The Red Line’s controversial route through Canton got a thumbs-up today from the Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel (UDARP), which focused its attention on the proposed placement of trees and greenery along Boston Street.

“I think it will make Boston Street a much better street than now,” Gary A. Bowden said of the plans unveiled by AECOM  and KGP Design Studio, consultants to the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA).

Since the MTA revealed in January that the 1½-mile-long corridor between Montford Avenue and Haven Street would require more than two years of heavy construction and disruption along Boston Street, there have been outbursts of neighborhood opposition to the route.

But in a city hearing room today, there was a high degree of convergence between transit planners and the design panel – and no public comments by a small attending audience.

The Boston Street alignment is part of the proposed east-west Red Line, whose estimated cost of $2.5 billion makes it a daunting project for the state to finance, even with hoped-for federal spending.

 “Very Appealing”

“In the design I see ideas that are very appealing,” said Emily Hotaling, a Washington-based architectural historian who sits on the panel. She predicted that the Red Line would serve “as a connection, not as an obstruction, to the community.”

Guided by Osborne Anthony, “discipline manager of stations and architecture” for the Red Line, the designers said Boston Street would be converted from four to two lanes to accommodate the double-track railway in the middle of the street.

The road would be flanked by a new bike lane and trees planted 35 feet apart in planters. Low-height vegetation along the railway right of way would offer environmentally friendly “green tracks.”

“We want it to feel like a grand urban boulevard,” said William Gallagher of KGP, saying the planted trees “would be big, not little” and regular vistas of the harbor could be afforded along the route.

The biggest structure would be a 600-foot-long ramp taking the transit line from a tunnel (beginning in West Baltimore) to the surface of Boston Street. AECOM’s Werner A. Mueller unveiled several drawings of the portal.

The portal’s overall design found favor from the review panel.

But Bowden characterized the entrance to the ramp as a “no-man’s land” of concrete and suggested that the space be softened with vegetation or more trees.

Anthony replied that space constraints – plus an interlocking device to switch trains between the tracks – prevented more greenery at this spot, near the Starbucks coffee shop on Boston Street.

There was also concern about a tinted glass “fence” that would partly run along the portal wall to protect the public from overhead electric catenary.

Bowden suggested extending the glass around the entire portal as a more visually-pleasing alternative, which the consultants said they would consider.

More Parking to Appease Opposition

Thomas Stosur, director of the city planning department, said he’d like to see parks developed along the right of way, suggesting one south of St. Casimir’s Church.

Such construction, he agreed, was outside the MTA’s purview and would have to be undertaken by the city.

Bowden recommended more parking along a reconfigured Boston Street. Alluding to neighborhood opposition to the line, he said that added street spaces could be “a win-win situation” for the MTA and community.

Here are some of the designs displayed at today’s hearing: