporated into the design which will determine what kinds of sustainable techniques will be applied to them.

some of the things to analyze are the 3 major ways commuters get to the south station area. bus bike and train.

to sum up the operation of the green roof at 250 hudson by fxfowle architects, i will run throguh the main steps i picked out. before anything can happen the structure must be analyzed to see if it needs to be reinforced to support the loadof the green roof and another load from people. the next step before design is to figure out a minimum of 2 egress points and a connection between interior and exterior that conforms to ada requirements. the next thing to look at is the edge of roof condition. whether there is an existing parapet that can be used as a rail or you need to install a railing that is 42" min.
before selecting vegetation a sunlight diagram needs to be created and from this diagram we can begin to select plants to be used. the next step is to design the area while considering the following factors, public space, maintenance and what types of native plants as well as the insects and animals that are drawn to certain plants that will have an impact on the life expectancy of the green roof. the 2 last factors to think about during the design process are the wind and water. being at a higher altitude how will the plants be affected by the wind. how will water get to the plants? once these factors are solved the roof can begin construction and then inhabited by people, animals and insects.

snow load

annual rain and snow fall

Port of Portland's Living Machine

The Living Machine at the Port of Portland Headquarters in Oregon is a water processing/filtration system that utilizes man made wetland environments to "process" water. The "process" is typically meant to clean dirty water in order to make it more usable (but not potable). The Port of Portland's Living Machine uses both Tidal Flow and Vertical Flow wetland environments. Tidal and Vertical refer to the manner in which water travels through the filtration cells. Tidal flow cells are allowed to overflow into their neighboring cells while Vertical flow cells function on gravity; as soon as water reaches the outlet, water will flow into the next cell. The other difference is that Vertical flow cells tend to have aquatic vegetation whereas tidal flow cells have emergent plants. Generally speaking, the vegetation is used to remove nitrate that is produced by the bacteria that eats pathogens found in "dirty" water. The vegetation is the point where users get to interact (visually) with the system. However most of the work is done by bacteria that is found living in the aggregate-filled cells and by two other un-seen components. The first is the Primary Tank that filters effluent. Usually to remove solids from the water. The second is the disinfection system that is used to "polish" the water during the final stages before it us stored for reuse. The Port of Portland uses ultraviolet light and chlorination for this process. This case study uses the water stored in the reuse tank for toilets and evaporative cooling. The system was designed to process 5000 gallons of water a day. The contents of the primary tank are emptied out before the beginning of the next cycle.

Site Visit

I visited the site on August 7th around 2PM and again on August 13th at 5PM. During my first visit the in the afternoon, the site was getting heavy foot traffic from the North side along Purchase Street and Atlantic Ave. I attribute the heavy foot traffic at the time to the crafts fair that was happening along the Greenway at that time. Also happening during that time, was the gathering of families at the public fountain, on the Greenway. There were several events happening at restaurants during this time. I also noticed that the block our site is on, was particularly barren despite the heavy foot traffic. Those who traveled in and out of the area seemed to avoid the site. But I don't think they did so by choice. The foot path, that essentially connects the Greenway, is disrupted by the building with the Os Gemeos Mural. This building along with the highway, and Purchase street separate our site from the successful continuity of the Greenway. On the other date, the 13th, people were more focused on rushing passed it towards South Station than engaging with it. Pedestrians cut through Dewey, from the West to East direction towards Congress Street for dinner or drinks. At that time people generally are going home. Summer street also had a lot of people feeding South Station. Heavy traffic was observed on both dates. However, on the 7th, a weekend traffic seemed to be entering the city. On the Friday, traffic was leaving the city.

Green roof research

How a green roof is constructed

This source goes into a broad detail on the necessary components of a green roof.

Storm water mitigation techniques

Introduction to storm water management.

Case studies

These two case studies are the ones I presented in class. One is design for many people to occupy and the other is a smaller residential green roof.