441 Morgan Ave | Lot U | Cambridge Crossing | Cambridge

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etik

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Lot U in Cambridge Crossing is set to be redeveloped as an office/lab space, following the guidelines under the North Point development special permit.

Highlights
  • 313,270 sq. ft
  • 150' (mechanicals) / 120'
  • 282 parking spaces (requiring 3 story underground parking area, replacing 132 parking spaces currently on lot U, at maximum allowed limit under North Point special permit)
  • Includes elevator access and widening of Gilmore St. Bridge
  • Ground-floor retail
Renders / Screengrabs from Design Review

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Links

Design Review Pt. 1
Design Review Pt. 2
BLDUP link
 
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Definitely big. I see they liked Site 5 @ Kendall/MIT. It's a little too busy with the geometry/massing. I think it'd be a lot better if they picked one angle/mass to go through with all the way to the top.
 
A blob with reflective sunglasses. Does not invite the eye.
 
Looks like the same approach taken on the Verizon Building at Causeway Street: disjointed chunkiness.
 
@etik Thanks for posting these! I have more from the Zoom presentation tonight (were you on the DivCo call?), but other than detail shots of materials and infrastructure, I'm given to waiting to see the final accepted plans lest mine be "rendered" obsolete.

Construction could begin by June 2021, with parking tenants moving with site preparation.

I would like to add that the link to the Gilmore Bridge (widened 30' section meeting an elevator to Morgan AVE) is unapproved. While a valuable connection, it needs to be approved by the MTA. The renders of the building sans coupling were...less appealing. Also, the presenters suggested that current Lot U tenants will end up in Lot H (although H won't be completed by the above date).

In parting, all I can say is, "weatherproof grand piano". Oh, my.
 
The good thing it will definitely be changed a couple times before it goes u/c.
 
stick n move said:
The good thing it will definitely be changed a couple times before it goes u/c.
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@stick n move Agreed. And while I understand many ABers aren't fond of what has been built on what once was a mud pit decorated with random flora, I have been here since prior to Lot N's construction and am pleased that each building's design improved from initial renders to approved construction plans.
 
ivyhedge said:
@stick n move Agreed. And while I understand many ABers aren't fond of what has been built on what once was a mud pit decorated with random flora, I have been here since prior to Lot N's construction and am pleased that each building's design improved from initial renders to approved construction plans.
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Has the nouveau-lab look and it blocks the highway - good addition. In a neighborhood of large standalone 1-entrance buildings, this continues the master-planned trend.

The 1000 foot walk to the Orange CC station is critical here in a connection to Gilmore and seems a no-brainer. What engineering hurdle would hold back the connection here that didn't for 20/twenty? Or is it a lobby-design issue?
 
Thanks for the inside info, CX residents!

I have a feeling that as this goes up we're going to realize that it's MIT Building 5 with worse materials. Looks like it draws a lot from the Winthrop Square podium as well.

And it has to be chonky, if it's going to block the view of Hult State Penitentiary from every angle in Cambridge Crossing.
 
Ennead are serious designers, should do better. Looks like a combination of MIT Building 5 & 10 Stack Street in Charlestown...
 
JS38 said:
Ennead are serious designers, should do better. Looks like a combination of MIT Building 5 & 10 Stack Street in Charlestown...
Click to expand...

Just checked out their work. Quite an impressive portfolio. This probably won't make it on there...
 
Update: we closed Lot U on 28 May and all cars were moved to Lot C for temporary valet parking by VPNE. Those folks will be transferred to market rate self parking in Lot H in 4Q2021.

Site preparation for construction begins today, 1 June.

The emptiness of 29 May:
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One positive from this is no more billboard on this parcel!
 
Agreed.

But when workers removed the billboard several weeks ago, they did so with residents' cars parked just below and inside of the worksite (subject to all manner of crud falling from above). Despite previously coning off swaths of Lot U for soil testing, no one thought to 1) restrict access to the work zone and 2) ask folks to move. :rolleyes:

#facepalm

DrFreewind said:
One positive from this is no more billboard on this parcel!
Click to expand...
 
"A construction permit for a $155.2 million, 12-story life-science building at 441 Morgan Ave., North Point, was issued May 18 as part of a larger DivcoWest project known as “Parcel U.”"

"Completion is expected in spring 2023, the commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Knight Frank said."

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(PS- Love that Cambridge Day is insisting on calling it NorthPoint 4 years after it was renamed. Not that "Northpoint" was any better than "CX," but something like "Miller's River" would have been more locally interesting.)
 
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