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MassDOT rushes to reassure Forest Hills users its architect knows how to design flat roofs that can survive our winters

By adamg on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 12:16pm

Jamaica Plain News reports on the flat roofs that will replace the old pointy canopies that covered the upper busway at Forest Hills station.

Neighborhoods: 
Jamaica Plain
Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Forest Hills
buses


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Comments

By Facepalm on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 12:23pm.

"It should be noted with regard to the flat roof that Ruggles Station designed by Stull + Lee has a wide flat roof that extends over the busway and four trackways."

Those roofs at Ruggles leak when covered with snow.

Why must modern architects insist in arguing with thousands of years of knowledge that a pitched roof works with gravity to shed water? Is it such an aesthetic crime and affront to Saint Corbusier to design something as practical as a pitched roof?

By johnmcboston on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 3:51pm.

Why do they think the 70's style bunker looks ''nicer' than the nice pitched roofs they are replacing?

By BostonDog on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 6:58pm.

You do understand the alternative is a 4 story glass greenhouse, right?

By Waquiot on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 8:52pm.

The recently demolished roof was corrugated metal with some windows to allow light in. Any breeze would allow heat to dissipate, thus making it hardly a greenhouse.

How that roof could not somehow be reused is beyond me. But then again I'm not the genius behind this.

By BostonDog on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 5:00am.

I was referencing government center which has an even less practical design.

I don't understand why the traditional sloped roof train depot design can't be used for this bus station and anywhere else a new station is needed. The classics work.

By Waquiot on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:17am.

The inside of Forest Hills suffers from a greenhouse effect, so my brain stayed in JP.

But yeah, they are coming up with much worse designs.

By perruptor on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 8:03pm.

At least, that's my lifelong experience, from schools I attended to apartment buildings I lived in to businesses where I worked, flat roofs are an invitation for trouble. Cheaper to build, more money to maintain. Plus, when it snows a lot, you've got to go up and shovel them off, or risk disaster.

By anon on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 4:59pm.

Braintree had a flat roof that collapsed last year and last year they sent crews to clear the snow off the roof at Quincy station even though the parking garage is closed because they feared the roof would collapse.

By Michael Kerpan on Sun, 10/11/2015 - 9:21pm.

... in this design. As I feared it would be. Now let's wait for the redesign fans to tell us that this is the best of all possible designs in this best of all possible worlds.

By jon_ on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 12:07am.

...they rename it the Candide station...;-)

By Bob P on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 8:31am.

Finally I know why they ripped up the parking lot on the lower level. For emails and a phone call to the T came up empty. So after they put in the electric car charging stations and repaved they ripped it all out about a year later. Great planning.

By anon on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 12:06pm.

So not only will the new busway be farther from the station, but the sidewalk to get there will have a whole bunch of 90 degree turns in there. That's one way to maximize the wasted time of anyone who has to ride a bus to the station.

"Exiting buses will no longer be heading into the traffic flow of South Street traffic light"

Why was that a bad thing? Matching up opposing roadways to reduce the number of closely-spaced traffic lights seems like a good idea.

By Waquiot on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 12:32am.

Probably something to do with a traffic conflict at the present exit, and the issue being so close to the Arborway. Of course, this means adding ANOTHER traffic light, but the engineers must know something, right?

Of course, all of us bus riders should have known about the changes affecting us, right? I mean, remember when MassDOT had all those fliers for the meeting to discuss the complete redesign of the station? Me neither. But hey, they did get all the stakeholders together, except for anyone who commutes through the area.

By Michael Kerpan on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 1:01am.

Especially ones that make little or no use of the buses (and maybe even the trains).

By omaja on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 8:57am.

Not to mention the impeccable timing of tearing down the roof right as we reach the raining fall and snowy winter seasons...

By Waquiot on Tue, 10/13/2015 - 9:16am.

According to some, construction is on schedule. A horrible schedule, but a schedule still.

By Danil on Wed, 10/14/2015 - 3:04pm.

thanx, but very little about pitched roof design, check here http://myrooff.com/pitched-roof-design/

By David Little on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 11:20pm.

I think the steps about flat roof design is really helpful.