BostonObserver
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Great pics of AVA, too bad it will be passe in 12 months.
Arlington -- the idea of a topic of discussion is to localize the discussion while not rigorously restricting things -- otherwise the comments about a lone fire hydrant and other peripheral matters found on this thread over the past few months wouldn't be of any interest and value either
Ava Somerville targets millennials
$2,060 for a one- bedroom
Either somethings off or I need to re-assess my position in my life as a Millennial.
Is it? I didn't take pictures of some of the giant streets. Actually, right at the corner of the new development is the largest frickin 4-way stop intersection I've ever seen. You could plop a whole separate roundabout between all the stop signs, that's how big it is. It was actually kinda strange going thru it because you couldn't see the drivers at all, they were all so far away.
Either somethings off or I need to re-assess my position in my life as a Millennial.
Whenever you see "Millennials" in real estate discussions, think: living-off-your-wealthy-parents-while-acting-independant Millennials, not drowning-in-student-loan-debt-and-low-entry-level-wages Millennials.
You know there ARE successful Millennials. Many of whom are over 30 now and have been making good money for almost a decade.
Today at around 3:30 pm, was walking around this area, a camera around my neck, not even taking pictures. One of their security guys stopped me, told me it wasn't ok to take pictures if it was for "commercial purposes". I informed him it wasn't, but frankly it's none of his or FRIT's business. As far as I know, Canal St (where this incident happened), is a public street. Who the hell does FRIT think they are to think they have any say as to what I can and can't do with my camera in that area? Before today I had no interest in anything other than promoting their terrific development. No longer is that the case.
Any thoughts on this?
This is a problem with police and security guards nationwide. Photography is not a crime. I wouldn't blame this incident on FRIT though. It's probably just a guard who doesn't know what he's doing. I'd write an e-mail to FRIT/Assembly Row explaining what happened including that you were actually interested in sharing this great development on social media. Assembly Row has been actively encouraging people to take pictures around the development and post to social media, often liking Instagram photos and retweeting posts from there. It's free advertising for them.
I think I can better explain the complaints that you seem to be oblivious. You structure the entire "excerpt" of the Paul Revere House to be of a cut and paste post - thus a large tangent with way-too-little transition - than an example. At the minimum, you should have put it in a quote box.
Instructive, off-topic, compare/contrasts are better done as hyperlinks. I love Jazzy riffs, artful juxtapositions and historical illustrations, and also topicality. Use links to follow your bliss and stay on topic at the same time. Off-topic posts should strive to be 1 inch tall.However, it is still instructive
Somerville wants to double size of Assembly Row
Plans for 73 acres could double size of an already huge project
By Casey RossGlobe Staff December 02, 2014
Somerville officials are exploring plans to double the size of the massive Assembly Row project by allowing construction of homes, stores, and offices on surrounding property along Interstate 93.
Mayor Joseph Curtatone said Monday that the city will consider making road and utility upgrades to encourage additional construction on 73 acres that abut the Assembly Row complex.
Already one of the biggest projects in the state, the 56-acre Assembly Row development includes several large apartment buildings, a recently completed MBTA station, and dozens of outlet stores and restaurants. On Monday, officials formally began construction of a 750,000-square-foot office headquarters for Partners HealthCare.
“There is a great amount of velocity and energy in Somerville that the development community wants to be a part of,” Curtatone said. “Over the next year, we as a community will script out what we want to be built on the remaining parcels.”
The additional 73 acres are situated between Interstate 93 and the existing Assembly Row development site along Grand Union Boulevard. The property is occupied by the Assembly Square Marketplace, a Home Depot, and a large office building and other businesses.
Somerville officials want the property to more closely resemble the dense city blocks at Assembly Row, where stores and restaurants are situated below new office space, apartments, and parking garages. They acknowledged that vision would probably take another 10 years or more to implement, as many of the properties within the 73 acres are owned by private entities that may not want to redevelop them in the near future.
Curtatone said he expects construction around Assembly Square to continue for 20 years. He has already laid out goals to build as many as 9,000 homes in the area to accommodate surging demand for housing from young professionals and others moving into urban neighborhoods.
“We’re in the midst of the greatest demographic shift in this nation’s history,” Curtatone said. “Somerville is in the middle of that, and developers want to profit from it. We want to leverage that profit motive to meet our community goals.”
The mayor has asked the Board of Aldermen to appropriate $500,000 to hire consultants to help plan uses for the 73 acres during the next year. The effort will identify road improvements and other upgrades needed to accommodate additional development.
The neighborhood’s economic future got a huge boost Monday when construction formally began on the Partners HealthCare headquarters. The project will bring to Assembly Row more than 4,500 administrative employees who are now scattered among 14 sites around the region.
Those employees will be housed in a 13-story building with 100,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that’s expected to contain a health club, stores, and restaurants.
“This is a huge validator of the vision we’ve laid out here,” said Don Briggs, an executive with Assembly Row developer Federal Realty Investment Trust. “The quality of that company makes this a location that everybody has to look at.”
In addition to the 13-story building and an adjacent parking garage, Partners has an option to build another 300,000 square feet of offices at Assembly Row. Future development will also bring another 1,400 homes, additional outlet stores, a hotel, and office buildings.
Briggs said Federal Realty, which also owns Assembly Square Marketplace, has explored buying additional property within the adjacent 73 acres. But so far, he said, the company has not found a seller.
“There’s still a lot of development opportunity here,” Briggs said. “We have a vested interest in seeing the balance of the neighborhood built out in the right way. Whether we’re the developer or not remains to be seen.”
Assembly won't come close to meeting it's full potential till it connects with the rest of Somerville's urban fabric.
I disagree with this statement.
Assembly is an island and will remain so for the foreseeable future. I don't see that as any kind of limitation. The area discussed in this article is humongous and at full build could be a completely self-sufficient neighborhood. Hell, it'll be more populous than many towns just a few miles away. Urban connections to the rest of Somerville might be a little icing on the cake, but the full potential of Assembly rests in converting the big box retail and surface parking into urban forms.
People will be coming and going primarily by car and rail and considerably less so by foot and bike. That is a result of the history and geometry of the site. I think that is the full potential of the site.