The entrance to Pedestrian Walk from Binney St and Sixth St intersection
My site selection for this class encompasses approximately 7 blocks, and includes two major street intersections: Binney Street- Sixth Street and Ames Street- Broadway. Figure 1 outlines the boundaries of my site in red. The site is located in East Cambridge, and borders Kendall Square to the south. I chose my site boundaries to include institutional, residential and commercial areas, centering on a walkway called Pedestrian Walk. Pedestrian Walk is unique because it attracts foot traffic from many walks of life, in no small part because of the combination of land use on this site and its proximity.
Figure 1: Map from Google Maps, 2015, of my site selection in East Cambridge
Pedestrian Walk is 0.28km long, and slightly curves to directly meet and connect Sixth Street and Ames Street in the same direction. Pedestrian Walk is officially christened Officer William Loughrey Walkway, which after some investigation I determined to be in memoriam of a Cambridge police officer who had been stabbed to death while attempting to arrest a suspect in 1860 . Officer Loughrey was stabbed at the Cambridge end of the Longfellow Bridge while on the lookout for a burglary suspect, less than a mile away from the Cambridge police station on 6th and Rogers Street . I find the location of Pedestrian Walk to be curious; it is neither here nor there with regards to the murder location or the Cambridge Police Station. A question to further explore in the course of the semester is why Pedestrian Walk was built, and if it had to do with Officer Loughrey at all.
The Walkway is named for an officer who perished in the line of duty.
As was mentioned earlier, Pedestrian Walk connects Ames Street and Sixth Street, two streets that are heavily used by pedestrians. Sixth Street is lined with a combination of residential homes, offices and institutions that include the Cambridge Police Station, two high schools, a church and the Cambridge Public Library. In addition, it is perpendicular to Cambridge Street, making it an apt street to commute along from Binney Street. Ames Street, on the other hand, cuts through Kendall Square, a commercial area that includes office spaces and eateries, and also through Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) buildings to intersect with Memorial Drive. Ames Street also intersects with Main Street and Broadway, two of the most heavily traversed streets in East Cambridge. Pedestrian Walk is strategically placed in the sense that it connects two pedestrian-heavy streets, raising the question of whether a space was left in between buildings for this use on purpose.
Neighbouring Pedestrian Walk are a governmental facility and a pharmaceutical company, separated by two lines of trees planted at regular separations along the entire walkway. Pedestrian Walk is fenced along its east boundary, and faces back of tall buildings on its west boundary, with footpaths that lead to backdoors of Biogen Idec, said pharmaceutical company. As such, it is no wonder that a large number of pedestrians using Pedestrian Walk is affiliated with Biogen Idec. High school students make up the other large group of pedestrians who use the walkway. I have yet to determine why this route is so popular with high school students, but I suspect that it is to go to Kendall square or to head home to Boston. The third major group of pedestrians perusing the walkway live in the East Cambridge neighbourhood, and ostensibly use the walkway to get to work, college or shops south of the walkway.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is almost directly at the southern foot of the walkway.
Pedestrian Walk appears to be an important part of a scaled-down manifestation of what Clay refers to as a “venturi” – a “stretch of sidewalks, doors and corridors” that is frequented by people, and accumulates “traffic, movement and information”. Pedestrian Walk in itself, is not the venturi; the existence of Pedestrian Walk in this strategic location, in its beautifully landscaped wonder, helped formed the venturi along the whole Sixth Street- Ames Street stretch.
The walkway after one of the many blizzards to hit the Northeast the winter of 2014/15.
My project, while encompassing an area greater than Pedestrian Walk, will center on the role the walkway plays in forming a traffic corridor, and how the proximal area contributes to the venturi, and perhaps developed as a result of the symbiosis. Through the course of the semester, I hope to be able to draw and understand more fully the movement lines of the people who traverse this path, as well as characterize the kind of venturi it is.