Fitchburg Mass.

wow,
these pictures are cool, to bad that for some reason i cant see a bunch of them (my computer is bad). I go to college in fitchburg and have experienced the last 4 years here first hand. Since the new mayor there have been alot of turn arounds in the city. There is a monthly festival downtown called "First Thursdays" which has helped more business move in including a new used book store (my friends go there all the time) and some art galeries.

The school has been buying up tons of land and it is trying to basicly connect itself to down town. It is buying up north street and is actualy tearing down 2 more houses on congress street sometime this week. They are building a new police station and a new residence hall. the city does seem to be a bit on the up swing, but it still has a way to go. The New Mayor stated that she wants to turn Fitchburg into a Sommerville. Where the students from the college not only go to school in the city, but they spend money in it and hang out in it. This is all with the hopes that the students, after they graduate will stay in fitchburg. Who knows if this will happen, but it sure would be cool hehe.
 
^ thanks I still have all of main st to do! Could you get a pix of the college libary? that was one building I did'nt get a good pix of.
 
Good to hear about the upswing and that Lisa Wong is starting to have an effect. I will be over in Fitchburg (from London uk) in about a weeks time so i'll check out the used bookstore. Hope Destare is still going strong. The pound is very weak against the dollar at the moment but I still fancy boozing on main street with the inlaws again.
 
some recent downtown pix's Depot Sq.
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these awrnings need to go!
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Prichard Plaza
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These next 4 pix's my sister took,she did'nt care for my driving and taking pictures routine!
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Monument Park
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Old High School
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I should of got out of the car and took better pix's!
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Upper Common
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Fitchburg doesn't look too bad. In fact, it looks pretty damn good ... considering.

I was expecting it to look like ... downtown Brockton or, worse, Lawrence--the last time I saw that city, it was pretty ghastly.

Recently, I caught some online weather feeds during your storms and they were being broadcast from Worcester and Fitchburg!

People used to say that Fitchburg was 'a hilly city.' It is, I suppose. However, coming from where I reside now, that makes me snicker.
 
another old post card I found on line,I wish the building on the left was still intact,It's so badly altered that you never know it once looked like this!
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i am graduating this weekend so here are some parting images from the college....

Sorry i dont know how to scale down these pictures...

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Thompson Hall

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Thompson Hall

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Percival Hall

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Mara Village

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The Townhouses

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The Quad

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New Mara Construction

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New Mara Construction


I may take a few more pics of campus today.
 
those are great! some of those buildings I don't recall seeing before,like the new entrances to the dorms, thanks!
 
yeah, the entrance to Russell Towers was added about 5 years ago now. It was one of the reasons i chose the school hehehe.
 
pixs from T day
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this building has been reskinned and atop added!
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Those pics are a case against modernism if there ever was.

Even that cable stay bridge is pretty rough.
 
I might be imagining it, but there look to have been some improvements since I was last there (believe it or not). First is the bank building which looked like absolute shite has been re-skinned and had the ugly round building in front demolished (if you want to see how bad it used it look, it's on google street view). There also now seems to be a row of lamposts connecting the college to downtown. On the plus side, the cocktail bar and the new bookshop on main street (Rabbit Hole?) still seem to be going despite the recession. On the minus side I hear the library might be closing and some of the Churches might be closed in cost cutting exercises (not the ones in the pictures).

In an ideal world some of the facades on the newer buildings between Moran square and downtown could be fixed up (I'm thinking the 'New England Antique Row), also the once fashionable, now rusting building which houses 'putman street bowling'. If I had a wreaking ball I would take down those European style commie blocks, especially the one which ruins the view of monument square.
 
New Science Building at FSC

From the college news letter

The expansion and renovation of the Condike Science Building was the topic of an open forum held on Jan. 27 at the Mazzaferro Center on Highland Avenue.


Numerous renderings of the expanded facility were on display in the President's Hall at the center during the program, while architect Alfred Wojciechowski from CBT Architects walked a crowd of students, faculty and staff through a 3-D rendering of the new space.


"We've reached a milestone in terms of the project," President Antonucci said. "The design phase ends today."


While formal construction documents will take several months to complete, plans are in place to begin demolition of the Parkinson Gymnasium this summer.

The expanded building will have state of the art amenities, as well as welcoming facades on North Street as well as the Quad, Wojciechowski said.


"One of our desires is to make North Street the campus Main Street," he said. The expanded building "will be welcoming on both ends."

The entire slide show can be viewed online on the Facilities/Capital Planning and Maintenance page of the college's website, at http://www.fsc.edu/facilities/.

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If you look at the slide show this beilding is pretty well designed. I LOVE the new landscaping. It will realty fix that part of the quad. my only issue is that the building walls off that corner of the quad. One can no longer get from the quad to north street without cutting through the science building, and when it is closed, you are out of luck. Also the building may be a little monolithic because of all the one story buildings on that end of the quad.
 

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