Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

[George_Apley]

Man, they're chugging right along.

 

[davem]

https://flic.kr/p/LBzE8B

You can't see it in this pic, but they've labeled this thing "The Red Rocket"

About the Partners garage, you can't really judge it from the side that faces the tracks. The part that looks out onto Grand Union Blvd isn't that bad, and will have the daycare and large trees on front of it. You can't see it at all from inside 'the row' either, which is what really matters.

 

[stick n move]

This should be called parking garage row, I don't get why they need the most parking garages if all time directly located on the orange line.

 

[tysmith95]

This should be called parking garage row, I don't get why they need the most parking garages if all time directly located on the orange line.

Hopefully the next two parcels don't contain any parking.

 

[JumboBuc]

This should be called parking garage row, I don't get why they need the most parking garages if all time directly located on the orange line.

This might be a post better suited for another thread, but the non-Orange Line transit options to Assembly are pretty awful, especially on weekends. I live on the Somerville/Cambridge line around Porter, and practically the only times I ever get to Assembly are on days when I'm borrowing a car. And when I list off "places to go on days that I have a car", Assembly is right up at the top of my list. From the rest of Somerville, the 90 bus is pretty much the only direct transit option without going all the way into Downtown Crossing, and it's serpentine and runs on >1 hour headways on the weekends with nothing at night. The only other bus to Assembly, the 92, basically just follows the Orange Line. Clearly, the bus routes were designed when Assembly was an empty wasteland and haven't been updated since.

It's even awkward to bike there.

I'm very bullish on this area and think it's the best developed-recently-from-the-ground-up neighborhood around. I consider it to be way more urban and better designed than NorthPoint, the Seaport, the Ink Block, etc. But practically speaking I feel like Assembly is closer to Copley Square than Davis Square, despite its Somerville address.

 

[citylover94]

Not to really take this on a tangent but I really think part of the issue is that the busses in Somerville right now are mostly very focused on downtown oriented transportation because the only rail lines that stop in Somerville are at Davis and Assembly. After the green line finally gets extended whenever that happens the busses should be able to change to more radial and square to square focused routes which would solve that issue. Right now though I don't think there are enough busses to add any routes or increase frequency on existing routes.

Also I agree this is better than most of the other new neighborhood sized developments both in Boston as well as around the country. It is much more successful than even the older more developed TOD areas in Washington DC.

Also as far as parking goes I believe that most or all of the parking garages are built so they are structurally independent of the buildings so they can be torn down and redeveloped as time goes on.

 

[whighlander]

This should be called parking garage row, I don't get why they need the most parking garages if all time directly located on the orange line.

Stick -- the Orange Line might be a solution for some of the 4,000 + employees as might living in Assembly and walking to work

However, for a lot of the employees driving from where ever they currently chose to live to work at Partners is also the method of choice

I suspect that an employer as large and sophisticated as Partners is well aware of the distribution of commute options which are available at the site and how their employees want to commute -- this information was probably part of the planning process

 

[stick n move]

Yea i more meant the parking garages attached to every condo building not partners.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Does the Assembly developer also own the La Quinta, 99 Restaurant, Public Storage, Home Depot, the old Circuit City, etc? Basically everything inside of I-93, the Fellsway, the Mystic River, and the tracks, except the courthouse?

 

[JumboBuc]

^ No

 

[boston85]

Does the Assembly developer also own the La Quinta, 99 Restaurant, Public Storage, Home Depot, the old Circuit City, etc? Basically everything inside of I-93, the Fellsway, the Mystic River, and the tracks, except the courthouse?

FRIT do not, but Somerville has put money toward a preliminary study to plan a better infrastructure and road design to spur development of the rest of the area.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/12/02/somerville-wants-double-size-assembly-row-project/wT2VW8O4DQv2Spw1O9zYcJ/story.html

The city also proposed putting its new police headquarters along Middlesex Ave.
http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/article/20150304/News/150308117

 

[tangent]

Took some pics from the other side of the Mystic River on Friday 9/2:

 

[davem]

They're getting ready to jump both of the parcel 6 cranes.

Narrow streets, first floor retail all around, can't see the parking at all from the actual pedestrian realm (vs the railroad tracks).

 

[DZH22]

From the Fells last weekend

IMG_0858 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0859 by David Z, on Flickr

 

[BostonDrew]

Apparently, 45% of the condos at The Alloy have been pre-sold, some for $1,000 per sq/ft. http://boston.curbed.com/2016/9/7/12833752/assembly-row-condos-somerville

 

[TheRifleman]

I was at the Assembly Row this weekend. I cannot believe the area does not have Traffic lights or pedestrian lights. Somebody is going to get killed over there.

What are the developers thinking?
Saturday--day was absolutely crazy.

 

[tysmith95]

^Grand Union is desperately in need of some traffic lights. I'm sure the developer want's Somerville to pay for it. The intersection of grand union and Foley is probably the worst offender.

If they don't want to put up a traffic light they could put up a small rotary. The one on the northern side of Assembly works well.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

The one on the northern side of Assembly works well.

That's because there's way less pedestrians.

As someone who drives and walks in the area, it isn't bad. Everyone is super cautious because of the lack of signal control. People would be bombing down the street if they get lit up with green lights.

 

[tysmith95]

I think the area would be much better for pedestrians if they could make Grand Union skinner from the Rotary to the light at the Partners building. I'm sure that REIT would like the extra space and could possibly pay Somerville for this to happen.

Another idea would be to upgrade the bike lanes to protected bike lanes on the other side of parked cars which would make the street feel smaller and slow down traffic. When I bike protected bike lanes feel a lot safer than unprotected ones, everyone drives in unprotected lanes so it provides little to no benefit versus having no marked bike lanes.

 

[davem]

As someone who drives and walks in the area, it isn't bad. Everyone is super cautious because of the lack of signal control. People would be bombing down the street if they get lit up with green lights.

This this this this this. Traffic lights would make the area far less safe.

Anyway, from earlier today:

(Full Size)