585 Kendall | 585 Third Street | Kendall Square

Gameguy326 said:
I still say this sham of a theaterspace is way too small. At its size it will be underused rather than the weekly or daily attraction it could be.
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I agree that I wish it were a larger theater. I disagree that it will be underutilized. The organization that was brought onboard to run the programming, Global Arts Live, already runs several shows per week at other venues (similarly sized or smaller) in/around Boston: https://www.globalartslive.org
They discuss wanting/needing their own venue, and I can't imagine they won't utilize it once it's here.

Technically a new non-profit has been formed with GlobalArtsLive in front of programming: https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/03/10/new-arts-nonprofit-venue-cambridge-585-arts

I'm not quite at the level of cynicism you often share on aB about the Kendall area, despite also sharing many of your disappointments. I guess what I am saying is "sham" is too strong a word. You seem to be blaming the new developer, who had nothing to do with Constellation Center, for Constellation's failure.
I've seen enough decent steps taken by the new folks involved to at least be willing to give this theater and its associated arts organization a shot.
 
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I am glad it is being run by a reputable organization. My cynicism is based on the fact that Kendall is, and continues to be, a densely populated area with no life, and insatiable demand for lab space. The city could have demanded more dedicated space for the arts in this particular parcel (which is what it was zoned for). Given rent prices, the remaining lab space still would have turned a profit.

It's a sham because the original purpose of the parcel, a need for the community, is virtually lost in this development (or, we will see) as it becomes almost entirely more labspace. It is a major lost opportunity.
 
The city could have attempted to trade civic usage of this parcel for a density increase elsewhere, but it would probably need to be considerable to make the numbers pencil out. At that point, the residents would scream, and the pols would fold, for fear of losing reelection.
 
RandomWalk said:
The city could have attempted to trade civic usage of this parcel for a density increase elsewhere, but it would probably need to be considerable to make the numbers pencil out. At that point, the residents would scream, and the pols would fold, for fear of losing reelection.
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I mean, I'm not really asking for a lot here. I think 3-4 dedicated floors would be enough, which would still leave 11-12 floors here for dedicated lab space right here. This is a 2 floor difference which would be huge for arts programming and comparatively minor for the lab space.
 
So they appear to have begun work in earnest on relocating the natural gas transfer station off of this site, a precursory step to starting construction on this building. Sorry no photos (someone more skilled than I, ahhemm @BeeLine , would need to find vantage points through construction barriers to produce meaningful photos).

Significant trenchwork at the 3rd/Kendall intersection and along Kendall St. appears to be in progress. My understanding is that they'll be relocating the gas facility to the site of the Kendall Cogeneration power plant.
 
It looks like it will be a nice design but I was really hoping for 800's here. It's going to be almost the exact same height and proportions as 10 other nearby buildings.
 
This site is a mess of parts for the new compressor station.
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RandomWalk said:
This site is a mess of parts for the new compressor station.
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^For those who don't get by here often and are wondering about this project: the entire surrounding area has been a total mess of trenchwork for months now, as they are working to relocate the natural gas transfer station off of this site. Here's a photo montage that attempts to capture this activity (6/18):

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Wow, Takeda's demand for lab space has been incredible. They just took all 600,000 sf of this building:

finance.yahoo.com

BioMed Realty Announces Landmark Lease with Takeda at 585 Kendall to Accommodate Cambridge Expansion

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 22, 2022--BioMed Realty, a leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries, today announced that Takeda has leased the entire leading-edge research and development project totaling approximately 600,000 square feet in Kendall Square...
finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com
 
bigpicture7 said:
Wow, Takeda's demand for lab space has been incredible. They just took all 600,000 sf of this building:

finance.yahoo.com

BioMed Realty Announces Landmark Lease with Takeda at 585 Kendall to Accommodate Cambridge Expansion

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 22, 2022--BioMed Realty, a leading provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries, today announced that Takeda has leased the entire leading-edge research and development project totaling approximately 600,000 square feet in Kendall Square...
finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com
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Wonder if this unprecedented lab space demand ever crashes and what that would look like. Feels like a bubble to me at this point
 
DZH22 said:
Someday people will have lofts in converted lab buildings the same way they have them in the converted mills today.
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This has already started happening with office buildings, no?
 
Blackbird said:
This has already started happening with office buildings, no?
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Yes, but I'm comparing labs to the old mills specifically because they are airier with the much higher ceilings. A friend had a small loft apartment at Abbot Mill in Westford and the ceiling must have been 15' high. Labs are essentially the 21st century equivalent of the older industrial mills, factories, and warehouses.
 
goody said:
I know I am like a day late, hundreds of millions of dollars short, and mostly delusional but I like the current design, its just like 700' short. My PowerPoint dream:

View attachment 25738
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I usually hate stuff like this, but I will give you that you just designed a more attractive building (with CBT's help, granted) than a lot of tall proposals around here.
 
Equilibria said:
I usually hate stuff like this, but I will give you that you just designed a more attractive building (with CBT's help, granted) than a lot of tall proposals around here.
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I think what @goody is proving here is that CBT did a nice job breaking up the mass of the (actual) design, so effectively, in fact, that such a scheme would work nicely if scaled up to a much larger building.
 
goody said:
I know I am like a day late, hundreds of millions of dollars short, and mostly delusional but I like the current design, its just like 700' short. My PowerPoint dream:

View attachment 25738
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Honestly, this is more along the lines of what I expected we'd get at this site. My fault for daring to dream. Cambridge continues to botch their 1000' FAA zones while places like the financial district are stuck at 600'-700'.
 
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