45 Mystic Ave | Somerville

NorthshoreCity

NorthshoreCity

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Interesting lab tower proposal at 45 Mystic Ave in Somerville (near Assembly Row/Sullivan Square). 51,000sf, 10 floors, 125' height x 91' depth x 59' width designed by Context. Perhaps 36 Hampshire in Cambridge was the precedent here as it seems to go against all land-scraping lab design standards.

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Lots of proposals/potential in this area but with nothing built out yet I find this perspective somewhat comical:

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All project details via: https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/planning-and-zoning/reports-and-decisions
 
Even though it's a lab building, it has some height and street wall, and will add employee population to the neighborhood, thus inching the neighborhood towards a pedestrian presence. One of two more developments of this scope, hopefully including residential next time, and then the neighborhood gains the critical mass to be urbanized and pedestrian oriented.
 
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The proponent is now asking for a hardship variance to eliminate the civic space (AKA pocket park). Instead the building would fill out the lot and reduce the height from 10 to 7 stories.
 
RandomWalk said:
The proponent is now asking for a hardship variance to eliminate the civic space (AKA pocket park). Instead the building would fill out the lot and reduce the height from 10 to 7 stories.
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This probably won't get built anyway.
 
RandomWalk said:
The proponent is now asking for a hardship variance to eliminate the civic space (AKA pocket park). Instead the building would fill out the lot and reduce the height from 10 to 7 stories.
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I was looking forward to having a pocket park while I wait for Enterprise to give me a car.
 
as02143 said:
I do - if a developer cannot make money building such a stumpy cheap building - we're all very screwed when it comes to development potential.
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I'm sorry - -I prefer a beautiful city, with tall, dynamic and active towers. Not an ugly, depressing stumpy and cheap ones. But hey, to each their own.
 
shmessy said:
I'm sorry - -I prefer a beautiful city, with tall, dynamic and active towers. Not an ugly, depressing stumpy and cheap ones. But hey, to each their own.
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I'm going to be extremely worried about our ability to afford standard developments - let alone beautiful ones - if our economy is going to be on a permanent two-front low-grade war for the forseeable future. Capital flows that are being siphoned off to the US military and military aid will mean that cash to build will be expensive. If this stump can't get built - we're not going to be getting many tall, dynamic, and active towers for a long long time. I also don't know how -beautiful- the frontage to the northern expressway is ever going to be.
 
as02143 said:
I'm going to be extremely worried about our ability to afford standard developments - let alone beautiful ones - if our economy is going to be on a permanent two-front low-grade war for the forseeable future. Capital flows that are being siphoned off to the US military and military aid will mean that cash to build will be expensive. If this stump can't get built - we're not going to be getting many tall, dynamic, and active towers for a long long time. I also don't know how -beautiful- the frontage to the northern expressway is ever going to be.
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New spending on aid has been a very small part of the yearly military budgets, let alone American aggregate demand. And that's even with the dramatically falling defense spending as a percentage of gdp since the cold war. If we want to get serious about deficits crowding out investment, we need to address how amazingly inefficient our health spend is. There are plenty of things to blame interest rates on but I don't think new military spending is a particularly important one. If we get into a multi ten trillion dollar conflict with China I think the quality of construction would be the least of our concerns lmao
 
as02143 said:
I'm going to be extremely worried about our ability to afford standard developments - let alone beautiful ones - if our economy is going to be on a permanent two-front low-grade war for the forseeable future. Capital flows that are being siphoned off to the US military and military aid will mean that cash to build will be expensive. If this stump can't get built - we're not going to be getting many tall, dynamic, and active towers for a long long time. I also don't know how -beautiful- the frontage to the northern expressway is ever going to be.
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Linking increased federal spending on foreign war aid to monetary policy and the cost of capital for commercial real estate doesn’t track.
 
awood91 said:
Linking increased federal spending on foreign war aid to monetary policy and the cost of capital for commercial real estate doesn’t track.
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Exactly - the argument is a massive stretch. I think someone just loves cheap, crappy architecture. That poster is missing the REAL issue -- steep and rapid rise in interest rates due to accelerated inflation before any "two front wars" in 2021-2022.
 
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