808 Memorial Drive Renovation | Cambridgeport

Equilibria

Equilibria

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Another public housing tower in Cambridge gets panel-ized.

bostonrealestatetimes.com

MassHousing Closes on $87.2 Million in Financing for the 300-Unit 808 Memorial Drive in Cambridge - Boston Real Estate Times

BOSTON – MassHousing has closed on a total of $87.2 million in affordable housing financing to the non-profit Homeowners Rehab, Inc. (HRI), for the modernization and preservation of affordability at the […]
bostonrealestatetimes.com

Rivermark | Bruner / Cott Architects

Bruner/Cott completed the occupied renovation of two 1970s-era apartment buildings at 808-812 Memorial Drive. Situated along the Charles River, the buildings,
www.brunercott.com www.brunercott.com

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I actually like the old one. Lots of brutalism is junk, but lots is worth saving also. I know Ill most likely be in the minority, but I think these should be saved. If we “renovate” every piece of brutalism in the whole city, Boston will lose a huge part of its history. Brutalism is Bostons “thing” just like art deco is NYC/Chicago, whether we like it or not. I dont think this is that huge an upgrade to be worth the trouble, maybe if it was a nice change, but just slapping some faux brick panels on the facade... idk.
 
stick n move said:
I actually like the old one. Lots of brutalism is junk, but lots is worth saving also. I know Ill most likely be in the minority, but I think these should be saved. If we “renovate” every piece of brutalism in the whole city, Boston will lose a huge part of its history. Brutalism is Bostons “thing” just like art deco is NYC/Chicago, whether we like it or not. I dont think this is that huge an upgrade to be worth the trouble, maybe if it was a nice change, but just slapping some faux brick panels on the facade... idk.
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My difficulty with Brutalism has a lot to do with the color of unaltered concrete. Especially in a residential neighborhood, it makes things nicer when things have some vibrancy to them, some color. And there have been studies regarding this. A lot of them.
 
Cambridge has a very good track record remaking brutalist low-income towers into really nice living spaces. The Alewife blocks and Millers River complex may be ugly-as-sin to look at despite cosmetic touch-up over the years, but they're very vibrant and interactive communities and are really freaking nice on the inside.

This one has all the same right ingredients with the surrounding parks and amenities. It'll do fine whether the eye-of-beholder outside looks noticeably change or not.
 
it was cool to watch how the HRI and owners within 808 were able to successfuly subvert the building owner's (previous) intention in the late (mid?) '90s to prepay the mortgage that had initially been granted on the condition of keeping rents affordable -- with an eye towards abandoning that original intention and hiking rents to market rates. i don't know all the details and machinations involved (of course), but to have a fairly large apartment complex in such a desirable zip-code kept "permanently affordable" is an encouraging model and, hopefully, one that others in cambridge (and elsewhere) learn from.
 
DZH22 said:
12/19 From Brookline. Note the castle from Prospect Hill just to the right of the roof, which is where I was right before coming to Brookline.

IMG_7303 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_7304 by David Z, on Flickr
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For all the griping that has been going on in Cambridge and Somerville about the tower going up at Union Square, that one can't pick out the core in this photo from across the River seems to make the gripes a bit ... parochial.
 
as02143 said:
For all the griping that has been going on in Cambridge and Somerville about the tower going up at Union Square, that one can't pick out the core in this photo from across the River seems to make the gripes a bit ... parochial.
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The core would have been off to the right in those photos, out of frame.

2/11 From Brookline. I prefer the 1st shot but the 2nd one shows this project better, so here's both.

IMG_8225 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_8226 by David Z, on Flickr
 
6/28 From Rag Rock, Woburn. The color of this really makes it stand out, despite its smaller stature.

IMG_2375 by David Z, on Flickr
 
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