New ICA Opens, Boston Discovers Silver Line, Harborwalk

Yesterday the fanfare that has been the opening celebration for the new ICA building in the Seaport district opened to the general public for a 12 hour free ride in the new space. The news today is that nearly 5,000 people visited the new facility over the course of the day, many of whom had positive things to say about it even after a two hour wait. The museum opened at 9 am and by 2 pm people arriving to the site were informed of a lengthy wait to gain entrance by the BPD officers on detail. Target, who is sponsoring free after 5 pm Thursdays from here on out, set up a giant tent in the backyard of the new ICA (the front yard being the Boston Harbor.) The tent offered those waiting some chips, coffee, and live music. The exhibition space in the museum is relatively small – for most museum goers it only takes about two hours to stroll through the museum.

But getting to the new ICA and getting back home was a new experience for a number of people. Thanks to the ICA's website directions riders packed the bus for one stop to get off and Courthouse. Except for during the Run to Remember, Bostonist hasn't ever seen more than a handful of people at Courthouse on a weekend, yesterday there were dozens. It was obvious that many of the people riding the Silver Line hadn't ever been on the waterfront branch. There's a first time for everyone riding a "rapid transit" line that is actually just a bus.

Bostonist spent a fair amount of time sitting outside the ICA on Sunday afternoon, culture watching. Throngs of people milled about as they discovered a part of Boston many don't frequent. When the design of the Moakley Courthouse had focus almost ten years ago it didn't have the buzz as a destination the ICA does. Being a patron of a federal courthouse certainly isn't top on our list. Many visitors to the ICA took the opportunity to enjoy the unseasonably warm December day after visiting the museum. Many them exited and decided to walk along the Harborwalk back towards downtown. The Harborwalk is one of the few public space improvement projects that was actually been completed as part of the Big Dig. The walk from to the ICA from Christopher Columbus Park is even more interesting and fun if you've loaded up the Boston Harborwalk audio tour the City commissioned Audissey Guides to develop for them. After the years of hype of what the Seaport area could soon become, the new ICA has shown itself thus far to be a catalyst for increased vitality in the area.