Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

I know this is a captain obvious comment, but that first pic, it really shows how close those apartments are to the Orange Line. You could probably go from apartment door to office chair in ~20 minutes if you work downtown.
 
Puma HQ
455_grand_union_march.jpg

Link
 
Puma hq appears to be topped out.

These are great additions. The residential facade seems to be turning out better than expected. Cant wait to see whats next! Also Id love to see the outer perimeter of the nearby garages on the main strip converted to some housing units, the inner garage can be kept for now though. Weve learned how to bury garages very well, I think they should. They could even give it a mini gov garage treatment and bury the garage plus throw a residential tower above. Plenty of options.

I think the garages will actually help in the long run by giving places for expansion. Right now its a monoculture where everything is being built at the same time, which most neighborhoods arent built like that. In a later time with newer architectural styles it would be cool to see some new buildings added to the core to give a more organic neighborhood. Regardless in my opinion its turning out pretty well
 
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stick n move said:
I think the garages will actually help in the long run by giving places for expansion. Right now its a monoculture where everything is being built at the same time, which most neighborhoods arent built like that. In a later time with newer architectural styles it would be cool to see some new buildings added to the core to give a more organic neighborhood. Regardless in my opinion its turning out pretty well
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The mono culture weirds me out, much like the Seaport as well. But not like the kind seen on Newbury or similar traditional streets in Boston (but maybe that would classify more mixed considering the occasional modernist slip-in).
Something about the facadism in these newer developer projects just depresses me. It's like an ever thinning layer of "customization" each designer gets, which usually includes 2 given materials (glass, and folded metal panels), and some accent veneer. Just a diminishing and less "authentic" level of diversity.

And what wraps in up into a more sterile/dystopic package is all the chain stores here. It's like a giant outdoor mall where all the big retailers are acting like neighborhood shops. Very strange and off-putting in my opinion, because knowing this area is starting out more corporate, it'll never feel like a real main street of locals.

Sorry to bemoan an otherwise very much needed and just fine addition to the housing and retail markets. Not trying to invoke NIMBYism, but just vent my frustrations with development and my industry as a whole.
 
^Welcome. Agreed. "Veneer" is the word. Too often our new buildings look cheap, temporary, even thin-skinned. Like a stiff wind might blow it all down.
 
The City of Somerville has secured use of the empty Kmart at Assembly for use in emergency response.

Partners is bringing to the Kmart parking lot a novel mobile decontamination unit that uses "concentrated hydrogen peroxide vapor" to sterilize up to 80,000 N95 masks per day. 80,000 clean masks per day is enough to serve all of Massachusetts.
www.bostonglobe.com

Boston hospitals getting ‘game changer’ machine that sterilizes 80,000 protective masks a day - The Boston Globe

The move could potentially serve all hospitals within Massachusetts as health care professionals statewide work to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
 
nm88 said:
^Welcome. Agreed. "Veneer" is the word. Too often our new buildings look cheap, temporary, even thin-skinned. Like a stiff wind might blow it all down.
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Thankfully theyre using stone on the res tower which always gives a more permanent feeling.
 
Bananarama said:
Something about the facadism in these newer developer projects just depresses me. It's like an ever thinning layer of "customization" each designer gets, which usually includes 2 given materials (glass, and folded metal panels), and some accent veneer. Just a diminishing and less "authentic" level of diversity.

And what wraps in up into a more sterile/dystopic package is all the chain stores here. It's like a giant outdoor mall where all the big retailers are acting like neighborhood shops. Very strange and off-putting in my opinion, because knowing this area is starting out more corporate, it'll never feel like a real main street of locals.
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Developers, developers, developers.... money, money, money...

Seeing less 'authenticity' with every project that is completed. Not sure how to fix it, other than to stop complaining and become a developer myself, to be honest.

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BeeLine said:
IMG_3254 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
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I've been wondering what those steel 'extrusions' were for for such a long time, and didn't even think they could be for balconies. Do they always separate them from the structure like this and I've been blind this entire time? Always just assumed the balcony floors were directly tied into the building. Genius for the insulation value.
 
Personally I think these new buildings look fine, the partners building and its garages is the worst part of the area imo. Hopefully they get buried in the next developments after this.

-The one with the stilts over the garage is ugly (the stilts/garage part) from across the river too, but on the assembly side its fine.
 
Long shot, but does anyone have info about the south headhouse for Assembly station? I'm specifically looking for when it opened (along with the Partners building in July 2016) and whether it was financed by Partners.
 
Pic from last month but nothing has happened since then anyway. Does anybody know when Somerville is supposed to resume construction?

IMG_0982 by David Z, on Flickr
 
DZH22 said:
Does anybody know when Somerville is supposed to resume construction?
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From the city's website:

  • Phase One – May 18, 2020 Start: The first phase will focus on highly critical projects and contractors who have been working successfully under COVID-management plans on sites outside of Somerville. This phase primarily includes large municipal and utility projects.
  • Phase Two – June 1, 2020 Start: The second phase will focus on critical projects with contractors who have less experience with COVID-management plans. This phase primarily includes additional municipal and utility projects as well as private construction.
  • Phase Three – July through September 2020 Start: The third phase of construction will focus on highly critical projects currently in the design and bidding phase with anticipated construction starts in the late summer or early fall.
  • Phase Four – Start To-Be-Determined (may be deferred to 2021): Additional municipal projects remain under review.
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So private construction will resume on June 1.
 
FRIC has proposed an initial redo of the KMart space (most recently used as a PPE cleaning facility for COVID response):


Renovation of the current building, with small footprint retail facing north (toward the parking lot) and office space facing south, with its own entrance on Foley Street (133 Middlesex is the mailing address).

No mention of whether this is temporary until they tear it down later, but it doesn't seem like they're less than a decade from doing that anyway. I guess it's better to use the building than to turn it into weeds...
 
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