Arsenal Yards | Arsenal Mall Redevelopment | Watertown

DominusNovus said:
Exactly my thought. Development is best left to the private aector whenever possible, and leave the infrastructure to the government, whenever reasonable.
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Canary Wharf was done by the govt too. So was all the redevelopment of Rotherhithe. People blast Canary Wharf on this forum but having lived just north of it for a year, I thought it was a spectacularly done development.

Also — it's not just who does the development, but how governmental control of the geographical space is meted out. In Mass., we have tiny bits of towns all over the place. This allows each one to retain their unique little characters, but stymies, almost entirely, any regional organization in matters of infrastructure (exclude the MWRA, I guess). You decide what you prefer.
 
DominusNovus said:
Exactly my thought. Development is best left to the private aector whenever possible, and leave the infrastructure to the government, whenever reasonable.
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Yes, but this belies the point that our balkanized, hyper-local government in New England stymies and dampens state govt from expanding transportation infrastructure.
 
Absolutely love that first building. Know it well... those gorgeous industrial windows. Mm mm.
 
Equilibria said:
New renderings on the last 2 pages of this enormous PDF:

http://www.watertown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24353
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Funny that the Home Depot and huge surface lot stays. It's also too bad they couldn't do something more with the waterfront, which leaves me a bit puzzled.
 
Shepard said:
Funny that the Home Depot and huge surface lot stays. It's also too bad they couldn't do something more with the waterfront, which leaves me a bit puzzled.
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Home Depot has a strange staying power. It will be the last big-box store at Assembly, too.
 
Shepard said:
It's also too bad they couldn't do something more with the waterfront, which leaves me a bit puzzled.
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Don't want people mistakenly walking along the waterfront which would interfere with their shopping while taking up valuable parking spaces.
 
Unlike the Somerville Home Depot, where another Home Depot is a mile (less as the crow flies) away in Everett, the Watertown location is the only one in the area.
 
Beton Brut said:
Is there no end to this craftless brand of "architecture"?
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Get used to it if you spend time in Watertown... arsenal street is gonna be lined by this crap all the way down in another ten years. It really is quite abysmal.
 
Beton Brut said:
Is there no end to this craftless brand of "architecture"?
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Fast casual architecture is here to stay. Until it all melts away in 20 years, and then it will be replaced by the next wave of thoughtless temporary junk.
 
Beton Brut said:
Is there no end to this craftless brand of "architecture"?
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If it is being driven by reducing costs compared to traditional facades like brick, stone or even precast panels, then that is fine with me. I just hope nobody is doing this type of architecture because they think it looks better or more "modern". I hope it lasts a reasonable amount of time also... because we are going to see a lot of facades falling apart in the next 30 years if these materials and fasteners aren't durable.
 
FK4 said:
Get used to it if you spend time in Watertown... arsenal street is gonna be lined by this crap all the way down in another ten years.
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cca said:
Fast casual architecture is here to stay. Until it all melts away in 20 years...
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I spend a fair amount of time in the "Waltham-Watertown corridor," and I love the handsome, purposeful Arsenal buildings. The new additions seem carelessly impermanent. I've no expectation that any developer would replicate the brick and iron trusswork of the original buildings, but what we have here is little more than an inhabitable spreadsheet.
 
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