Below are proposals submitted in response to the Harvard Square Kiosk and Plaza Call for Ideas. For more information on this project and on how to submit proposals, please visit: www.cambridgema.gov/harvardsquarekiosk
Cambridge Care: Network of Services proposes a unified information hub that is useful to diverse populations, from residents, out of town visitors and the homeless. It would provide a welcoming place in the heart of Harvard Square for everyone along a spectrum of need to get the information they need to thrive. For example, many of the homeless have psychiatric issues, sometimes untreated mental illness and/or substance abuse. Harvard Square is also a destination point for homeless LGBTQ youth. Making room for a unified hub would give agency and support to the many local non-profits and religious organizations to best serve diverse populations.
Cambridge Care would take the form of ATM or Information Kiosk located in Harvard Square, specifically one facade of the Out of Town News, or Cambridge Savings Bank. Placing in a central location is practical and symbolic: getting and giving help is convenient, and also deeply embedded in the heart of Cambridge's mission. This hub would be beautiful, welcoming, and meticulously maintained. It could also be manned by "Social Ambassadors" during peak hours by outreach staff of various organizations. Being for everyone along a spectrum of need would ensure that giving and receiving of social services is fringe, stigmatized or tucked away "out of sight, out of mind." It would serve to cultivate compassion and empathy through awareness-building through giving and receiving care.
The programming and exact offerings would be developed in correlation with local organizations including: Y2Y, Youth on Fire, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, The Cambridge Community Foundation, Cambridge Continuum of Care, Salvation Army, Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, Phillips Brooks House, First Parish, and others.
The interactive displays would share information, updated on a daily/real-time basis. There would be features including phone, recording device for collecting anonymous tips and information, as well as "ATM" for dispensing food stamps, etc and also collecting donations to social services. The services could include, for example:
Health
Book an urgent care appointment
View the schedule and location for Bridge over Troubled Waters van in Harvard Square
Food
Learn where warm meals are being served for the day
Sign-up to volunteer in a soup kitchen
Shelter
Book a bed for the night in one of the area shelters
Get help on how to apply for affordable housing in Cambridge
Women’s Health
Find where to receive free counseling
Learn about a women's exercise group is meeting
Community
Learn how to get involved with HonkFest! organizing
Make a donation to NGO providing services
Cambridge Care harnesses from our collective wisdom and compassion, and pools our resources.
This is not so much a big idea but a call for tweaking and rejiggering to feature what is most valued in Cambridge: history, community, culture, and place. The kiosk/plaza is already a PLACE, and needs less “placemaking,” and more focus on what has made it a place over time.
The Harvard Square Kiosk and surrounding plaza is an “iconic” site in the sense that this is the most common visual image that people (locals & visitors alike) retain in their memory/perception for Cambridge, Massachusetts. As articulated in Wallace Stegner’s Sense of Place, there is no substitute for the organic nature of the process and creation of a sense of belonging over time. He states, “... a place is not a place until people have been born in it, have grown up in it, have lived in it, known it, died in it--have both experienced and shaped it, as individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities, over more than one generation.” The Kiosk/plaza clearly qualify already, and it would be make sense to bring out the essence of what has collected there over the years.
The kiosk itself, still features beautiful original material and detail that should be retained to the maximum extent possible—on the inside as well as the outside. It reflects a level of craftsmanship that aligns with today’s focus on “STEAM” and Maker Culture, but is often overlooked in the clutter and chaos of activity on the plaza. The kiosk is a common meeting place and a shelter from inclement weather; those uses could be made easier by installing a couple of benches inside as well to provide refuge, and eliminating the exterior congestion.
The current newsstand use may not be appropriate to continue in its current structure. Yet the kiosk may be a perfectly appropriate place to celebrate the tradition of printing, scholarship, books, and paper in Cambridge ... along with digital displays and access to information. There may be room for a mix of physical and digital materials. Perhaps a place to display and/or sell “made in Cambridge” objects, postcards, or CSA art collection. And also point people digitally toward Cambridge events, organizations, businesses &institutions. Or to engage digitally with Cambridge history and current/future initiatives & accomplishments.
The City could consider collaboration with the Cambridge Public Library, which is already considering the Library’s future as a catalyst for conversation & ideas; a place to exchange information and stimulate thinking & problem solving. Or there could be a partnership with one or more of the local bookstores, where there would be physical copies of periodicals, poetry, books, or newspapers (local & global) for perusing on site (with purchases or borrowing directed to the appropriate source). The bookstore at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts on Quincy Street is an interesting example of a nonprofit/institutional collaboration within flexible space (https://carpenter.center/bookshop/motto-books-at-ccvaor http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/3/2/ccvacrcbookshop/). The attached photos taken on a rainy day in the periodical section of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square Barnes & Noble, show the space being used by a range of individuals seeking respite—but it is effectively an extension of one of the country’s most successful urban open spaces, which can be seen from the window.
The priority for the surrounding plaza should be its role as point of access to the MBTA Red Line and local bus routes. Clutter and congestion of crowds should be reduced so that people of all ages/abilities can pass through and enter/exit the T station safely. Ideally, the more recent information kiosk in front of the main station entry should be removed to facilitate the flow. The historic H2 kiosk (particularly the side facing the MBTA entry) could be used for this same information function. Moving forward, the City should not feature or provide commercial advantage to any one business on public property, but could, more fairly, provide information about all available options (e.g. tour providers). Any open-air vendor spots should be carefully sited and supervised by the City for safety purposes, and should be awarded based on fair competition. The plaza should be enticing throughout the year and in all weather—interesting (yet energy efficient) lighting could be helpful in conjunction with true moveable (durable) furniture & plantings or art installations.
1. Integrate the Plaza, Headhouse and MBTA Station
The MBTA station is a major gateway to Harvard Square and a critical factor in the practical functioning of the Square. It is also clear that the station and headhouse are ugly, deteriorating, dysfunctional. The notion that a major subway entrance would deliver passengers to a pit several steps below the surrounding street elevation is obviously perverse, and creates needless obstacles and complexity for the planning of the surrounding area. In this context, spending $4,000,000 on a plaza renovation that does not address the gross deficiencies of the existing headhouse and station will be a very poor investment. It is unfortunate therefore that one of the City’s stated requirements for the Plaza work is that changes to the existing MBTA headhouse and related steps will not be considered, and that the plaza reconstruction must therefore, by default, take these obsolete structures into account. While in no way diminishing the challenges of coordinating with the MBTA, we believe this premise is misguided.
Please note that images can be opened at full size by selecting them and opening in a new tab.
As the importance of mass transit has increased over the years, the shortcomings of the station, and particularly the headhouse, have become ever more severe and intolerable. The Red Line is a major gateway to Cambridge, and should create a single, harmonious user experience reflective of the city’s values. It should be at least as welcoming, well-designed, and well-managed as the best examples anywhere in the world, as it once was. The current reality falls very far short.
After passing through a squat and deteriorating bunker, passengers descend past disintegrating concrete and makeshift gutters into a gloomy mezzanine whose major feature is an semi- abandoned ticket window. Pity the poor visitor who doesn’t know this is all part of the charm. From there, one glimpses the heroic scale of the station hall below, its floor area now littered with random retail fixtures, its walls and ceiling covered with electrical conduit, junction boxes and random mechanical equipment that no normal building owner would accept in their lobby. Cambridge deserves better. The station needs a total renovation and better management, and the headhouse needs to be replaced. Recent reconstruction of the Government Center station and headhouse, while larger in scale, shows what a difference such modernizations can make.
In short, the Plaza and Station are interconnected problems that need to be addressed holistically. Doing this will not only avoid the waste that will almost certainly occur if the new design has to be adapted to obsolete conditions, but will greatly expand the design opportunities.
Provided the MBTA is not expected to bear the cost on its own, and given age and condition the present station and headhouse, there is no reason to believe a suitable arrangement to address these issues can’t be found.
2. Restore the Kiosk to its original function
The original 1928 headhouse that now serves as the home of Out Of Town News, was originally an open pavilion – 8 brick columns and an elegant copper roof - sheltering the entrance to the Red Line station below. When the station was expanded in 1978 this structure was removed and put in storage for several years, and then reinstalled and modified for its new role as a retail store. While the copper roof and some of the supporting structure are original, much is not. As we now consider how best to preserve it, we should bear in mind that the “Kiosk” has not been used for its original purpose since 1978, is not in its original location, and has been extensively modified to accommodate a very different use than that for which it was intended. These changes include the removal of 100% of its original glazing, and the installation of an unsympathetic 1980’s storefront and retail fixtures that obscure and distract from much of what remains.
As noted above, its 1978 successor is now in need of extensive repair or replacement. It is tempting therefore to consider whether that original, and much more elegant structure could be adapted to serve in this role again. In fact, there are substantial advantages to merging the two problems and restoring the Kiosk to its original purpose. While shifting its location by 50’ might seem transgressive for a historic structure, there is ample precedent in Cambridge for such moves, which in this case would in accomplish a number of key preservation goals, most importantly, the restoration of the structure’s original function.
It would also greatly expand design options for the plaza by reducing the number of structures competing for limited space on an awkward triangular plot. In its current form, the plaza is a congested obstacle course obstructed by no less than 4 buildings and a host of walls, stairs and level changes that thwart pedestrian flow in every direction. Opening up the central portion of plaza’s limited surface area would be transformative.
A further advantage of folding MBTA renovations into the plaza work is the potential to eliminate the depressed “pit” into which passengers are now discharged. Eliminating the need for a “pit” would greatly improve handicapped accessibility, reduce drainage problems, and make presently fragmented plaza much more useable. This would require that the upper bank of escalators be replaced, and the stairs extended, a not insignificant expense, but partially offset by the greater efficiency and reduced service cost of modern escalators.
One of the design goals for the current headhouse, which led to its being set below sidewalk grade, and to its squat proportions, was the Cambridge Savings Bank façade. After decades of living with the adverse consequences of the current design CSB might greatly benefit from a more elegant and transparent neighbor, even if it were a few feet taller. Furthermore, improvements to the plaza itself, possibly including the linking of Forbes Plaza and the Harvard Square plaza, would be a vast improvement for the Bank, sufficient to offset any perceived negatives.
3. A Visitor’s Center and ‘Digital Diorama’
Harvard Square has become a destination for visitors from across town and around the globe, whom we want to welcome and support with at least as much consideration as they show us when we visit them. This means sharing our story, past and present, and doing this well requires more than a tiny booth 8’ in diameter stocked with pamphlets and staffed by volunteers. While surface real estate in this location is scarce and expensive, there is a large underused area, in the MBTA station mezzanine, just 15’ below grade that appears to be ideal for this purpose. As every Cantabrigian knows, the first thing one sees upon descending the Red Line escalators (or rising from the station below) is a 90’ long curved wall clad in red and beige tile, covered with electrical conduit, and punctuated by a an often shuttered information window. This mezzanine is much larger than needed for passenger circulation alone and there is an additional 400 sf of staff space behind the information desk, with a separate stair and additional storage. These unused and underused spaces could easily accommodate a well-functioning Visitor Center. Floor to ceiling digital displays installed on the wall areas to either side could provide a dazzling, 70’ wide digital diorama of Cambridge past, present and future, likely to be every bit as much interest to Cambridge residents as to visitors - all this in a space that is currently an underused eyesore, through which tens of thousands of people pass every day.
But there is one problem - the lack of handicapped accessibility. The existing elevator serves only the lower level of the station, bypassing the mezzanine. It appears however, based on the original construction drawings, that this problem could be resolved fairly simply by adding a mezzanine stop to the new MBTA elevator shaft, and a short hallway linking it to the Visitor Center, in apparently unused space above the Dunkin Donuts concession. This hallway could be attractive and overlook the station area below, with line-of-sight view of the Visitor Center from the elevator and vice versa. As an added bonus, there appears to be sufficient unused space adjacent to this hallway to accommodate one or more automated pay toilets (J.C. Decaux “Sanisette” or similar). This would relieve a maintenance burden and allow the existing, very squalid (non-automated) MBTA restroom to be repurposed for a retail use on the station’s valuable main level. The vast banks of obsolete pay phones are also prime candidates for more productive use.
4. Nature and conversation in the heart of the Square
So, with the pit removed, the Kiosk serving again as the station entrance, and a proper Visitor’s Center replacing the current info booth, what could be done with the resulting open plaza space? Yes we could build a structure, or keep the existing one, but however noble the purpose, is this the best use for a precious open space?
As we consider our dual challenges of climate change and political implosion, what better at the heart of our city than a verdant space for conversation amidst the urban bustle - a grove of trees, with loose tables and chairs below, to foster the conversations that have always been at the heart of Cambridge, and appear now under siege across much of our increasingly fragmented and alienated polity - a place to meet friends and make new ones, to have debates and find common ground.
There should be uplighting below the trees, with permeable paving, compaction protection and perhaps drip irrigation to sustain them, and low granite walls at the perimeter to as a buffer from passing vehicles.
Years ago, before the internet, the original Out Of Town News offered a direct connection to the world, with electricity in the air as bundles of foreign newspapers arrived from Logan Airport, hot-off faraway presses. OTN hasn’t had this sense of purpose for a long time.
The current plaza design functions not as a destination in itself, but a waypoint. Thus, the flow of pedestrian traffic—some continuing through on foot, others changing modes to or from bicycle, bus, subway, taxi—should be a key design consideration. Pedestrians need be able to move through the space efficiently or invited to linger if they choose. Orienting and finding the route to a desired destination should be easy.
One reason that the Harvard Square plaza does not feel welcoming or appealing is that the current site plan does not meet these needs. Structures in the plaza appear as obstacles along pedestrian desire lines. Changes in grade via steps, the placement of bollards, trash receptacles, and hardscape elements are also obstacles to pedestrian flow. The vast majority of foot traffic is relegated to the corridor between the headhouse and the building facade at the south edge of the plaza. The high throughput there leads buskers, panhandlers, and street vendors to gather, further constricting flow.
Letting the desire lines dictate the plan of the plaza will create a more usable space. Removing some obstructions, realigning crosswalks along Massachusetts Avenue in ways that do not impact traffic flow and signaling, minimally expanding the plaza paving, and reducing discontinuous changes in grade clears the way for more direct circulation paths. The negative spaces resulting from the modified desire path form natural, usable spaces for a variety of activities. Creating porous enclaves in these spaces reduces congestion along circulation routes and desirable zones that are easy to enter and pleasant to inhabit. Seating areas, programmed areas (kiosks, carts, performers), landscaping, illumination, interactive displays, and public art should be situated in the cavities carved out by the desire paths.
Light, Shade, & Public Art
In addition to their utilitarian function, the best examples of shade structures help to define the character and boundaries of the space as existing as artistic, sculptural works. Innovative and forward-thinking shade structures can be one component of defining a distinctive and functional public space.
Shade structures need not be static fixtures in the plaza. An innovative use of physically-actuated or variable optics can provide responsive shade. Numerous buildings use time-of-day responsive skins composed of articulated louvers, cells, or portals to block direct sunlight from entering the building. Additionally, sensing within the seating areas can selectively provide localized shade only where it's needed—where someone is seated or lingering—during the summer months.
While the shade structures themselves can and should be sculptural objects, the medium of light that they manipulate is more than simply brightness and dark. By carefully designing the shading elements, the shadow patterns cast can take a deliberate form. Sculptural arrangements of objects that seemingly impossibly cast detailed images as shadows. Different images can be projected as the orientation of illumination changes. What imagery or pattern could be cast across the Harvard Square plaza and how might it change as the sun transits?
At night, lighting plays an essential role in defining the space, making it feel welcoming, and safe. A shade structure by day can also double as a source of illumination at night, casting pools of warm over the seating and walking zones. Solar panels on top side of shade structures can harvest power for nighttime illumination.
Regardless of the type of lamp used, the color temperature should be consistent with existing street illumination. Additional architectural lighting should be used to create a sense of place by highlighting large-scale focal points in the area.
Interactive Displays
A digital presence in the plaza can ensure that there's always something new to see or experience within the square. While an overwhelming digital presence in the form of screens within the Harvard Square kiosk or plaza is not desirable, integrating display technologies into the redesigned site can provide value for visitors and community.
Displays can provide practical information for tourists and visitors, such as transportation schedules, real-time T signage, and as a meeting point for upcoming tours.
Displays can also provide wayshowing signage at a glance and provide wayfinding tools to Harvard buildings and businesses during interactions. The community can be engaged through interaction in the curation of a constantly evolving directory. The digital program can continually evolve for some time, meeting new needs, without updating the infrastructure. The display content can be branded and re-purposed for special events. Use of these displays for commercial advertising is discouraged.
With minimal additional infrastructure, display installations can detect proximity or engagement of passersby and adapt the content accordingly. The normal display state can be large-scale signage visible at a distance, while more detailed information can be shown when an individual is close.
The design of the display content, outside of particular branded events, should be tasteful, complimentary to the space, and not garish. If illuminated at night, the quality of light emitted should be natural, warm, and not distracting. A uniform visual design language and color palette should be adopted. Doing so not only provides a clean, attractive, branded visual experience, it simplifies the creation and maintenance of digital assets and content programming.
Though transparent displays have existed for some time, their use is still relatively uncommon. Using transparent displays in an outdoor media installation, an indoor kiosk experience, or the windows of the kiosk can provide a fresh visual approach to multimedia interaction in public space.
A unique alternative to touch screen interactions that is also maintenance-friendly, is to rely on visitors to use their own mobile devices to interact with the larger experience. Such dual screen-interactions are increasingly seen in artistic contexts. Although a bespoke mobile app is not required for such an experience, it can be used to encourage the installation of a Harvard Square branded mobile app with additional resources. It is vital that the installation experience provides value to all, regardless of interaction.
In a small area, such as inside part of the kiosk, digital displays can provide an interactive glimpse into the lengthy and profound history of Harvard Square. Arranged around a narrow vantage point, transparent LCD panels can act like an augmented reality display without the need for handheld devices or special headwear. Historical images taken from near the center of the square can be overlaid onto the actual physical view of the present-day buildings beyond the glass. The installation becomes a lens into the past, as visitors can dial in a time period, look around the square, and learn more about this significant spot in history.
The full discussion of these ideas can be found at: http://petertorpey.com/projects/harvard_square/hsq_patorpey.pdf
By: Elena Saporta, ASLA, RLA, LEED AP, Elena Saporta Landscape Architecture
The plaza and kiosk function fairly well currently, however, this being the heart of Harvard Square, one should expect more of the place:
There is a single sad tree in the entire sea of pavement. How do we introduce more green to the plaza?
The kiosk is completely cluttered with merchandise and advertising. One scarcely notices the structure at all. How can we create more space, both within the kiosk’s footprint as well as at the pedestrian pinch points adjacent to the kiosk?
The Harvard Square subway station, aside from being in a state of disrepair is a dark and dreary place. How do we bring more light to this four-level subterranean world?
The proposed design addresses these three questions, as follows:
1. More Green
The “Pit” goes away. Pavement elevations inside the current “Pit” are elevated to meet the grades of the surrounding walkways, creating an even pavement surface. By raising the level of paving, we end up an over four feet depth of soil above the subway structure making it feasible to plant shade trees here. Trees will make the square more inviting by providing comfort and visual appeal. Essentially, what has been created is a sort of ‘plaza within a plaza.’ A new planter, placed at the location of the existing sloped brick wall at the eastern end of the station’s head house, provides an opportunity to include even more green.
2. More Space
The kiosk, despite its generous overhangs, occupies a very small footprint. Whatever uses end up being assigned to this space, present day clutter surrounding the structure signifies a need for additional space. In the proposed design, a glass enclosure is introduced to create more usable area. The proposed glass enclosure sits between the kiosk’s brick-banded columns and extends westward to the roof line of the structure.
Walkways adjacent to the kiosk are fairly narrow, creating tight conditions between the building and the streets that run alongside it. The size of the plaza is increased by shortening the length of the drop-off bay as well as removing the first parking space in the taxi stand.
3. More Light
Entering the Harvard Square ‘T’ is an experience of going from daylight into relative darkness. The station at Government Center, once had a similarly dingy feel until it was recently re-designed. With the introduction of the new glassy head house there, a significant amount of daylight now filters down to the Government Center station’s lobby and mezzanine levels. A new head house for the Harvard Square station would work in much the same way. As part of the proposed re-design, at the plaza level, translucent bands have been inlaid in the proposed new plaza. The bands are designed to disperse natural light throughout the building, particularly down to the level of the inbound and outbound station platforms.
OBSERVATIONS AND GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Raising the elevation of the “Pit” to meet adjacent sidewalk grades allows enough soil depth to plant trees in this location.
Providing a glass enclosure along the eastern elevation of the kiosk would expand the capacity of the kiosk building.
Harvard Square station is notoriously dark. Translucent bands inlaid in plaza pavement help bring daylight into the station.
At Government Center, Boston, major tree planting in the once barren plaza ad the new head house serve as inspiration.
Elena Saporta is a Cambridge-based Landscape architect whose firm specializes in the design and greening of urban spaces.
Don't Over-Program the Kiosk and Important Public Spaces
By James M. Williamson
At his recent Dan Urban Kiley Lecture on Landscape Architecture the supremely intelligent and sensitive Toru Mitani talked about how urban landscape interventions in the middle of dense cities should not be about over-programing. His current GSD exhibit should be a must visit for all working on the Kiosk and Plaza.
[See: www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/toru-mitani/]
The Plaza and Kiosk should be free of “programming.” The entire Plaza and Kiosk must be stripped of all advertising.
The T head house (what was intended to be a transparent cover to the Harvard Square entrance) should be stripped of all advertising. Come on! Cut the crap! We can AFFORD IT!
The Plaza should be rendered a place — where people can pause, and sit, and meet -- but not where contrived things have to be “happening" all the time. LET IT BE. LET THE PEOPLE BE.
The Kiosk should be ELEGANT & SIMPLE.
ELEGANT...
&
SIMPLE.
BEAUTIFUL.
SOULFUL.
A City History Museum. (Especially Harvard Square.)
A Newstand. (Small.)
A Civic Information Center.
Compact. Compact. Compact.
A Visitor Center. (Nothing too complicated.)
Space for nothing.
Space for something.
Space for you and me.
A place to find momentary shelter; with a cup of coffee (or tea; purchased from a trike, or coffee-cart, managed by CRLS culinary arts and/or food business kids); grab a paper; watch people perusing the well-designed displays (Gallagher?) that reveal Cambridge History, or sit on a stool and look out through the newly restored “transparent” building on the hustle and bustle of ever-busy Harvard Square.
Half Versatile “Information" Center — Half “Open" Cafe.
(We need help with internal design ideas. Let’s hear from a
variety of design professionals (and amateurs!))
The proposal is for a time limited art installation that will cover the kiosk with a giant crumpled newspaper sculpture: perhaps lit from inside. Inspiration for the installation is drawn in part from work of sculptor Claes Oldenburg, the works of environmental artist team Christo and Jeanne Claude, and the architecture of Frank Gehry. The installation will serve as a placemaker; and establish the area as a platform for a series of time limited commercial art installations. These juried, and paid, installations will generate an endowment for the preservation of the kiosk, and programing for the plaza in the public interest.
The City of Cambridge can bring an art superstar such as African American woman artist Kara Walker to Cambridge for a large public art installation without paying much cash for the honor. Walker has had large commissions in Brooklyn and New Orleans. The final paragraph suggests how this might be accomplished in Harvard Sq.
The proposal for the kiosk is to wrap the existing kiosk in a giant crumple newspaper form for some term of time. The sculptural form could be removed to another location for a later exhibition. It might be auctioned off. It might be famous. This would establish the kiosk the area as an installation space, but not necessarily permanently one
The newspaper motif is significant. There has been a newsstand in the area since 1955. Just yards from the location, on Dunster St., the birth of moveable type printing in British North America occurred. Printing is an industry that defined the colony, and then the U. S. Gen. Geo. Washington's first headquarters is across the street at Wadsworth House; the property of oldest college in English speaking America which required locally printed books for its success. Presently, we are living in a era of reduced circumstances for paper form news media. The crumbled newspaper form reflect this fact. Perhaps, paper newspapers are "yesterday's news".
Subsequent to the crumbles newspaper form installation, a series of time limited commercial installations for the kiosk is proposed. The object is to generate revenue while engaging the public visually. These installations would be put out to bid, but also subject to a jury process The core idea is to generate an endowment of funds for a more long lasting use for the kiosk in the public interest. The commercial installations shall provide a spectacle for public pleasure, as department store windows, and corporate publicly displayed art and architecture have done for many decades. Consider the railroad station palaces of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It should be recognized that the newsstand was always a profit seeking commercial enterprise, this is reflected in the commercial art installation proposed for the kiosk. However, it is not proposed that this be a permanent situation.
This type of time limited environmental art has proven to to capture a huge media presence internationally. It will focus thought on Harvard Sq and its future; it will bring many visitors to Harvard Sq. specifically to witness the installation of the piece.
By obscuring the kiosk for a term of time; new thoughts on the future of Harvard Sq will be provoked. The absence of the kiosk in Harvard Sq has not been seen for more than thirty years, when the Red Line extension was in progress.
The free form museum, music venue, and art venue architecture of Frank Gehry is a partial inspiration of this proposal's concept. Gehery built the museum in Bilbao, Spain; the Disney Concert Hall in LA; the Bard College Fisher Center for the Performing Arts; and the Stata Center at MIT.
Inspiration also comes directly from the work of environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their time limited environmental art projects include Gates in Central Park, NYC; Running Fence, in California. Their wrapping projects: islands in Florida, the Ponte-Neuf in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin have established this style of art. Sculptor Claus Oldenburg is certainly an inspiration too.
Given the fame of Harvard Sq, and enormous volume of foot traffic found there, which includes people from all over the world, and local people too, the famous and the anonymous, the expectation that the commercial installation proposals will be of high quality and with significant funding seems a realistic hope.
It is possible that leading corporations would engage in patronage with the leading artists for the honor and prestige of having a time limited art installation in Harvard Sq. In this way, Kara Walker a leading African American woman artist could be brought to Harvard Sq, Cambridge, a location with important African American and women's history.
Historical & Personal Recollections — Interactive time-capsule display documenting both the city’s history and community’s personal memories
People can find and enter their personal memories of Harvard Square for collective memory-building. Popular establishments like Algiers Cafe and Herrell’s Ice Cream that go out of business can upload photos, videos, or article documentation into a time capsule display. Locals and out-of-town visitors can tap into this archive of favorite places and also enter their memories as part of the city’s history on a personal scale.
People can enter their recommendations for visiting personal historic significance or current favorite places.
Larger-scale comprehensive annual social programming and decoration of plaza that may be time-period-based like recreating Harvard Sq of the 1800s, 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, future times, etc. This is centered at the plaza as starting point but may have a larger footprint extending to more participating restaurants in the way that the Chocolate Festival invites local businesses to interpret menus and sell vintage items.
Out-of-Town News remains as an entity but the concept of “news” and time is reimagined.
Evergreen Design + Annual Programming
1. Large Interactive screen panels display news and personal accounts across time
Past: Personal and historical recollections of the city
Current: Twitter and facebook news feeds surfacing Cambridge-area, Boston, and/or Massachusetts residents thoughts on various hashtag themes. City can capture public sentiments on their polls.
Future: Recommendations on places to visit in the city for food, services, and products.
2. “Out of Town News” serves as a Welcome Center directing tourists and locals to both evergreen information on sightseeing and establishments participating in that decade.
Intro to City and History — Current Info booth is removed and its function absorbed into “Out of Town News” kiosk to consolidate space.
Micro-Museum — Display cases inside the kiosk feature historical artifacts, books, videos, art, etc. within this kiosk reflecting on that selected era and includes info about how the kiosk used to look at that time.
International icon — International newspapers continue to be sold inside.
3. Movie Screen to feature films throughout the year from a selected time period or reflecting on that time as a documentary or fictional piece set in that era.
4. Public seating areas w/ Solar-powered phone-charging areas
People can sit in these areas underneath solar-powered sculptural flowers to charge their phone. They can play enter their personal memories of Harvard Square into this collective system their memories.
The areas here would be partially semi-enclosed with porous slender trees or floral sculptural elements for more semi-inclusive feel from external world of Harvard Square.
Thematic chairs and tables based on the time period will placed here. Food from that time period could also be served in these public seatings.
Tables for dining and board game playing. Perhaps, they could be interactive screens that people could choose a game to change the table displays to play
Sample Annual Theme: 1950s-Inspired
Thematic chairs and tables based on the time period will placed here. Food from that time period could also be served in these public seatings.
Concept: Imagine Norman Rockwell paintings of an idyllic 1950s lifestyle with friends and dates at the soda fountain parlours. Girls in poodle skirts and ponytails giggling over ice cream floats and shakes served by local participating Harvard Sq vendors and pop-up caterers. Dining tables and chairs of lustrous reds, teales, pastels, set in industrial chrome and painted wire-backed chairs cluster along the plaza. Ornate iron ‘50s lanterns or sputnik themed lamps outline the perimeter of the plaza. Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” plays over the jukebox in the plaza as couples get up to dance on the lawn on a Saturday summer night. Later tonight, Marilyn Monroe will light up the screen again in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” as an elderly couples at a Harvard Reunion wander over to sit at chairs lit below Sputnik chandeliers to watch the film. Grad students study the large interactive display panels alongside the kiosk and notice “Grease” will be playing here tomorrow night and “Casablanca” will be featured next week. A tourist notices 1950s-themed talks listed on the display hosted by The Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge Forum, Harvard, MIT and at other neighboring colleges. This year’s topics include JFK’s space age call to action, Cold War, and civil rights movement.
Sample ‘50s Events & Programming
EVENT IDEAS:
Participating restaurants and pop-up caterers serving ‘50s-inspired dinners and snacks in plaza and around town
Harvard Sq stores sell 1950s-themed goods.
Talks and featured books on 1950s-era issues at Harvard, MIT, Cambridge-area book stores
‘50s art exhibits and history artifacts featured in kiosk and throughout Cambridge area.
Dance lesson nights (e.g. swing, Lindy, rock ‘n roll, bop / Charleston) and ‘50s music concerts
Movie nights featuring ‘50s films and movies set mid-century such as On the Waterfront, Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Singin’ in the Rain, A Streetcar Named Desire, North by Northwest, Rebel Without a Cause, Christmas Carol, Some Like It Hot, Lady & The Tramp (animation), Grease, Back to the Future, etc.
Sponsoring ‘50s Board Games and Other Activities (e.g. Hula Hooping, Pogo sticks, Play-Doh Crafty Days, Frisbee)
MENU IDEAS:
Ice cream floats and shakes
Jello salads — sweet and savory
Hawaiian-inspired spam recipes
Pineapple Upside-down cakes
Casseroles
Fricasseed chicken, lamb stews
Duck a l’orange
French-style green beans
Blini canapés
Sample Annual Theme: 1920s-Inspired
Thematic chairs and tables based on the time period will placed here. Food from that time period could aso be served in these public seatings.
Concept: Imagine a country celebrating the conclusion to World War I, a country that throws off its mourning robes to a new joie de vivre. The women in flapper dresses let down their hair in little curled ringlets and life seems light again like the feathers of their headpieces. They rejoice in a new golden era inspired by Parisian-led art movements. Champagne is flowing at the parties again while the singles cluster around the elegant picnic tables overflowing with dainty finger foods and sandwiches. Ornate black geometric art deco frame the golds of the tall columns throughout the plaza. Couples get up from their scalloped chairs or art nouveau and art deco-inspired backed metal benches to dance to Charleston while jazz band plays. Ribbons spiral down to embrace the plaza and tall floral displays. It’s autumn and the returning college students watch silent films while multi-tasking to their homework essay writing. A tourist notices 1920s-themed talks listed on the display hosted by Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge Forum, Harvard, MIT and at other neighboring colleges. This year’s topics include: jazz, birth of mass culture and the rise of the “new woman”, prohibition movement, cultural civil wars with “Great Migration” of blacks into cities and the anti-Communist “Red Scare.”
Sample ‘20s Events & Programming
EVENT IDEAS:
Participating restaurants and pop-up caterers serving ‘20s-inspired dinners and snacks in plaza and around town
Harvard Sq stores sell 1920s-themed goods.
Talks and featured books on 1920s-era issues at Harvard, MIT, Cambridge-area book stores
‘20s art exhibits and history artifacts featured in kiosk and throughout Cambridge area.
Dance lesson nights (e.g. Foxtrot, Charleston, Swing, Waltz, Tango, etc. ) and other Jazz Age dance concerts
Movie nights featuring ‘20s silent films starring Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, etc. and modern movies such as The Great Gatsby, The Artist, Chicago, Midnight in Paris, The King’s Speech, etc.
Sponsoring ‘20s Board Games (Dominos, Yahtzee, and card games Poker, black jack, Canasta, Hokum and Tiddledy Winks etc.) and Other Activities (e.g. Murder Mystery games, costume parties, lawn games, etc.
MENU IDEAS:
Oranges and Lemon-themed foods — lemonade, lemon cakes, etc.
Mint juleps and champagne
Baked ham
Hors d’oeuvres and other finger foods (e.g. Deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, Oysters Rockefeller, stuffed mushrooms, crudités with dips, salmon mousse on sliced bread, roasted nuts, olives, dainty finger sandwiches, stuffed celery)
The kiosk to be transformed into a TRUTH BRIDGE CAFÉ, Education for Democracy
The Café will serve coffee and tea and have constant videos showing facts that address current issues in politics. The videos will be managed by rotating groups of students from different local universities with the help of websites that provide factual information. These information sources will be evaluated by student groups and discussed.
These videos will be visible from both inside and outside of the café.
We propose a minimal renovation to the structure, replacing the walls with floor to ceiling glass to make the café open and inviting from all sides and to preserve it as a symbol for Harvard Square and the kiosk’s history as a place for exchanging news from the world.
A center Café bar will serve the drinks with stools and tables on either side for users.
As a necessary facility for Harvard Square, Toilet facilities will be located in the MBTA station and accessible to ALL against a small fee, including the Café users.
Putting the toilets into the MBTA station will free up the café, so no solid walls are necessary and the café is truly open.
By Caroline James, Pebble Gifford, Peter Torpey, and Heli Meltsner (Curator, Cambridge Historical Society. Views represent the individual, not the organization.)
Pergola as Placemaker
Many cities and towns have erected dramatic canopies over their significant spaces, creating special places for gathering and appreciating the surrounding area. There are many possible methods of creating this placemaking structure but most are striking, imaginative and transparent so sightlines out are open and focused. One concept is to make a canopy have reflective surfaces along varied angles to reflect and refract the hustle and bustle of Harvard Square. Alternating surfaces and openings to the sky would provide shade in some areas while allowing views of the sky.
A canopy structure over Harvard Square could also be combined with green infrastructure. Cultivating plants and vines along the base of a canopy structure would create a welcoming shade, natural shelter and uniting the space as a destination. The resulting effect of the pergola concept is a complex fabric creating multiple views and perspectives, representing our robust, sanctuary city that encourages collaboration between diverse points of view.
A dramatic placemaker such as a canopy/pergola will draw the whole Kiosk plaza together, attracting people to its shelter, inherent drama and creation of a gathering point. It will further distinguish this historic site in the middle of a busy road system.
Harvard Square Kiosk
Our idea for Harvard Square "Out of Town News" Kiosk calls for a multi-purpose building in a restored Kiosk that will serve the needs of Cambridge residents and visitors alike. As such, it is both a destination, a stopping place, a meeting place and a source of help for all comers.
Information Center
Cambridge, unlike many cities of its size in the United States and almost all cities in Europe, lacks a central information center where visitors and residents can get information such as maps, timetables, performance dates and places, exhibit information, local attractions like museums, parks and the like. The current facility is too small for this purpose, often unmanned and not immediately noticeable as a source of basic information.
Harvard Square is an ideal spot for such a center. Importantly, the Kiosk is eminently accessible, being adjacent to the Harvard Square Red line entrance, making it convenient for any user of the T transportation above and below ground systems. It is the focus of lively Harvard Square, itself a principal tourist site in the city. And as the historic center of Cambridge, the Kiosk is a logical place to start exploring the city. Already a gathering place for city residents, the historic structure and its immediate surroundings can be much improved by the introduction of service amenities such as shade, potable water, phone charging outlets and the like.
A primary role of the center would be to distribute information to visitors and residents in verbal, paper and digital formats. While it is true that much of the population now has a world of information in their purse or pocket as a phone or pad, neither can replace an informed human, knowledgeable about the nearest museum, the newest art exhibits or the site to find a walking map of Cambridge revolutionary sites. Tourists need real paper maps, time tables, information on how to access a cemetery or a lecture hall.
News Point
Since 1955, the Kiosk has served as a distribution center for local, state, national and international news. Many Cambridge residents are reluctant to see the end of this valuable function and saw the Out of Town News as a real drawing point. Residents and visitors might still need a reliable place to pick up a Crimson newspaper or the Cambridge Scout and Chronicle and selected media outlets. Standing screens, either inside or outside the Kiosk might broadcast local and significant international events. A moving zipper conveying news that would not impact the historic fabric could also convey this function.
Cambridge History Point
Cambridge has a rich history its residents should be proud of and visitors delighted to learn. Unfortunately, access to this heritage is not readily accessible to most. The Kiosk might display historic objects or documents, provide information on the town and city’s historic sites and also display videos or websites with additional access to historic information.
Services Point
The vicinity of the Kiosk currently provides much toileting facilities. But visitors also keenly need a water fountain for refilling bottles, a phone charging station and possibly a gas pump for bicycle tires, all in short supply in the vicinity. These facilities will guarantee the continuing usage of the plaza.
Concept for an integrated seating, service, and resource intervention
Intervention is both visually and functionally dynamic, combining
simple, sculptural beauty with diverse programming potential.
The components are:
Shading: Morphic sculptural installation, i.e. artists Janet Echelman, Teresita Fernandez, above Havard Square Kiosk and Plaza, provides shade and visual interest.
Furniture: Sculptural platforms use varied height and width to allow for a flexible array of uses. Formal programming uses can include farmer's market, food drives, or local business pop-ups. It's also a place to people watch, resource for charging a phone, or Landmark for meeting a friend.
Speakers Corner Concept for the Harvard Square Kiosk
By Marc Levy
My idea reflects Harvard Square’s history as a center of free speech and as an ideas exchange – but also as a center of tourism that I feel needs even more vibrancy.
I experimented with this concept a couple of years ago on my own, bringing people every Sunday to The Pit in Harvard Square, but the opening of the kiosk to new concepts could make my concept a year-round thing. Again, that would mean not just a place for Cantabrigians to go every Sunday to share their thoughts or hear from others, but a draw for tourists and a boon to retailers who want to serve those tourists.
The concept:
There’s been a Speakers’ Corner in London since the 1830s – a proud tradition of free speech in which anyone can talk publicly about the things that matter to them. Sometimes the topic is unpopular. Sometimes the crowd talks back. But it is a great thing, and especially in a country, state and community with a First Amendment to celebrate and so much to talk about, doesn’t it seem like we should be doing this too?
So how about a Speakers’ Corner in Harvard Square? (Renamed for its home, perhaps?)
Although anyone can speak, the event could be (and maybe should be) seeded through the CAC with poets, storytellers, comics, philosophers, futurists and thinkers who will get this tradition off to the best start possible and sustain it over time.
(The Speakers Corner Trust in London, has this “Model Code” for speakers: “Speakers’ Corner is your platform. You may use it to express any view, idea or opinion, so long as it is lawful. There are no rules, but you are asked to observe the following code: Please don’t use offensive language; please respect alternative opinions; please show courtesy to other speakers and members of the public; if others are waiting, please limit your time to a maximum of 10 minutes. Use this site to engage, inform and enrich opinion.”)
To see some of the talks that took place over the months, visit the Speakers Circle Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SpeakersCircleC.
I’m attaching some photos from the Speakers Circle events I ran, in which you’ll see speakers, interested listeners and some dialogue from the crowd.
Boston / Cambridge is considered by many to the most European like city in the US. This is due to our scale and having a closer to livable city centers then other US cities. Currently if a tourist ventures out on the Red line to Harvard square, they are deposited in the middle of a traffic jam and are just as likely to head back into Boston as they are to explore the area. Even if they do stay and explore, they are greeted by busy crowded sidewalks and endless traffic. They might say they enjoyed visiting Harvard itself but I cannot imagine them being too impressed with the Square itself. There might be those who disagree, let's be realistic.
Harvard Square is plagued with traffic, most of it are just people cutting through. Every car that pass through Harvard Square without stopping to support a Business actually reduces the character of the Square and reduces the number of people who are willing to put up with the mess to head down to the square.
I propose that Harvard Square be closed to Automobile traffic and only allow Bicycles, Pedestrians, and Buses. This will allow for a much more friendly and interesting Square. There already are occasions where the square is closed to traffic such as the recent Oktoberfest. Why can't the Square be like this 365 days a year? Eliminating traffic through the square would allow restaurants to expand outdoor seating in the summer and provide more space for street vendors and performers. This would also enable a much more relaxed atmosphere.
While creating these pedestrian malls in Europe initially met with local business resistance, asking them now to go back would be met with even greater resistance. This is not just a pie in the sky vision, this is a math reality. A parked car in the Square generally brings in one person yet takes up the space for that car plus the space for the roads that brought it in. We cannot provide enough parking without bulldozing much of Cambridge around the Square to provide parking. Look at the size of lots around suburban Malls. Shopping malls attempt to recreate what we already have here in the city.
I'm not saying we eliminate all parking around the Square, but I am saying that we should do more to encourage alternate methods of getting to the square including biking, walking and transit. Many tourists who visit Boston are already depending on transit to get around. With the Red line stop, Harvard square could be a must see destination. They might come to see the Harvard campus but they will stay to enjoy the shopping and restaurants of the square, perhaps even making the square more of a destination then Harvard.
Walk through Harvard square with the eye of a tourist and tell me if this is really a pleasant place to be with the traffic, and narrow sidewalks. Harvard Square can be so much more. Revamping it will not only let the world know that while we are not turning our back on automobiles, we are no longer requiring them to be the default form of transportation. This will help promote Cambridge as being the green city that it desires to be.
I am a mother, auntie, and artist from Haiti. I was a banker and accountant for twenty years in Haiti. I wear a lot of hats! I believe in the philosophy: “Do It Yourself!”
Don’t waste your time! Don’t wait on people to do something! Do what you can do yourself first! I am interested in changing the face of homelessness in Harvard Square and use the proposal to inspire another cities, countries, and worldwide. I have been motivated, impacted, impressed by a movie about a Police Officer who became friend with an homeless lady. She said: Homelessness can be for everyone because it is only “one check away” for many people. As a Minister of God, I feel strongly that God is calling me in that Special Ministry, to help in my own way with all the great programs that are already in place. Just a little added touch from me!
Description of Idea
What it’s like right now
Around Harvard Square, homeless people drag dirty suitcases, cartons, and blankets as their belongings and private property, asking for money and sleeping on the ground.
What it can be
Organized, modular ateliers in the plaza where pedestrians can see homeless people selling things made mostly with recycling material from groceries, displayed them neatly, and also people can see them being made by teaching how to do everything with recycling material. They can inspire people how to make money, to create jobs everywhere, and becoming self-sufficient with a “ DO IT YOURSELF “ Lifestyle.
What it’s like right now
Pedestrians in the majority ignore homeless folks or think negatively about them and so they avoid them. Isolated homeless individuals think or talk to themselves. They are sad. Some even cursed. Conversations feel forced. This is the reality, not only in Harvard Square, MA but almost everywhere in the United States and worldwide! I dream of a Program like that for my own beloved country, Haiti!
What it can be
By creating an Active Creative Force with our ignored Brothers and Sisters, transforming them into a workforce, Pedestrians and sellers will become curious about each other. The crafts, the Art Work, The New Idea of reuse, retransform, and reduce waste is something everybody is interested about ! It will be something they all want to talk about, and they will get to know each other casually.
What it’s like right now
In General, Our Homeless Population living in the Streets wear the same dirty clothing for a long period of time. I don’t think, it is really what they want. This not their real identify.
What it can be
Transforming them into Sellers, Vendors, Owners of their small businesses, they could wear colorful uniforms participating about a large campaign for the Greenest Future for our Planet. They can be a Part of the climate change, control, and renewal. Because, the Planet belongs to them also! And add a name badge so people can identify them and their businesses.
Image List
1. The Problem
Right now, if an artist wants to sell their wares, they place them on the ground, maybe with a rock on top to keep them from blowing away. The seller and the wares are both on the dirty ground.
2. Zero Land-fill Uniform
A clean, recognizable uniform - something as simple as an apron - with name badge and Logos that describe “net-zero impact” on the environment. Pedestrians, Visitors, Tourists can know the person’s name and know them as a seller from their uniform. The Vision is to make Harvard Square a Touristic Place also for the Homeless People. The image of the Square will be more attractive, more prosperity for the homeless, more happiness for everybody! With their earnings, they could give a Part to the city to create “A Recycling Village” out of town, if there is no space available around Harvard Square, MA. They could come to the Harvard Square in their own Transportation Bus made for the most parts with Groceries Recycling Material. And More ideas!
3. Modular Ateliers
An example of using recycling materials to create a modular space to sell wares. No contact with the ground, can be reassembled to spec. The Idea is to create the Modular Ateliers, chairs, décor etc. only with Groceries Waste!
4. Mobile Atelier
This is an example of a mobile way of selling. Lucas Spivey parked his Mobile Incubator on the corner of Harvard and Western Ave in Allston, MA.
5. Groceries Memories Installation
This is an example of my own work. I create assemblages and decoration with my Own Groceries Material, for décor, utilities, events, installations and so more!!! For many years, I adopted a Lifestyle of Zero Waste Policy. I don’t practically throw away anything. I do Art Work, cut Plastic Material, use Bottles for Décor and More, Etc. To have a better idea of my work from home, go to my online store to see some samples from millions of images that I accumulated over more than 10 years. This my passion, my happiness, my wellness, this is what I do!!! I strongly believe that Recycling Everything from your groceries is the future!!! With this Kind of Lifestyle, Trillions of Dollars can be saved. Using Recycling Material From Groceries for Housing, Transportation, Furniture, Décor etc. will reduce poverty and put a big relief in every single household! It will keep everybody busy, healthy, worthy, wealthy. No loitering, less violence, more value in the economic realm!!! I intend to create a “SMATHIES” Group to help and I wish to initiate my own fashion line with my designs. Go to Google.com, type: to-amaze.myshopify.com, wait to see Catalog and click on it.
As former tourism professionals*, we would like to offer our recommendations for a professional tourist information center (TIC) in the Harvard Square Kiosk. We feel it is shocking that the City of Cambridge, one of the most historic cities in the country, has no TIC where people can find answers to their questions, get brochures about local attractions, and purchase souvenirs.
Cambridge tourists by any definition include those who come primarily to visit a family/friend who is a student/facility and then want time to explore Cambridge. Then there is the incidental tourist, a family from the suburbs, perhaps, on a weekend excursion. And residents, themselves, looking for specific information.
We sincerely believe that it is the responsibility of the city to create a TIC that is professional, fully funded, and responsive to anyone – resident or visitor – who needs help navigating.
We both have traveled extensively as well and note that information centers exist in cities that are not necessarily historic nor large. Those in historic town centers are generally located in historic buildings. The Kiosk fits the criteria for a true information center – it is in the heart of the most visited and historic part of the city, is adequate in size, and can be re-fitted without damaging its historic fabric.
TICs can and usually do offer a variety of services. There are numerous models, especially in Europe, although the Boston Common Visitor Center is a good one to compare as it is relatively small in size and serves many thousands of visitors a year.
For about 12 years (1985-1997) Cambridge Discovery (CD) operated a TIC from an office and information booth on the Harvard Square Plaza. It will serve here as an important model of what can be offered by a TIC. It was as professional as could be accomplished with virtually no money and too little space to display information and articles for sale to support its activities.
OBJECTIVE INFORMATION: All the information available in the CD booth, as in any professional TIC, was neutral in that the information was not be paid for by any entity. (For example, restaurants will pay hotel concierges to recommend them to visitors.)
REPRESENTATIVE BOARD: CD’s board of directors included representatives from Harvard, MIT, the Historical Society, Historical Commission, and the business community. Sheldon Cohen paid for a temporary information booth that stood on the plaza. CD paid the City one dollar per year to rent the space.
VOLUNTEER AND PROFESSIONAL STAFF: Some 15 volunteers kept the booth open 365 days a year, from 9am until 5pm. Every day a single Cambridge event was pasted on poster-size paper in one of the windows. A full agenda of Cambridge events was available in the booth notebooks, updated weekly.
FUNDING: The City granted CD $27,500 annually. This was supplemented by about 10,000 printed walking tours of historic areas, for $1 each. There were discussions with the Harvard Coop about creating Cambridge-based souvenirs.
TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION: Once a week, a volunteer went to the MBTA Parker Street station to pick up a carton of train and bus schedules, which were in high demand.
MAYOR’S OFFICE SUMMER JOBS: The volunteers were assisted during the summer by high school students, paid by the Mayor’s Office. They were also trained to lead guided tours of “Old Cambridge” (Harvard Square).
REGIONAL IMPACT: CD worked with the Greater Boston Tourist and Convention Center to give “fam tours.” These tours introduced busloads of tourism professionals to Cambridge sights, museums, restaurants, hotels, and businesses.
COORDINATION WITH OTHER CITY ENTITIES: CD received grants and donations to fund the research and development of the African American Heritage Trail, in partnership with the Historical Commission.
Questioners are constant when there is a person available to approach. We think that the present information booth in Harvard Square does not accomplish the services offered by a professionally run TIC with actual empoyees, paid or volunteer. There is nothing more off-putting than an empty booth with a flickering computer screen that sometimes does not function. We have witnessed people approach the window, only to find no one inside. The booth itself is visually chaotic and unattractive, and it clutters up the plaza.
We believe there is a huge void in city planning with little statistics on tourism and all its dimensions, cultural or otherwise. Jim did attend a presentation from "Envision Cambridge" a couple of years ago and there was nothing about tourists and tourism. When questioned about this, the presenter said it was not part of their study/planning. This is dumbfounding since Cambridge is a major tourist destination year round.
Let us proceed, however, with this proviso: Before making decisions on how best to utilize the Kiosk, we would hope that the City of Cambridge would take a serious look at tourists/tourism in Harvard Square. We do not need creative ideas, as there are many, but let's be practical and observe/study the current situation and plan for the future.
Thank you very much.
*Charlotte Moore ([email protected]),
is retired director of Cambridge Discovery, the City’s first fully operating information center. In 1988, Charlotte took a year’s sabbatical to meet with top officials of the British tourism board and to visit TICs all over the UK. She converted her findings to fit the circumstances she met in Cambridge.
*Jim Shea ([email protected])
worked for the National Park Service for 32 years; and for the last 20 years of his career, he served as Director/Museum Curator of the Longfellow House (Longfellow House/Washington’s Headquarters NHS in Brattle Street in Cambridge. This included oversight and management of the day-to-day operation of their Visitor Center with an average of 60,000 visitors per year, seasonal operation. (June-October).
