Copper Mill Development | Elm Street and Grove Street | Davis Square

The proposed tower would dwarf, for now, the surrounding neighborhood. But Davis Sq is a major transportation hub, the confluence of the Red Line, major bus routes, and the multi-use path extending all the way from Bedford to Boston. It is destined to become a high density hub with this tower first, and then more added in the future.
 
I'm glad they put the "feedback" slide where they only took the most positive comments as an appendix. Probably embarrassing to show that one :).

I assume 3 and 4 are the real options, because they're the only ones rendered with The Burren. Of those, 3 is better because the varied massing prevents a big slab wall of one color from facing any viewing angle.
 
Big improvement imo. Nice ground floor, massings look good, nice colors. 03 and 04 are probably my favorites, but def a good change. We need more of this, its harder to push back against nice things. Propose more things like this and more people would be on board. Especially the ground floor which is the most important part, big improvement.
 
FK4 said:
If a tower this big had been built in the 60s or 70s, it would just be there, and nobody would think twice about it. It’s absurd how difficult everything is in Massachusetts.
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It would have looked like this... People thought twice.

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Equilibria said:
It would have looked like this... People thought twice.

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I disagree. I grew up in Brookline and only as an adult did I start to notice the fact that the area around Coolidge is actually peppered with towers. Most of them aren't great, but they're fine and when you're used to them, you don't see em. Charlie gives better examples and Cambridge is certainly also full of medium height towers of various modernist appeal. The Middlesex example is by far the ugliest, like by a factor of a million, and it's also more visible because it's not hemmed in by others. And it's also not the end of the world, either, if there is the occasional ugly building around. It is a sign of the extreme privilege and entitlement in this country that every project, down to aesthetics, must be micromanaged to death. I'd take Boston with a few more extremely ugly towers if it meant we didnt have to get Boring by Elkus every single time.
 
4 seems the least offensive to the street experience, doesn't overwhelm the existing with a canyon feeling, and I life the opportunity for the balconies for upstairs businesses to engage with the street. 4 also seems best suited to mesh with any future builds on neighboring parcels.
Stlin said:
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FK4 said:
I disagree. I grew up in Brookline and only as an adult did I start to notice the fact that the area around Coolidge is actually peppered with towers. Most of them aren't great, but they're fine and when you're used to them, you don't see em. Charlie gives better examples and Cambridge is certainly also full of medium height towers of various modernist appeal. The Middlesex example is by far the ugliest, like by a factor of a million, and it's also more visible because it's not hemmed in by others. And it's also not the end of the world, either, if there is the occasional ugly building around. It is a sign of the extreme privilege and entitlement in this country that every project, down to aesthetics, must be micromanaged to death. I'd take Boston with a few more extremely ugly towers if it meant we didnt have to get Boring by Elkus every single time.
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Its actually kind of surprising when you stop and look around somewhere like beacon st, it would be soo much harder to build most of those buildings today.
 
ritchiew said:
This project has been canceled

www.bostonglobe.com

In Somerville, 500-unit Davis Square tower plan is nixed. The Burren remains. - The Boston Globe

The controversial proposal had called for a building standing as tall as 26 stories in the low-slung neighborhood that includes arts, dining, and nightlife stalwarts.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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An acquaintence of mine bumped into Nomar Garciaparra recently and asked what was his favorite team/place to play.

He answered: "Boston is my favorite town, Chicago is my favorite CITY". Keep laying down sacrifice bunts, Greater Boston.

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ritchiew said:
This project has been canceled

www.bostonglobe.com

In Somerville, 500-unit Davis Square tower plan is nixed. The Burren remains. - The Boston Globe

The controversial proposal had called for a building standing as tall as 26 stories in the low-slung neighborhood that includes arts, dining, and nightlife stalwarts.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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I think it was clear that the local Nincompoops were going to community-benefits/1,000,000 paper cuts this to death. I see why they were going for the state override and I think this adds evidence that the state housing override needs to be much stronger.
 
stick n move said:
Looks like the locals ran them out of town. Good job on keeping the housing marked effed up! Well done.
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I'm all for development but this was outsized and I doubt it would affect the market much.
There are areas of east somerville, winter hill, innerbelt, brickbottom, McGrath highway where tons of housing could be built with little to no objection in the morning but the same profit margens arent there. Just look at that huge hole beside the bikepath on the cambridge line/McGrath. Turn that in to hundreds of high rise residential units next to a T station.
 
This was right next to a heavy rail metro station, this is exactly where these type of developments belong. The buildings it would have replaced are all single story retail with no housing at all, the same type of wasteful use types we see everywhere across the metro. At the very least there should be at least 5 stories of housing above these buildings with the ground floors staying as retail. All of these 1 story retail buildings you see all over the place are so wasteful. Blue hill ave is one of the worst offenders in the city, but theyre everywhere.
 
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Ruairi said:
I'm all for development but this was outsized and I doubt it would affect the market much.
There are areas of east somerville, winter hill, innerbelt, brickbottom, McGrath highway where tons of housing could be built with little to no objection in the morning but the same profit margens arent there. Just look at that huge hole beside the bikepath on the cambridge line/McGrath. Turn that in to hundreds of high rise residential units next to a T station.
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Why does East have to bear the burden of all the development? Why can't West at least take just one god damn measly tower?
 
Probably for similar reasons to why a slice of Somerville residents were livid about the city planning to close the Brown School and moving it to the new Winter Hill campus: they see anything east of Central Street as a different city.
 
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