20-23 Cummings Street | Somerville

[Equilibria]

I guess this is infill for Assembly, but it is not small! And fuck labs, build resi towers!

Greystar Proposes 1.4M SF Mixed-Use Project Near Assembly Row

The developer filed plans with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office that include two 20-story lab buildings.

www.bisnow.com

MEPA Environmental Monitor

eeaonline.eea.state.ma.us

Replaces the La Quinta and the remainder of the properties in that area that aren't part of the 74M and Brickyard projects with a replacement hotel and 2 labs totaling 1.5MSF

Oddly, filed with MEPA before Somerville.

 

[RandomWalk]

Civic space bordering Middlesex Ave is not going to be pleasant, unless there is some project to give it a road diet I’m unaware of.

The thoroughfares are amusing. An awful lot of circulation which goes nowhere. Is the Commonwealth prohibiting an intersection with the Fellsway?

 

[Hydrobus]

Civic space bordering Middlesex Ave is not going to be pleasant, unless there is some project to give it a road diet I’m unaware of.

The thoroughfares are amusing. An awful lot of circulation which goes nowhere. Is the Commonwealth prohibiting an intersection with the Fellsway?

I work in that area sometimes and walk down Middlesex. Its not too bad. Although 1400 parking spaces in this projects and thousands more in the other projects may make it worse. Im not sure how this project ties together with the rest of Somerville as they claim. Although I do think its hard to do as route 28 is a major traffic artery. In my imagination there's a bridge with retail on both sides linking ot one of the cross streets in Ten Hills but im sure this will never happen. My main concern as with all these projects is no housing.

 

[DZH22]

Count me as somebody else who would rather see tall dense residential here than more labs.

Now that that's out of the way, from a skyline point of view a 20 story lab is almost definitely going to exceed the 300' Edge nearby. That means that the first one of these built would become Somerville's 6th new tallest building in ~10 years. Heights are according to the Skyscraperpage diagrams.
Mass General 219' - 2016
Montaje 238' - 2018
Miscela 278' - 2021
Union D2 297' - 2023
74M (Edge) 300' - 2024

 

[Charlie_mta]

I-93 is such a monstrosity through Somerville. How I wish this leviathan could be torn down.

 

[kingofsheeba]

I-93 is such a monstrosity through Somerville. How I wish this leviathan could be torn down.

View attachment 45772

Big Dig Part II. Electric Boogaloo.

 

[Equilibria]

I-93 is such a monstrosity through Somerville. How I wish this leviathan could be torn down.

View attachment 45772

While I agree with the sentiment, it's worth noting that aside from Ten Hills, the areas cut off from the rest of Somerville by I-93 are pretty much brand new. Assembly Square as a neighborhood won't be fully complete until the viaduct is almost 100 years old...

It's not like the Central Artery or the Turnpike in Newton - the freeway didn't sever the City fabric. I'd actually argue McGrath has a more negative impact than I-93 does.

 

[stick n move]

It did cut somerville off from the river though, which I’m sure at the time was a polluted gross mess, but today has much more potential.

 

[Equilibria]

It did cut somerville off from the river though, which I’m sure at the time was a polluted gross mess, but today has much more potential.

Definitely true up by Mystic Avenue - Assembly is cut off from the river by the railroad line.

 

[SomervilleRed]

Ten Hills and Assembly may be cut off from the rest of the city but they do get (what feels like exclusive) riverfront access, and there is easy access under the railroad line to the soon-to-be-redeveloped Draw 7 Park.

 

[curcuas]

Count me as somebody else who would rather see tall dense residential here than more labs.

Now that that's out of the way, from a skyline point of view a 20 story lab is almost definitely going to exceed the 300' Edge nearby. That means that the first one of these built would become Somerville's 6th new tallest building in ~10 years. Heights are according to the Skyscraperpage diagrams.
Mass General 219' - 2016
Montaje 238' - 2018
Miscela 278' - 2021
Union D2 297' - 2023
74M (Edge) 300' - 2024

Somerville has convinced themselves that they should permit mostly commercial b/c they want to be able to have as low property taxes as Cambridge (where they are very low as they have two secondary biz districts + zoned out poverty). The problem is that Somerville isn't the CBD and their property taxes are no different from Boston. Oversupply of lab space may convince them, though.

 

[Badusername]

Somerville has convinced themselves that they should permit mostly commercial b/c they want to be able to have as low property taxes as Cambridge (where they are very low as they have two secondary biz districts + zoned out poverty). The problem is that Somerville isn't the CBD and their property taxes are no different from Boston. Oversupply of lab space may convince them, though.

I’m pretty sure I heard in a recent city council meeting that Somerville is now requiring new lab projects to have tenants secured before permits are issued. Hoping that means some of these projects convert to residential before construction begins.

 

[curcuas]

I’m pretty sure I heard in a recent city council meeting that Somerville is now requiring new lab projects to have tenants secured before permits are issued. Hoping that means some of these projects convert to residential before construction begins.

This, of course, is also insane, given that nearly all lab in Boston is built on spec....But, I won't complain b/c job centralization is good.

 

[stick n move]

Came across a massing model that I havent seen before for 20-23 cummings st:

Theyre going to be right next to 120 middlesex ave

20-23 cummings in blue on the left, 120 middlesex ave is the white right-trapezoid shaped space to the right.

Some other misc. stuff from the project website.

https://www.20-23cummings.com/home