66 Cambridge Street | Charlestown

Equilibria

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LOI: https://bpda.app.box.com/s/pqe1dr67mipd5kkvx54bj1tepqc0zumh

812KSF of life science in two buildings.

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In TOD areas such as this location, a residential component should be required for any lab or office development. Maybe require a given amount of new residential for each 1,000 SF of lab space proposed. This is right across the street from the OL, after all.
 
Thanks for sharing the map - I was having a hard time figuring out that exact address. Most likely the entry would be from Hood Park Drive and/or Spice St., right?
 
Thanks for sharing the map - I was having a hard time figuring out that exact address. Most likely the entry would be from Hood Park Drive and/or Spice St., right?

I'd assume there'd at least be a secondary entrance on or near Cambridge Street to allow commuters from Sullivan to easily access the building. Maybe at the corner of Cambridge and Spice? I doubt the primary entrance would be on Hood Park Drive though—it is an extremely narrow street, especially west of Spice Street.

As an aside, the map is screwed up — why is it calling the offramp from Exit 18 on I93 "Monsignor O'Brien Highway," and I93 itself "Water Street"?
 
I'd assume there'd at least be a secondary entrance on or near Cambridge Street to allow commuters from Sullivan to easily access the building. Maybe at the corner of Cambridge and Spice? I doubt the primary entrance would be on Hood Park Drive though—it is an extremely narrow street, especially west of Spice Street.

As an aside, the map is screwed up — why is it calling the offramp from Exit 18 on I93 "Monsignor O'Brien Highway," and I93 itself "Water Street"?

It's just a snip of the Boston Parcel Map (very handy for region-wide NearMap imagery). https://app01.cityofboston.gov/ParcelViewer/

You can check yourself if you think it's right at different zoom levels.

We'll have to wait for the NPC to find out if this is the whole block, but the Spice Street parcels are under different ownership according to the parcel map.
 
We'll have to wait for the NPC to find out if this is the whole block, but the Spice Street parcels are under different ownership according to the parcel map.

Ah, you are right. Indeed, the LOI specifically says they are working with the Owens, who own parcel 0202150000, but not with Spice Parking who owns the lots on Spice Street.

In that case, I'd expect an entrance to be on Cambridge Street, right next to the I93 offramp. It seems silly to call this "TOD" and make commuters from Sullivan walk all the way around to Hood Park Drive.
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You can check yourself if you think it's right at different zoom levels.

Zooming in further, the map is still wrong, and calls the offramp "Brighton Street," and I93 itself "Alford Street" or "Caldwell Street" depending on where you're looking. I suspect the mapping software is erroneously pulling in nearby street names for roads that aren't in the Boston address system, like offramps or interstates.
 
Ah, you are right. Indeed, the LOI specifically says they are working with the Owens, who own parcel 0202150000, but not with Spice Parking who owns the lots on Spice Street.

In that case, I'd expect an entrance to be on Cambridge Street, right next to the I93 offramp. It seems silly to call this "TOD" and make commuters from Sullivan walk all the way around to Hood Park Drive.
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Zooming in further, the map is still wrong, and calls the offramp "Brighton Street," and I93 itself "Alford Street" or "Caldwell Street" depending on where you're looking. I suspect the mapping software is erroneously pulling in nearby street names for roads that aren't in the Boston address system, like offramps or interstates.

It doesn't specifically say they aren't negotiating with Spice Street Parking. I would be if I were them.

Pedestrian access from the station to this corner sucks. I hope they have plans to improve it in concert with MassDOT and the City.

And welcome to aB, by the way. You seem like a valuable member.
 
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The dead parking lots on spice st need to go.
 
pedestrian access from Cambridge St and all the way through the site towards Hood. Vehicle access from 'Hood Park Dr'. I put that in quotes because its not HP Dr as google shows, its massport property acting as a roadway.
the site does not border Spice St.
 
pedestrian access from Cambridge St and all the way through the site towards Hood. Vehicle access from 'Hood Park Dr'. I put that in quotes because its not HP Dr as google shows, its massport property acting as a roadway.
the site does not border Spice St.

The site does not border Spice Street yet. Sometimes new properties are acquired once things even during the proposal process, as with Allston Landing.
 
I'm very interested to see this thread! I'm taking a class on improving roadway designs for pedestrians and cyclists at Tufts (taught by Mark Chase of Neighborways Design). For my class project, I chose the intersection of Cambridge Street with the I-93 NB offramp and the Sullivan Upper Busway exit. It's already a nightmare for people on foot or on bikes, and the foot traffic will skyrocket with these new developments, while the bike traffic will continue to rise once the MBTA/DCR open the new seaside bike trail that runs behind the Charlestown Bus Garage, and especially once the Northern Strand Trail connects directly to Assembly via the long-promised and always-soon-to-be-built ped/bike bridge over the Mystic. If anyone is interested, please ping me, as I'd love to learn from the assembled masses here on ArchBoston!
 
it’s going to be backed up to the tunnel!
thats fantastic! backed up to the tunnel or very similar to whats in the photo.

There are 16,000 vehicles a day on that ramp (January 2021, higher than pre Covid volumes btw). you really think a few buildings are going to have any perceivable impact on that volume or those queues? Not to mention, part of the reason the ramp backs up is because Sullivan Sq sucks. fix Sullivan and that queue would be drastically reduced.

but youre right, we should stop all economic development for the region because there is traffic for a couple hours on a few days a week on the highways.

lets flip that and say, 'can you imagine how nice its going to be when the buildings are blocking the view of the highway.
 
thats fantastic! backed up to the tunnel or very similar to whats in the photo.

There are 16,000 vehicles a day on that ramp (January 2021, higher than pre Covid volumes btw). you really think a few buildings are going to have any perceivable impact on that volume or those queues? Not to mention, part of the reason the ramp backs up is because Sullivan Sq sucks. fix Sullivan and that queue would be drastically reduced.

but youre right, we should stop all economic development for the region because there is traffic for a couple hours on a few days a week on the highways.

lets flip that and say, 'can you imagine how nice its going to be when the buildings are blocking the view of the highway.

Easy tiger! I was just going for an anecdotal quip.
 
PNF: https://bpda.app.box.com/s/j6d2p0qfki3v4rx9wm25lx1khphoiche

The renders include Hood Park, btw. Only 2 buildings are actually in this development. One thing that's always bothered me about this... why is it 66 Cambridge Street when there's another, more famous Cambridge Street in Boston? You have the whole block. I get that they don't want to use "Hood Park Drive", but they could cheat and use a Beacham, Stack, or Spice address. Alternatively, rename this stretch to Alford Street, which currently has no purpose at all since it's almost entirely on the Mystic River Bridge.

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Hopefully the parking lot on the east side of this gets developed soon. But in any case, this development looks great and I hope many more like it follow in the Sullivan Square area.
 
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I'm pleasantly surprised by the ground levels of these buildings. Adding retail is huge for this area, and I like that the patio space extends into a nook away from the edge of the street.

These renders show the Spice St parking lot paved and painted, but they're not in any of the diagrams. Is that part of this project? If so, I'm actually disappointed. It's very out-of-place next to the rest of the development.
 
I'm pleasantly surprised by the ground levels of these buildings. Adding retail is huge for this area, and I like that the patio space extends into a nook away from the edge of the street.

These renders show the Spice St parking lot paved and painted, but they're not in any of the diagrams. Is that part of this project? If so, I'm actually disappointed. It's very out-of-place next to the rest of the development.

This developer doesn't own it, see discussion higher on the page.
 

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