The saga of The Boston Museum, after deciding to relocate its site and fire their original architect, Moshe Safdie, to reduce construction complexity and, in turn, project costs, has responded to its commitment to the original site with a suspension bridge for pedestrians.Although an elegantly structured and curved bridge may be a solution for crossing the vehicle access ramps, don't the opaque side walls of the span simply re-create the dangerous and foreboding tunnels and walkways that street-wise Bostonians have wanted to get rid of for decades? This history museum apparently has no memory of the pre-Greenway Artery and its crossings.
The combination of the solid walls and the curve make it an uncomfortable, blind journey. Does the end of the bridge lead to the museum entrance (certainly a good way to increase attendance), or does it link the Greenway's open spaces as it should? This solution does nothing to cover and use the space above the ramps as was the intention of the Artery authorities as a condition for granting the Museum prime downtown real estate.
A building on this site would do a far better job of reweaving the city fabric and, as required by the Big Dig permits, of mitigating the surface presence of the tunnel ramps. There is a good reason that the parcels with highway ramps were allocated to public buildings, (the New Center for Arts and Culture on parcel 11, the YMCA on parcel 6, and the Boston Museum on parcel 12): to best conceal the vehicle ramps, with the added benefit of stitching the divided neighborhoods back together. To do otherwise is a bad compromise.
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