Lab Building (née Hotel Hampshire) | 34-40 Hampshire St. | Cambridge

The ground floor is a parking garage. I think it also has a bunch of mechanical spaces.
 
Walked by recently and noticed this extra special bit of WTF for this building:
IMG_6528.jpeg

The door to the sprinkler room was mounted incorrectly and they ground the sidewalk instead of remounting the door.

One floor also appears to be fitted out for offices.
 
RandomWalk said:
Walked by recently and noticed this extra special bit of WTF for this building: View attachment 65729
The door to the sprinkler room was mounted incorrectly and they ground the sidewalk instead of remounting the door.

One floor also appears to be fitted out for offices.
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As if it needed more reasons to be hated for its ground level bad neighborliness.
 
RandomWalk said:
They managed to rent out some of the space in this dog.
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Here's some info:

^The tenant is Vivtex, who apparently just got a big chunk of change:
Vivtex signed a deal in February with Novo Nordisk to help the Big Pharma advance next-gen oral metabolic medicines. The Boston biotech’s ability to map the gastrointestinal tract to optimize oral therapeutic absorption has made it a newly sought-after partner for drugmakers aiming to develop oral metabolic and autoimmune therapies.
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Although Vivtex was already planning to expand its footprint prior to the Novo deal, the partnership helped solidify its move out of its Dorchester incubator into a 10,000-square-foot space in Cambridge, with room to expand into additional floors.
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Building design aside, it is nice to see this activity locally, especially $2b of international investment in a local operation
 
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as02155 said:
Really? Is it /that/ prominent?
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IMHO, yes. That's a corner that is screaming out for ground level retail/activation/pedestrian friendly usage.

It certainly isn't a side alley for loading docks.

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Maybe it's my lack of creativity - but - I just cannot imagine anything in that area really working without much more intensive urban "renewal" a-la-West-End.

Within a block or two, you have the Broadway-Hampshire collider traffic sewer, the Draper "ew, the plebes" connector, the rear-end of the tech square garage, a low-value park, an eversource power distro, even the Eye-talian Center and townhomes just behind just vampire the life off those streets.

Maybe some life will come when tech square decides that perhaps the Broadway-Portland corner isn't best served with a garage occupying most of that corner of their property? But, this corner, as hemmed in as it is, is improved from this condition before. (R.I.P. Emma's - and also Tommy Doyle's)
 
The Dante Alighieri Society site will soon be gaining the Italian consulate,

More importantly, this development could have improved the corner. Instead, we got something that should have been located in Inner Belt.
 
shmessy said:
IMHO, yes. That's a corner that is screaming out for ground level retail/activation/pedestrian friendly usage.

It certainly isn't a side alley for loading docks.

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I was about to post that most of those doors along Hampshire - the fire pump room, electrical room, transformer room, etc. - don't need access from the street, especially where they have a garage/loading dock to get to them from. But I think that ultimately shows where the incentives for this building were - do the bare minimum to make it work, and then go from there. Pure utility. Maybe they felt empowered by 201 Broadway's mechanicals being right next door.
 
Arenacale said:
I was about to post that most of those doors along Hampshire - the fire pump room, electrical room, transformer room, etc. - don't need access from the street, especially where they have a garage/loading dock to get to them from. But I think that ultimately shows where the incentives for this building were - do the bare minimum to make it work, and then go from there. Pure utility. Maybe they felt empowered by 201 Broadway's mechanicals being right next door.
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Yup, the developer dropped a turd on Cambridge.
 
I can't imagine the tire/repair shop adjacent to the electrical substation is going to be a permanent fixture either. Bad time to build, but when the cycle restarts it's such a desirable parcel and someone will be open to paying top dollar. I still think a little hotel here would have been the better use.
 
Justbuildit said:
I can't imagine the tire/repair shop adjacent to the electrical substation is going to be a permanent fixture either. Bad time to build, but when the cycle restarts it's such a desirable parcel and someone will be open to paying top dollar. I still think a little hotel here would have been the better use.
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I struggle to imagine the demand for such a tiny parcel with a complicated next door neighbor and also outside of the natural walkshed of the Red Line station. Perhaps in the 80s and 90s, but, today? Redevelopment?
 
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