Downtown Crossing

location: BOSTON, MA

client: DOWNTOWN CROSSING PARTNERSHIP

With the recent news of Boston’s Downtown Crossing seeking to become a new Business Improvement District, as well as the ongoing problems of the stalled development at the old Filene’s Building and a growing number of empty storefronts in the area, map-lab decided to take a more in depth look at possible solutions. To revitalize the once vibrant core of Boston, we proposed to remove the cars and return Washington Street (within the borders of the Downtown Crossing district) back to the pedestrians.

Rationalizing traffic flows are key to overcoming poor 20th century planning. We created an “inner beltway” which dedicates two-way traffic to better move localized traffic to the larger capacity arterials.

By doing so it frees the smaller scale feeder streets from continuing to act as “shortcut” thru streets and putting unnecessary traffic into the Downtown Crossing area. The Washington Street Pedestrian Zone, now free of cars, is dotted with new trees as well as small scale modular structures. These structures will house a diverse collection of small businesses which allows for a more sustainable economic model, more similar to the Washington Street which existed before the city planners decided to suburbanize this part of the city.