Weaving Together the Threads of Transportation Infrastructure An Intermodal Transportation Station for the Proposed MBTA Urban Ring, Sullivan Square Station, Boston Frank Hekel Bachelor of Science in Mathematics si'nature of the author / Frank John Hekel Bachelor of Arts in German Language and Literature 01. 10. 1997 University of Washington, Seattle, WA June 1992 certified by 1)ll en Dunham-Jones Associae Professor of Architecture Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partialfilfillment of the Thesis Advisor requirements of the degree Master of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 1997 accepted by Andrew Scott Associate Professor of Architecture Chair, Department Committee on Graduate Students C FRANK JOHN HEKEL. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publically paper and electronic copies of this document in whole or in part. 972841403 MlAR 2 6 1997 UR.ARiES In grateful appreciation to the sound and thoughtful George Thrush council of my readers Department Head, Northeastern University Department of Architecture Leonard Morse-Fortier, PE Professional Engineer Professor, MIT Centerfor Real Estate Weaving Together the Threads of Abstract Transportation Infrastructure Transportation infrastructure in all its manifestations represents a huge capital An Intermodal Transportation Station for the Proposed investment expended during the evolution of a city and is perhaps the most visible Sullivan Square Station, Boston MBTA Urban Ring, character defining weave of any urban fabric. This weave, the interrelationship of circulation space with the spatial boundaries of lots, buildings, and various urban Frank J.Hekel events, requires that one conceive transportation infrastructure as more than mere independent structures with a singular circulatory function. Submitted to the Department of Architecture on January 10, Boston's Sullivan Square marks an urban condition which currently suffers from a of the requirementsfor the degree of 1997 in partialfuifillment singularity of function assigned to automotive circulation largely to the exclusion of Masters of Architecture the pedestrian. At this historic juncture between Somerville and Charlestown the elevated freeway, Interstate 93, cuts north-south. Directly beneath these three and five story structures are the train lines for the Orange Line Sullivan Square Station, and the through lines for the Comnuter Rail and Boston & Maine Railroad. Together these Ellen Dunham-Jones systems promulgate the radial alignment of urban scaled circulation in Boston, a Associate Professor of Architecture condition which continues to physically divide communities rather than knit them Thesis Advisor together. Cambridge Street, the original historical thoroughfare, runs east-west beneath the freeway and over the tracks and serves as one of few accessible links between the two sides of the freeway. The contention of this thesis is that existing monumental infrastructures, specifically transportation infrastructure, are presently under utilized and contain within them the potential for civic spaces. The process here explored is to architecturally enhance the existing infrastructures, freeway, rail lines and roads, with the addition of a new Urban Ring circumferential subway line. This tying together of systems into an intermodal transportation center expands the present limited purposefulness and programmatic independence of the existing systems and can be directed to enhance urban conditions at Sullivan Square. I propose a schematic urban development template which utilizes more densely the surrounding properties in a multi-use manner reinforcing the Cambridge Street link between Somerville and Charlestown. Sullivan Square has the potential to become a destination rather than simply a transfer point between automobile and train, moreover, there exists the potential to create a meaningful, multi-dimensional northern threshold for the city of Boston. Contents Abstract 68 Appendix A Design Development Introduction B 72 Appendix The Urban Ring The Acoustics of Underground Stations Site Analysis C 76 Appendix The Promiscuity of Helvetica Description of Project 82 Bibliography 89 Acknowledgements Manufacturer's ~__Two Color Registration Mark Product Identification Number Aulalito Registered Trademark, which copyrights both the product Bar Code for name and its specific form Automatic Scanning Recognition and Product Inventory Control One-to one Image of Product housed inside Cardboard Conditions of Legal Container Liability Box Manufacturer's Manufacturer of the Identification Number eram / Container and Two Color Registration Mark Introduction The nature of my research this semester has largely been clear in the context of an urban transportation network. A an investigation of infrastructure at a multiplicity of scales system composed of numerous discrete stations all function and specifically, transportation infrastructure's capacity to together to create an experiential frame of the city for the give fuller definition to urban identity. The architect is commuter. The facility can read as a continuum within charged with the design of habitable places, a scale the city and as a portal to a specific locality: the experienced by the human person in space. This architectural scale has much to do with maintaining such a characterization suggests that the domain of our profession balance. For a structure to contribute to the identity of a is limited to buildings and rooms within. And yet, our civic whole there must be a clear sense that it is truly experiences in the city are modulated by many aspects of linked to the multiple scales of the city. design which enter the "habitable realm" and yet are not attributed to architects. Infrastructure is not end in itself At left is a found object, one of many which is truly an but rather the frame within which and around which artifact belonging to the later part of the twentieth meaning is later constructed. When designing century. Despite its discarded form, the contour of its infrastructure within the scales traditionally attributed to edges and placement of its folds reveals the nature of its architecture there is need to respond to those scales three dimensional configuration. The product name, adjacent to architecture as this framework will be both the multiple identifiers and the image of the product itself context for future changes and itself must integrate into describe clearly the purpose and nature of this object. The the larger site context. This contention is perhaps most space of this box is by no means "architectural", yet the 190 Verbrennunpmotoren Verbrennungsmotoren 190 I der Acbt/yniietki -V.t Oinmoto 43mit das(der) Olfilter Benineinsptritag f im 1igsiiti 44 deeAttlaee 45 der Zylinderkpf 2 der Otitmtor im QueNthutt m1e46 dasAtklanitemd 3 der Iedn-Zytnter-Reihen- 47 dei O estab(Opeilta ) tieseltorai tm I antgswhtudt48 dieI 4linderkofthuhe 4 derDiesetmotor im Ouerchti oe 49 die Zwetfach-Iubenkeite 5 deoZweikhens nklmtor 50 ter Temperaimuwreer SI der )rehtimig der leerlautvctelung 6 der lEit-Zylindt-Zwehiakt-Ottotinxior 52 die Kraftsirifickdeitung 7 der Lfiee 53 die Keattekle itg Ste %itkoseLiUfetekuppneg 54 die inritzes 9 der Zinderiteer mt Uniterdrckdose 55 der ieiungsansheanl MtUrdie Zidiedteeelng 56 die AiiwrNhtscheibe 10tie Zwxeirach-Rotknkeee 57 die wichenetadwle fii den 11 da Netenweinlager binpretzpuspennieb 12die Entetfdunpkitung 58 derSpritnerseetteer 13 das lrohr rni (EinspriZtnrteler) Ntcenellenchmiieeeng I 59 die Uneedrnckpnmpe I4 dieNockenwele, eine oibeeieigendee 60 di Murvenceie fie die Nockenewelk Unterdruckputpe 15 der KLtppentenni-e 61 dieWaseerpmpe (Kahlwasserpump 16 derSauggeruschdhmNe 62 der Kihlwaserthermteai (Ansagenriiaschdiimlpfer) 63 ierThermnschlfter 17 der Kantstofferuckreglr 64 die Keafttiofff~aedpumpe It dasSaugrohr (Atuegrahb) 65 die Etmpritzpumpe 19 dasZylinderkieurbelgefhuse S6ir Gihkerze 20 dasSchwungrad 67dat Oldberdruckventil 21die Pleelsane 68 die Wankelscheibe(der 22 der Kutrbewelleftnhgerdecel Roatianmkolben) 23die Kurbelwelle 69 die Dichtleiste 24 die llaeschrabe 70 der Dreenmenetiwandler(Fetinger 25 die Rollenketnndes tpumpenntieehs Wandler) , m 71 die Einchteibenkupplung 26 der Schwingungtiipler 72 dasMehrganggeiee 27 die Antrichswelleer den (Mehrstuftengetiebe) Zfndvernter 73 die Porelineea im Atspuffkdinmer m 22 der Olcinfiststenn zurVerbeserungder Abpsegittnu( 29 tier fitereintauz 74 die SchelbeubetMe 109 30 dts Reguliegestndge 75 ds Achudiffeeetialgetriebe 31 die Krafustoffrieing 76 die Lichtemadeine 32 das netinpitzveentl 77 die Fikalteung 33 deeSchwinghebel 78 die Mehrseheibenfr-TckenktppIkg 34 die Schwiighebellrung 79 der lshntromvermaer 35 die Zlindkere mit anrstecker ms0 die Khldrippen f 73 36 derAuspufeikmer 37 der Kolbe* mil Kotbenringenm und Olabstreifingen 38 derMonirtriar 39 der Zwisdenflansch 40 dis tiannenoberteil 41 dasOmlwannenanterteil 42 die lpumpe vocabulary of images and conventions brought together 11.01. Image of a man dining while trapped in a traffic jam. into the space of this spark plug box points to the Scale of the automobile enters existence of numerous administrating agencies, into the realm of inhabited conventions and to an audience which presumably space. Frankfurter Allgemeine, understands this assemblage. Numerous larger November 14, 1992, p. 37 organizations (a type of infrastructure) are implied while never fully revealed: the bar code, the registration logo, the printer's marks, etc. These