Arlington Developments

Indeed, they are. The previous school almost lost accreditation due to its dilapidated state. The façade (with large classical columns from nearly a century ago) and set-back of the previous high school was really nice, but the columns couldn't be preserved. On the plus side, now the structure will sit much closer to Mass Ave, creating more of an urban corridor feeling.

In other news, last week a developer proposed to level a one-story building at the corner of Mass Ave and Lake St....and to replace it with a 5 story (!) mixed use building with underground parking. Very rare in Arlington. Hopefully not for long.
 
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Holy shit! I had no idea this was happening. I can't believe they are knocking down the entire old school. That's kind of nuts. How bad did it have to get for this to be the best option?

Edit: There are images on the website about the current state of things. Man, 20 years went by so fast that I didn't realize how old that place had gotten.
 
Even though I'll be ponying up for the new high school, the old one needed to go. We took a tour of it and it's a mish mash of 100 year old buildings connected not very well to a subsequent half dozen add ons over the next 60 years of its life. I don't believe any updates have happened since 1980. I was astounded how old parts of the building are. In that one horse hick town I grew up in, we're on high school #3 or #4 in that same amount of time.
 
RandomWalk said:
The building with Masshole Donuts?
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Yes (though hopefully Masshole will be able to relocate across the street). Proposal is for 37 residential units, including 8 affordable, with (happily) only 12-15 parking spots underground, which would be the first in East Arlington that I know of. I've posted two images from the proposal below:

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shawn said:
My family always used "Irish Riviera" for the South Shore - Marshfield, Scituate, etc. I didn't know it also worked for Arlington at one point, that's fun.
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I grew up in Arlington in the '80s and never heard it referred to thus and also did hear "Irish Riviera" used for the South Shore and South Coast.
 
My dad grew up working class next door in Cambridge (and has Irish heritage) and called Arlington that constantly. IIRC, Arlington had one of the highest per capita populations of both Irish and Catholics in the northeast or something. They had 4-5 Catholic churches (plus one just over the line in Winchester) - for that relatively small town.

chrisbrat said:
I grew up in Arlington in the '80s and never heard it referred to thus and also did hear "Irish Riviera" used for the South Shore and South Coast.
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What I was told was that when Cambridge ended rent control everyone moved out to Arlington. Going to high school there definitely didn't feel like I was in Southie. Sure, there were always the townies. But It was a lot more diverse than that.
 
Thanks for posting, Brad. Broadway is in desperate need of greater density and mixed use if that major thoroughfare is ever going to be more than a fairly desolate strip. I don't expect it to be like Capital Sq. in Mass Ave (current density won't likely support that much commerce), but some nice upgrades like this development can only (hopefully) help. With that being said, I do with that the ground floor (Food Pantry) was a bit more 'open' than the current brick-to-window ratio allows. But overall, nice.
 
rjacobs said:
Thanks for posting, Brad. Broadway is in desperate need of greater density and mixed use if that major thoroughfare is ever going to be more than a fairly desolate strip. I don't expect it to be like Capital Sq. in Mass Ave (current density won't likely support that much commerce), but some nice upgrades like this development can only (hopefully) help. With that being said, I do with that the ground floor (Food Pantry) was a bit more 'open' than the current brick-to-window ratio allows. But overall, nice.
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A big plus is that it makes the corner a real corner instead of being just a building in the middle of a parking lot. The transmission place next door probably won't be around much longer and likely will go up to the sidewalk too.

A couple blocks away is this, a day care center built a year or two ago also directly on the corner. Next door is a lot that appears to be getting prepped for something.

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Yesterday

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I said in the Somerville High School thread that the large expanses of red brick here reminds me of the Transportation Building, which is NOT a favorable comparison. the glass to masonry ratio is off.

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Arlington sprang for the fancy brick. Looking at the detailing, I can’t help but see a punchcard.
 
My real estate job has me in Arlington a lot these days so here's a bunch of random shots from this month

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So I had to shoot the property at the far right, second and third floors

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And for whatever reason, I really liked the layout and amount of light it got

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And then I had to take the drone up to get aerials of the property, and proceeded to get all around shots as well

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kz1000ps said:
The glass to masonry ratio is off.
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Low heating/cooling costs... Any town loves to hear that

Not an excuse for an awkward looking design though. There are plenty of buildings with low WWR's that look rather nice.
 
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