Monday, March 26, 2012

USPS Expansion Mtg TONIGHT, 5:30 PM


Community Meeting on South Station and USPS Redevelopment/Expansion
5:30 PM
Made in Fort Point, 12 Farnsworth Street. 

All are welcome.  Co-hosted by FPAC and FPNA. With Kate Fichter of MassDOT presenting/leading the discussion.
---


South Station Expansion Project

Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Informational BriefingMarch 2012

Background

Boston South Station is the premier passenger rail hub in New England, serving rail passengers from the Northeast Corridor and beyond and connecting them to local and intercity destinations. It is one of the most significant architectural structures in the City of Boston, and one of its most important transportation assets. It is also important neighbor to the Chinatown, Fort Point, South Boston, and Seaport communities. South Station offers commuters and travelers not only Amtrak and MBTA Commuter Rail service, but also intercity bus, MBTA rapid transit, and MBTA bus rapid transit services. At present, however, South Station operates above its design capacity for efficient train operations and orderly passenger queueing. A recent award of $32.5 million1 in High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail funding from the Federal Railroad Administration will make it possible for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Port Authority and the City of Boston, to pursue the foundational planning and environmental review necessary to ultimately expand South Station and its affiliated railyard capacity. The federal funding will be matched by $10.5 million in Commonwealth of Massachusetts monies. The effort commenced upon completion of the FRA grant-award process, at the beginning of September 2011.

Project Objectives

  • To perform an Alternatives Analysis to determine how best to expand Boston South Station and create a new layover facility in order to improve existing rail service – local, regional, and intercity – in and out of Boston. The expansion of South Station will include improvements to tracks, platforms, interlockings, passenger facilities, and other attendant infrastructure.

  • To plan and design an enhanced environment at and around South Station through improved streetscape and pedestrian, bicycle, local transit, and vehicular facilities, including the re-opening of Dorchester Avenue for public use.

  • To consider opportunities for joint public/private development over an expanded South Station.

  • To plan for the relocation of an existing U.S. Postal Service General Mail Facility in order to create an appropriate adjacent site onto which to expand Boston South Station.

Project Outcomes

  • To improve current performance and enable growth in high-speed and other intercity passenger rail service throughout the Northeast, particularly between Boston, New York, and Washington, DC.

  • To support a more attractive and higher-frequency MBTA Commuter Rail service, with associated benefits such as increased statewide transportation access, environmental sustainability, improved personal mobility.

  • To leverage transportation investments at South Station to generate sustainable economic development and improved quality of life.

  • To improve the public environmental around South Station.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Ops-Core Moving Out of Midway!

The smiles say it all.  Thanks to Jennifer Wood (www.jwoodart.com) for the photos.




Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Ops-Core / Gentex Community Mtg Tonight

 
Midway/ OPs Core/ Gentex Follow Up Meeting
Hosted by the BRA 
Wednesday March 21st
10 Channel Center/ 2nd Floor
6 PM
 
 
=== 
Good afternoon -

The BRA will host a follow up meeting this Wednesday night, March 21, 
2012 regarding the Ops-Core/Gentex space at 15 Channel Center.  The 
meeting will be held on the second floor of 10 Channel Center, South 
Boston, at 6:00PM.  The meeting will be led by Chief
 Planner Kairos Shen. Other city officials will be in attendance.  
Everyone is welcome to attend.

If you have any questions please contact:
 
Heidi Burbidge, Senior Project Manager-Artist Space Initiative, BRA, 
Heidi.Burbidge.BRA@cityofboston.gov, or (617)918-4306.

 
Lara Mérida
Special Assistant to the Chief Planner
Boston Redevelopment Authori 

Monday, March 19, 2012

Joanne Chang nominated for James Beard






Joanne Chang, the owner of flour bakery, has been nominated for a James Beard award for "outstanding pastry chef".  Hope she brings one home!

Trade, across the channel on Atlantic Ave was a semi-finalist for best new restaurant but did not make the short list for a nomination.

http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/awards-watch-2012-restaurant-and-chef-awards-semifinalists


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Globe Article and Photos from Ops-Core/Gentex Meeting

(Updated with better link that doesn't require login)

The Boston Globe has a long article on the history of Midway Studios and Ops-Core/Gentex:

http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-18/metro/31205234_1_live-in-studios-artists-residents
 

And thanks to Jennifer Wood (www.jwoodart.com) for these photos of the meeting:








Friday, March 16, 2012

Ops-Core / Gentex Meeting Recap

Thanks to Sara from the Midway Studios Residents group for this recap of the meeting:

----
Fort Point Channel residents who agree that an industrial production facility does not belong in a 24/7 artists’ residential building were supported in their opinion by elected officials at last Tuesday night’s community wide meeting.
Senator Jack Hart, Councilor Felix Arroyo and Representative Nick Collins all spoke in opposition to Ops-Core's planned industrial facility location in Midway Studios’ theatre space.
Midway Residents and neighbors of Channel Center and Fort Point also voiced support for retaining Midway Studios’ theater space an arts cultural civic space. The Fort Point Arts Community and Fort Point Cultural Coalition added their endorsement that Ops-Core’s factory use does not fit within the approved use of the residential artists' building and the importance of preserving the 20,000 square feet of arts civic space at Midway Studios for Fort Point and the City of Boston.
City Chief Planner Kairos Shen confirmed that the current stop work order, issued by Inspectional Services Department on February 23, will remain in effect. City Planner Shen also stated he will convey the community's views to Mayor Menino and Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Peter Meade.

Sara

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Ops-Core/Gentex Meeting

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting.  The neighborhood made it clear where it stands.  And thanks to Senator Jack Hart and Councilman Felix Arroyo for coming out and lending their support.

Kairos Shen speaks on the Ops-Core/Gentex facility.

I was only able to stay for part of the meeting, so my notes are incomplete and I won't bother to post them.  If someone has a good write-up, please email me: fortpoint@dewdrops.net and/or comment below.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Gentex Mtg Tonight for Channel Center Facility

Reminder that this meeting is tonight:
  
BRA Ops-Core/Gentex Community Meeting
Artists for Humanity
100 West 2nd Street
6:00-8:00 PM, March 13th

A number of residents at Midway Studios and the Channel Center buildings have expressed concern over this new tenant which is taking over the theatre space at Midway Studios for a moderate-hazard helmet assembly facility.   



While there are significant health, arts, and neighborhood issues related to this project, let's please try to keep tonight's meeting as civil as possible.
 

Community Mtg for One Channel Center, Wed, 3/21

=== Please be advised that Commonwealth Ventures LLC will be holding a community meeting to discuss the development of The State Street Project at One Channel Center on: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21st at 6 – 8 pm. The meeting will be held on the second floor of 10 Channel Center. Everyone is welcome to attend. One Channel Center is currently the parking lot. Please forward this invite to all who may have an interest in attending and have not been copied on this email. Thank you. Anthony Anthony Pagliarulo | Property Manager CB Richard Ellis/New England | Property Management 10 Channel Center Street, Suite 510 | Boston, MA 02210 T 617.423.1273| F 617.423.6270| C 617.318.7327

Friday, March 09, 2012

Music and Film Tonight and Tomorrow Night


KEROAÄN (from Philadelphia)
and ess enn emm (Reuben Son, Benny Nelson and Patrick Emm)
Friday, March 9, 2012 8pm
10 Channel Center St.
suggested donation $10

Studio Soto and Uppercase present KEROAÄN's debut Boston performance. A powerful mix of digital synthesis and light, this will be a memorable evening of new music.

KEROAÄN is a musical artificial intelligence developed by FRASER/ROSENBERG that performs by implementing XENAKIS’S Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis. This non-standard synthesis is played in real time by the KEROAÄN program. Pushing and pulling between sections of hard noise, singing glissandos, jagged melodic scribble and other sonic curiosities, the program liberates the computer from its position as a mere tool of hyper-productivity and transports the machine into a state of creative and performative being. Operatic in scope, a live diffusion of KEROAÄN features lasers, strobe lighting, and fog synched to both audible and structural qualities of the music as an infinitely morphing chorus of digital voices croon, cry, scream and everything in between.

ess enn emm is the debut performance of a trio consisting of three of Boston's leading electronic musicians: Reuben Son, Benny Nelson, and Patrick Emm.



===



In This Dark: films of Luther Price
Saturday, March 10, 2012 8pm
10 Channel Center St., Boston
suggested donation $10


Mobius, in conjunction with Studio Soto, proudly presents a screening of new and rarely-seen super8 and 16mm films by internationally acclaimed, experimental Boston filmmaker, Luther Price. This screening coincides with the inclusion of 26 of his films in this year’s Whitney Biennial. Works in this program were especially selected by Price, and will be projected in their original formats. The filmmaker will be present at the screening. The screening is co-produced in conjunction with Studio Soto and will take place at 10 Channel Center St. in the Fort Point neighborhood of South Boston.

"Price’s film work has an oppressive intensity, envisioning an alienated world of often mindlessly repeated rituals and poses that entrap and suffocate his subjects. He sets up a constant dialogue between his compromised victim-subjects (often himself or his own family) and the equally compromised film stock itself. Images of ruptured flesh and ghostly birthday parties are further ruptured and drained of life by Price’s torturous manipulations of the film, which can include chemical processing, filters, optical printing, re-photography, and even holes punched in the frame. What emerges is Price’s great subject — the breaches, breakdowns, and collapse of body, family, and society, and by extension all of life, in the face of unstoppable philosophical forces. What makes it work is the nonstop flow of extraordinary, unforgettable imagery." ----Gary Morris, from "Home Movies From Hell," Bright Lights Film Journal

"I want to make true films. I don't care if it hurts me... people exploit each other anyway. If you exploit yourself you leave no room to be exploited by someone else... No one can hurt me; no one can say anything about me because I've already said it. I've already given them the dirt. We always have the ability to redeem ourselves... " ---Luther Price

Bio:
Luther Price received a BFA in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he studied with Saul Levine. He is an experimental filmmaker whose work has been widely screened in the United States and Europe at such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Cinematheque. He is a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His films, shot primarily on Super 8 mm, often include controversial subject matter, found footage, the artist performing in a variety of persona, and physical interventions into the actual material of the film, sometimes incorporating live performance. His films are distributed by Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York, Light Cone in Paris and others. (source: Wikipedia)

films to be screened:

    * 1)  Red Rooster (1987)  - super8 sound; 4min by Tom Rhoads
    * 2)  Porcelain Ribbon (1990) - super8 silent film 4min
    * 3)  Meat Dry 02" (1999) - super8 sound film.10min
    * 4)  Mr.Wonderful (1987) - super8film sound on film 10min by Tom Rhoads
    * 5)  jelly fish sandwich (1994) - super8 sound film 18min
    * 6). Burgin and Tonic (2012) -  16mm optical sound (inkblot) reel #2 8min.
    * 7)  Fragment (2012) - optical film 16mm 4min.
    * 8)  Nice Baskets (2006) - 16mm optical sound 8min
    * 9)  Tamponia (2007) - 16mm optical sound 7min
    * 10) Rocket (2007) 7min 16mm
    * 11) Deaf For Chicken Lip (2006)- 16mm optical sound 12min

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Ops-Core Mtg Moved to Tuesday


==
From: Burbidge, Heidi [mailto:Heidi.Burbidge.bra@cityofboston.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 2:48 PM
To: Burbidge, Heidi
Subject: New Date/Time - BRA Community Meeting Regarding Ops-Core /Gentex
Good afternoon -

Please be advised that the BRA community meeting regarding the Ops-Core/Gentex space at 15 Channel Center has been changed to Tuesday, March 13.  The meeting will be held at Artists for Humanity, 100 West 2nd Street, South Boston, from 6:00-8:00 PM.  The meeting will be led by Chief Planner Kairos Shen. Other city officials will be in attendance.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

If you have any questions please contact:

Heidi Burbidge, Senior Project Manager-Artist Space Initiative, BRA, Heidi.Burbidge.BRA@cityofboston.gov, or (617)918-4306.

Thank you.
-Heidi


Heidi Burbidge
Senior Project Manager
Artist Space Initiative
Boston Redevelopment Authority
(617) 918-4306

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Thursday: Community Mtg for Helmet Factory


BRA Community Meeting
on Ops-Core / 15 Channel Center

Thursday night, March 8, 2012
Artists for Humanity, 100 West 2nd Street, South Boston
6:00-8:00 PM


Ops-Core makes helmets for the military and is trying to move an assembly facility into the theatre space at Midway Studios / 15 Channel Center.  For those unfamiliar with the history, SAND's website has an old Globe article:

The Fort Point Cultural Collaborative announced plans for Midway Studios, a 200,000-square-foot development that will house 89 new artists' live/work studios, a gallery, a black box theater, and other cultural facilities in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood.  
...


The family-owned, Boston-based company, developers of Rowes Wharf and One Post Office Square, sold three buildings to the coalition for $1 apiece with the understanding that the group would develop the property as a mixed-use cultural facility.

...

http://www.seaportalliance.org/SAND/Archive/030717fpcc.html
 

---

The BRA will host a community meeting this Thursday night, March 8, 2012 regarding the Ops-Core/Gentex space at 15 Channel Center.  The meeting will be held at Artists for Humanity, 100 West 2nd Street, South Boston, from 6:00-8:00 PM.  The meeting will be led by Chief Planner Kairos Shen. Other city officials will be in attendance.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

If you have any questions please contact:

Heidi Burbidge, Senior Project Manager-Artist Space Initiative, BRA, Heidi.Burbidge.BRA@cityofboston.gov, or (617)918-4306.

Thank you.
-Heidi


Heidi Burbidge
Senior Project Manager
Artist Space Initiative
Boston Redevelopment Authority
(617) 918-4306
http://www.artistspaceboston.org/