Underground Inspiration


Tuesday, February 9, 2010 4:55 pm

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Last year, the inaugural SHIFTboston Ideas Competition called on architects, designers, engineers, and others to submit provocative visions “to enhance and electrify the urban experience in Boston.” The competition sponsors weren’t necessarily looking for build-able schemes, but rather for inspiration—for ideas that would engage citizens and galvanize the local design community.

But the winning proposal, announced last month, actually doesn’t seem that far-fetched. The architects Sapir Ng and Andrzej Zarzycki—the former is an associate at Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, the latter an assistant professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology—envisioned a new use for the abandoned Tremont Street Subway tunnel, which runs underneath Boston Common. In their scheme, the tunnel becomes a network of underground cultural venues, including a theater, a cinema, art galleries, and a “media-infused trolley museum.”

What are the chances that such a thing could actually be built? Right now it’s simply too early to tell; according to a press release from Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, “[m]eetings to share details of the plan with politicians and policy makers are currently being scheduled.” Here’s hoping those meetings happen, and that the city’s politicians are canny enough (and/or jealous enough of New York’s High Line) to take Ng and Zarzychi’s proposal seriously.

Read more about the Tremont Underground Theater Space at SHIFTboston.org.



Categories: Seen Elsewhere

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4 Comments »
  1. Because all of us in Boston want to spend more time underground in a dark dreary place! Let’s focus on the Rose Kennedy Greenway first… Something that involves light, air and living things.

    Here’s hoping the city doesn’t waste money on this and our uncanny politicians are canned!

    Comment by Info At — February 10, 2010, @ 1:56 pm

  2. Underground urban spaces have been too little explored. I believe that they are a resource for luminous, creative and useful habitation! Please see my current blog post, ostensibly about the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in NYC, but really about the vertical layering of cities http://tiny.cc/AtlanticTunnel

    Comment by Leni Schwendinger — February 15, 2010, @ 7:36 pm

  3. The underground is only dark and dreary when it hasn’t been optimized by design. I designed a similar project for a 5 block underground space in Philadelphia - the future is about reuse of space, wherever it may be found. http://tinyurl.com/PHLconcourse

    Comment by Kara Lindstrom — February 16, 2010, @ 9:49 am

  4. I appreciate much of what I see in the Personal Liberty Digest. However, Im puzzled at how while demanding liberty for ourselves there is such a loud demand to deny liberty to others.

    Comment by pilates training in london — January 6, 2012, @ 3:38 pm

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