Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

Additional off-ramps from I-93 are unnecessary and just add to the further convenience of driving directly to locations in transit-rich areas and is basically what Texas does - build transit and then expand roads to undermine the capital investment they just made in transit.

It's fine the way that it is.
 
Yeah there's a direct ramps to and from assembly from both directions on 93. And an orange line station. Anyone getting off at Sullivan sq is doing it wrong.
 
One from my "roof beach" (top deck of parking garage)

27723035741_de49145fa2_b.jpg
 
Okay, Assembly Square. Your turn for a photo dump. I don't see/can't find a separate thread for the Partners building, so I'll put them in here unless someone says otherwise.

Details are quickly being finished for the Partners building:






Station head house looks like it's days from opening:





Nice wayfinding and more bioswale-looking lanscaping. I guess that's just la mode these days:



More architectural detail as I walk around and through the building:















 
Last edited:
Breaking this up into multiple posts in the hopes of making these pages terrible to load for people.

More details, contextual shots, and lanscaping:









Benches!:





Peering into the lobby:



Veluptuous lipstick on a pig - oink oink parking spaces:



Facade along the rear:






Lamppost:

 
Last round of Partners before moving on:




Without retail, the scale of the first floor feels enormous:





 
Last edited:
CSTH - yes, plywood with retail anticipated for these spaces.

Time for some Building 5A action...or lackthereof...not a whole heck of a lot of change going on at this site:





And a whole heck of a lot of Building 6:





Looks like some pre-tensioned concrete slabs for Building 6 in this staging area with a bunch of samplers in the background:




I'm not sure I understand what's going on here with this construction style:




Hi, Davem!




The back side of the parking structure:




Interesting bracing of structural steel that suggests the tall portion of this building is structurally independent of the garage/doesn't transfer loads to the garage:




Actually, looks like the low, wrap-around portion of housing being built out of plywood is also structurally independent of the garage and the taller portion being built out of steel and pre-stressed concrete slabs:




So this is basically 3 separate buildings being tied together.
 
I like the partners building. It looks older than it is, in a good way. It almost looks like a re-clad factory rather than a new building.
 
This was a great development. WHY? Because of the orange line access going right into the community.

GREAT JOB and awesome atmosphere.

Smart thinking and planning.
Somerville and Cambridge get it.

Boston doesn't
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
Benches!:

Click to expand...

Heh, not only does this earn you LEED points for the reclaimed wood, it also earns points for the educational signage.

DigitalSciGuy said:
I'm not sure I understand what's going on here with this construction style:
Click to expand...
It's called Girder-Slab: http://girder-slab.com/

s1.png
dbpcp.png


DigitalSciGuy said:
Interesting bracing of structural steel that suggests the tall portion of this building is structurally independent of the garage/doesn't transfer loads to the garage:
Click to expand...
That's correct. The diagonal bracing on the steel is required to counter the effects of lateral loads/shear forces that the tower will be subject to.
 
TheRifleman said:
This was a great development. WHY? Because of the orange line access going right into the community.

GREAT JOB and awesome atmosphere.

Smart thinking and planning.
Somerville and Cambridge get it.

Boston doesn't
Click to expand...

He said not seeing the irony of praising a multi-thousand pre-fab parking garage designed for a majority of 5000 employees to drive in on 93 between the hours of 7am-9am and out 4 pm-6pm every day for the next 20 years while railing against a smaller casino facility 0.5 miles away that will have trips focused on Friday nights and Weekends.
 
choo said:
He said not seeing the irony of praising a multi-thousand pre-fab parking garage designed for a majority of 5000 employees to drive in on 93 between the hours of 7am-9am and out 4 pm-6pm every day for the next 20 years while railing against a smaller casino facility 0.5 miles away that will have trips focused on Friday nights and Weekends.
Click to expand...

Choo -- the real question is -- since no medical care is happening here [well they probably have a nurse for paper cuts and to give some tylenol for strained backs from lifting stacks of file folders] and no medical research is happening here

What the Hell are 5,000 people doing?

I can foresee most of those jobs being automated in the near future -- then what?
 
choo said:
He said not seeing the irony of praising a multi-thousand pre-fab parking garage designed for a majority of 5000 employees to drive in on 93 between the hours of 7am-9am and out 4 pm-6pm every day for the next 20 years while railing against a smaller casino facility 0.5 miles away that will have trips focused on Friday nights and Weekends.
Click to expand...

Brilliant!
 
whighlander said:
Choo -- the real question is -- since no medical care is happening here [well they probably have a nurse for paper cuts and to give some tylenol for strained backs from lifting stacks of file folders] and no medical research is happening here

What the Hell are 5,000 people doing?

I can foresee most of those jobs being automated in the near future -- then what?
Click to expand...

Are you some kind of weird reverse-Luddite? You constantly insist that the old way of doing things is the worst and never worked well and needs to be replaced immediately despite all evidence to the contrary. The most grievous error any company can make (seemingly, according to you) is to employ anyone.

You think a company like Partners doesn't know their own business needs? You think they don't have teams of bean-counters minimizing payroll/headcount and maximizing the bottom line in every way possible. Come on, you are smarter than that and yet you insist on making these insipid comments.


EDIT - here I go again, feeding the monster
 
If the complexity of what we (businesses, organizations, etc) are trying to do is perfectly static, then one would expect the number of people it takes to do the job to steadily decline as rote work is automated away.

The issue is that what we are trying to do is not anywhere close to static. The complexity of the "tasks at hand" increase ferociously in parallel with tasks being automated.

Profit chasing companies employ armies of strategists, developers, programmers, not only to BUILD the automation, but to be BUILDING IN INCREASED COMPLEXITY into the automation.

So the capitalist's dream of not needing any sort of staff is very, very far away (unless they want to compete in the most basic, obsolete products/services). A constantly shifting/changing staff, sure...but not NO staff!

Nice piece on this ("the automation paradox"):
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/automation-paradox/424437/
 
choo said:
He said not seeing the irony of praising a multi-thousand pre-fab parking garage designed for a majority of 5000 employees to drive in on 93 between the hours of 7am-9am and out 4 pm-6pm every day for the next 20 years while railing against a smaller casino facility 0.5 miles away that will have trips focused on Friday nights and Weekends.
Click to expand...

The entire concept works. Assembly Row keeps people inside the area and if you want to flow into the city and out you do it by the orange line platform. NO NEED for a car that is per choice now.

Yes...... maybe there are some bad buildings or the parking garage was not a great idea but overall the entire DEVELOPMENT WORKS with efficiency.
Access to in & out towards the city along with the surrounding areas without a car.

This should have been the SEAPORT model.
 
Last edited:
TheRifleman said:
The entire concept works. Assembly Row keeps people inside the area and if you want to flow into the city and out you do it by the orange line platform. NO NEED for a car that is per choice now.

Yes...... maybe there are some bad buildings or the parking garage was not a great idea but overall the entire DEVELOPMENT WORKS with efficiency.
Access to in & out towards the city along with the surrounding areas without a car.

This should have been the SEAPORT model.
Click to expand...

Been to Assembly Row multiple times and I generally like the area as a place to visit but probably wouldn't want to live there. I couldn't get over hearing the screeching and noise from the orange line passing by every 5-10 minutes when walking around outside. Maybe some residents could chime in on whether it's noticeable when at home.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top