My goodness. Ames Street residences, MIT East Campus, and this all at the same time. (and MIT.nano). That area is going to be really nice in five years but kind of a construction nightmare in the meanwhile.
Yes and no. Binney is always going to be windswept and barren. I haven't paid close attention to some of the other Kendall projects and microzones but unless some pretty substantive changes happen, Kendall, aside from the square itself, and Tech Sq and eventually maybe the square by Le Laboratoire, will continue to shape up to be a pretty quiet and homogenous place with very little after hours or weekend activity. I'm not sure what the city could do at this point to change that, but for now it's certainly retaining the feeling of an office district, despite all the new housing.
So this was approved?
types who want to live in an expensive apartment in a convenient location for a year or two...
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Aren't those the types of people that spend the most time outside of their apartments, patronizing neighborhood restaurants and retail? What better type of residents to invigorate the neighborhood after-hours?
Met Pipe is moving to Somerville, so I expect that will be redeveloped into more lab/office space.
The triangle over there is slated to be a park to compensate for the roof garden reduction and Ames St housing.