Mayor Thomas M. Menino City of Boston |
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Boston Redevelopment Authority |
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About / 21st Century Standards
| The Concept | 11 Principles | The Palette |
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Pedestrian Comfort The 21st Century street in downtown Boston focuses on pedestrian comfort and safety while facilitating other modes of travel, including transit, bicycles and autos. |
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21st Century Boston image The 21st Century street achieves a modern, yet recognizably Bostonian form. New alongside old, the 21st Century street complements the culture and character of the past without merely imitating it. |
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Flexible The 21st Century street is dynamic. It can be a street, a market, a promenade, a performance space, or a set-piece for formal functions. Utilities and equipment will be available to support this flexibility. |
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Utilizes Technology The 21st Century street incorporates existing technology (and anticipates advances in technology) to enhance navigation, provide information, improve safety, aid in maintenance and promote pedestrian comfort. |
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Art and Activity The 21st Century street utiltizes art to achieve the other 10 principles, as well as to promote art for art’s sake. Art, programming and activities geared towards residents, workers and visitors alike encourage the use of the street as the city’s collective living room. |
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Partnership The 21st Century street is a complex partnership between stakeholders, the City, and all its users that together establish and sustain a vision for the public realm. This is especially true after construction, when maintenance and programming must be a sustained and coordinated effort. |
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Inviting to Everyone The 21st Century street employs Universal Design to create an environment that offers equal quality and availability to all people. It will be easy to understand and navigate regardless of a user’s experience, knowledge, and physical-sensory-mobility skills. |
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Wayfinding The 21st Century street is an information-rich environment. Information and visual cues are layered together to form a system that helps people understand where they are, what’s around them and how to access it all. |
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Understandable The 21st century Street is easy to understand through clear visual cues for navigation and identification. Through a variety of means, it teaches, and illuminates culture, shared values and what it means to be in Boston. |
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Seamless The 21st century street minimizes the barriers between building and street to create a seamless indoor/outdoor environment that draws activity onto the sidewalk and draws in the passerby. |
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Long-term and Sustainable The 21st century street addresses the principles of “longevity, equity and participation”. It protects the quality of life for all occupants of the city and works with the environment to minimize waste and create efficiency. |
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