Assembly is turning out really well for what it is at this point. The mix, quality and vibrancy is impressive, and the phase 2 buildout will enhance that. That picture really shows how it will still have the ability to double in size from the parking lots, home depot lots, old theater and then the legacy assembly strip mall being rolled in as well. I think this area will continue to see a decade of solid, near continued construction from plot to plot.
Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville
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I agree. The only thing it really needs is a grocery store/drug store and it will be a totally self-sufficient community. The newer local restaurants are much better than the chains so far. The AMC and Legoland do a great job drawing people in. The urban design is really well executed. It will always feel a little sterile but it relates really nicely to the river, has a nice human scale along the main shopping streets, and does a pretty good job with different facades for different buildings. I especially like the differing facades along "restaurant row" near the river for each restaurant.
underground
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Beer Garden is open. I believe it's the strip connecting the office tower to the rest of the development.
Do the parking garages on the Grand Union Blvd-side of phase 1 have ground floor retail? I'm curious if when the lots on the other side of Grand Union get built, will it be a retail corridor? I haven't been down there to check out Assembly Sq yet and its tough to tell from that render.
pixelsand8
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Across the street from Saks and 5th, which is at the lower corner of the Phase I build out in this picture. It's just grass in this render. It would be east of Grand Union Blvd.
Not really, there is some store frontage but not much, it's a pretty dismal walk. The other side I think is completely different with separate owners so unless Somerville uses eminent domain I doubt it will be built on. Looks too profitable as is. A bit unfortunate because the strip mall parking lot next door is a major urban buzzkill.
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It's not really oriented as a retail corridor. Saks Off 5th has an entrance on GUB.
pixelsand8
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While on the topic some Phase 2 crane porn;
Thank you very much KJ. I was wondering what the work they were doing was for.
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Why do you suppose they are building on the parcel closest to the T station so late? (shown as grass in the picture above). Is it because they're angling to put something taller/denser there (saying: "see this is working so well, you should let us build denser"), or waiting for ridership to show that TOD is "working"?
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I think they wanted to just keep Assembly Row expanding naturally, hence the next parcels to be developed are the next 2 to the east. If they developed the T parcel, then there would be an awkward gap in the development and ruin the urbanism for the time being. Also, that T parcel really has a lot on the line. There's a ton of potential having the entrance at your parcel and I would hope they are seriously analyzing how to best utilize it.
BostonUrbEx
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Why does a water tower randomly appear on the upper right side of that render?
I blame Apple Maps.
This is a great angle to show the proximity (as the crow flies or the je tski rides) to Wynn. From the Everett side you could probably get a powerful t-shirt cannon to bombard Assembly with promotional Wynn schwag. What dark days lie ahead...
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Agreed. If Everett was smart, they'd spend their entire community-offset budget from the Casino on a "triboro" bike/ped bridge connecting:
Costco-Casino
Costco-Assembly T
Assembly T-Casino
And rezone half of Gateway (the part that's just 3000' from the Assmbly T) for TOD.
From the Assembly headhouse to the Casino's water's edge on the Everett side is about 1000' You're at the Casino's door by 1500', at Costco's door by 2000' and at Target or Home Depot by 2500' (with 2500' often sited as what's walkable to Heavy Rail, but there are plenty of people who live/walk/work in the 2500' to 4000' radius of heavy rail).
When that takes off, another 1000' ped bridge from Wellington to the northern half of Gateway would complete network.
Java King
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The ideas mentioned by Fattony bring to mind the Pedestrian Bridge across the Missouri in Omaha, Nebraska:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ima...d=0CDYQyjc&ei=isJwVLbePLjesASanoGIAQ#imgdii=_
.......my somewhat "home" city of Omaha.....if you consider growing up 3 hours west of Omaha to be a distant suburb. (Maybe in Nebraska, that counts as a suburb.)
Anyway, it's a pretty cool bridge that could really be outstanding between Assembly Station and the Wynn Casino.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ima...d=0CDYQyjc&ei=isJwVLbePLjesASanoGIAQ#imgdii=_
.......my somewhat "home" city of Omaha.....if you consider growing up 3 hours west of Omaha to be a distant suburb. (Maybe in Nebraska, that counts as a suburb.)
Anyway, it's a pretty cool bridge that could really be outstanding between Assembly Station and the Wynn Casino.
JumboBuc
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Is there anything preventing a pedestrian connection over the Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic like the one over the Charles River Dam between Charlestown and the North End? Obviously a new dedicated bridge would be preferable but I'd imagine a basic crossing could be added to the dam without much difficulty at MUCH less cost. Am I missing something here?
A study was done in 2009. It's alluded to in DCR's Mystic River Master Plan (p. A-36 of this http://mysticriver.org/storage/mysticrivermasterplann-final-11-09.pdf):
The Amelia Earhart Dam, located just east of the confluence of the Mystic River
and the Malden River, was constructed in 1966 between Everett and Somerville.
The dam was built to control tidal flooding and to create a freshwater basin
for public recreation. There is no public access across the dam. In 2009, DCR,
in cooperation wit Exelon New England Holdings, LLC, conducted a study to
evaluate the feasibility of providing a bicycle and pedestrian crossing over the
Mystic River in the vicinity of the Amelia Earhart Dam, Bicycle & Pedestrian
Crossing of the Mystic River, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. 2009. The
alternatives analyzed included:
• a path over the lock gates
• a movable span bridge over the locks
• a new bridge upstream from the dam
• attaching a structure to the existing MBTA bridge
The study found that “the alternatives that utilize the dam or portions of
the dam present significant operational conflicts between the functions of
the structure as a flood control and navigation structure versus bicycle/
pedestrian transportation.”Construction of a new, independent pedestrian
bridge represents the only option for a new crossing. Because of the expense,
construction of a new bridge will not happen for a number of years. In the short-term, it is recommended that DCR work with the adjacent communities and the Massachusetts Highway Department to modify the existing roadways and approaches (Alford Street and Wellington Bridge) to provide a pedestrian and bicycle crossing of the Mystic River