200 Boston Ave | Medford Hillside - Tufts | Medford

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Cummings Properties, as agent for Tufts University endowment has proposed to build a new lab structure on the site of what is currently a 1.5 story parking deck at 200 Boston Ave, Medford (just steps from the Somerville "peninsula" on which the future MVP GLX 2 station would be built.

A meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 14th, at 6pm, via Zoom. For the Zoom link and call-in information, visit the City’s events calendar at www.medfordma.org/city-events.

The site:

The proposal (showing a building that changes style midblock, even though it fills the site)
168639728_315963086617592_6044401049172031179_n.jpg


Per the Medford Mayor's Facebook:
The City of Medford and Cummings Properties, long-time operator of the property at 200 Boston Ave., invite all interested community members to a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, April 14th at 6:00pm to discuss the proposed expansion of life sciences facilities at the site. At the meeting, City staff and officials from Cummings Properties will discuss the proposed development, plans for the site, and impacts to the community including traffic, construction, and benefits. The City and Cummings Properties will collect feedback from attendees and abutters to regarding the project.

Getting neighborhood input on proposed projects early in the process is critical to making sure that developments are set up for long-term success in the community. Talking – and listening – about neighborhood concerns about traffic, construction, and possible benefits to the community will be a key driver in making sure that any development is the right fit for Medford.
 
Neither of those styles are terribly attractive. Kind of looks like old MIT lab buildings (and I assume the farther half is a "disguised" garage).
 
I see now that I look at the streetview - this project is really at 196 Boston Ave and effectively copies the building behind.

I'd honestly hope for a little denser there, too, with better street level interaction with the primary Green Line station approach. There;s the potential for a little Station Landing there if you cobble the parcels together on both sides of the tracks.
 
It's hard to tell what is more uninspiring: the rendering of the design, or the design itself. Hopefully this one will turn out better when built than the drab rendering would indicate.
 
It's hard to tell what is more uninspiring: the rendering of the design, or the design itself. Hopefully this one will turn out better when built than the drab rendering would indicate.
Looks like all the other Cummings office projects scattered around the 93 - 95 intersection.

Cummings has given a ton of money to Tufts over the years and the entities are very intertwined, so it makes since that they're partnering here. I just wish some other developer was doing the work.
 
We haven't heard anything about the lab-atop-parking-deck project at 200 Boston ave since a year ago.

But here's an interesting "the neighborhood is changing" note: Workout World has been priced out of its space in the basement and will close by May 31. It seems that a "lab space" tenant has been found for near-all the basement, both the Workout World, and the other space (maybe half the basement?) recently used as the temporary Medford Public Library (while the one on High St was rebuilt). Maybe they'll find a way to increase the height of the cellar windows?

The Workout World gym has occupied about 1/3 of the basement of the building for the last ~20 years (and before that it was a Bally's Fitness that had fallen on hard times: I recall in 1996 Bally's had a pool accessible on the basement level, which got simply abandoned and decked over to make Workout World's front treadmill area...anywhoo...)

Unlike Bally's which originally had an upscale image, Workout World has spent two decade being the gym with old equipment that's too cheap to quit (<$15/mo in most plans). And seemed well-suited to the not-in-their-peak-earning-years clientele of that Medford/Somerville/East Arlington corner either age 16 to 26 or 66+ (only the rare Winchester denizen)
 

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