Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

F-Line to Dudley said:
Puma's Westford HQ is a little less than 5 miles from the Littleton stop on the Fitchburg Line, and MRTA has a bus route out of the station hitting Puma, IBM, and downtown Littleton. So their employees have long been able to enjoy car-free or car-few commutes.
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Using the trip planner, just the commuter rail ride from the Littleton stop plus the orange line transfer is 1:05 for the South Acton Express and 1:20 for the regular stops. Plus you have to account for ensuring you make it, delays, etc, not to mention the drive time.

The existing workers aren't going to find any comparable job near Westford, so regardless whether they get laid off or not, they will need to move.
 
Even with a shuttle to a transit station, a suburban office park is stiflingly isolated. If you are jammed up with a problem, you don’t have many alternatives to clear your head. At Assembly Square you could hop on the Orange Line, get lunch at a hole in the wall downtown, and come back with a new perspective.

I remember my short time in the office parks near Raytheon’s HQ in Waltham as an awful experience.
 
RandomWalk said:
Even with a shuttle to a transit station, a suburban office park is stiflingly isolated. If you are jammed up with a problem, you don’t have many alternatives to clear your head. At Assembly Square you could hop on the Orange Line, get lunch at a hole in the wall downtown, and come back with a new perspective.

I remember my short time in the office parks near Raytheon’s HQ in Waltham as an awful experience.
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Or, just walk 10 mins and grab Taco Loco in east Somerville.
I know some progress is being made with trying to tie Assembly to East Somerville, but christ, it seems to move at a snails pace given the amount of private investment happening.
 
We're talking about transit access to office parks 'near' Littleton like they were TOD... Let's not delude ourselves: these people likely drive to their current office in Westford at the end of 'Lyberty Way' (what a name 🙄 ) amidst a cluster of car-oriented stuff off the same 495 exit.

I mean, look at that 4-story car park podium in the Puma office like it's straight out of Sanford, Connecticut! There's an expectation that these people might follow Puma into AR right off I-93 and we're certainly encouraging it for the foreseeable decades to come. How full is Partners' massive 2k+ space garage on a daily basis? Is there no way for them to set up shared parking arrangements?

How full are any of the garages built into the housing for that matter? I'm going to keep beating this drum because now that we're almost a decade into this area redevelopment, Somerville ought to pause and review parking utilisation rates and rethink what they've got left in the bank here. People will continue to work, shop, and live here even if there were no parking here. We're past the tipping point of the island effect. Seattle would KILL for a rapid transit line like the Orange Line and it's led the nation with its zero-parking TOD zoning.
 
Don't have pictures, but it looks like a lot of construction going on at parcel 8 (at least from the orange line).
 

Federal Realty

Curbed has a render with parcels 5B and 8.
AssemblyRow_Overview.0.jpg
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
We're talking about transit access to office parks 'near' Littleton like they were TOD... Let's not delude ourselves: these people likely drive to their current office in Westford at the end of 'Lyberty Way' (what a name 🙄 ) amidst a cluster of car-oriented stuff off the same 495 exit.

I mean, look at that 4-story car park podium in the Puma office like it's straight out of Sanford, Connecticut! There's an expectation that these people might follow Puma into AR right off I-93 and we're certainly encouraging it for the foreseeable decades to come. How full is Partners' massive 2k+ space garage on a daily basis? Is there no way for them to set up shared parking arrangements?

How full are any of the garages built into the housing for that matter? I'm going to keep beating this drum because now that we're almost a decade into this area redevelopment, Somerville ought to pause and review parking utilisation rates and rethink what they've got left in the bank here. People will continue to work, shop, and live here even if there were no parking here. We're past the tipping point of the island effect. Seattle would KILL for a rapid transit line like the Orange Line and it's led the nation with its zero-parking TOD zoning.
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From the discussions I've heard with other (not to be named) companies (not Puma), the idea that some older, car-centric, suburban employees (who are also expensive) will not make the move, to be replaced with younger, urban dwelling, T riding, theoretically hipper employees (who are likely less expensive) is a feature, not a bug for these moves.

Also being on the T makes it easier to attract talent from Converse, New Balance and Reebok.
 
I certainly won’t buy a place unless it includes parking...and I think that’s evident if you look at sales pace of Lovejoy wharf. As for offices, I don’t think all that parking is necessary...especially if it’s free. I would drive to work if parking was free...but it’s 400+ month.
 
I don't like that a TOD relocation may be the safe and legal way to discriminate against older workers.

There's no doubt that the Greatests, Silents, and Boomers actively arranged things in favor of the car, but in classic fashion, the generation it really bites will be the Gen-xers, who do not have an Orange line terminus at 128 in Reading, or a Red at 128 in Lexington that they can drive to, thanks to choices made by anti Transit snobs in the 1970s. (When today's 55 year olds couldn't even vote)
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
How full are any of the garages built into the housing for that matter? I'm going to keep beating this drum because now that we're almost a decade into this area redevelopment, Somerville ought to pause and review parking utilisation rates and rethink what they've got left in the bank here. People will continue to work, shop, and live here even if there were no parking here. We're past the tipping point of the island effect. Seattle would KILL for a rapid transit line like the Orange Line and it's led the nation with its zero-parking TOD zoning.
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I've never been there, but it seems like it is a bit outside of the core. I could see them wanting garages for the time being, and you can always tear them down later.
 
Tearing the garages down later and adding new buildings in their place later can actually add more “realism” to the neighborhood and make it better. The buildings built now have similar styles and are essentially part of a masterplan. In the future there will be different building styles and that mixing of styles of old and new makes for better neighborhoods ultimately. Neighborhoods that have quirks, blending of time periods and styles, repurposing of things, and a blending of materials, uses...etc end up better than places that are all built at the same time.

Like other parts of Boston the garages can be filling a need now, while ensuring there is room for expansion in the future when the neighborhood matures. I think this can definitely lead to an overall better neighborhood than if everything were built to capacity now and the only room for new development was to expand outward. The best neighborhoods have mixtures of styles and with this being built new from scratch, it at least leaves room to blend the future with what we have now.

I too think there is too much parking now. Theres a lot for a neighborhood on the orange line, and from here on out they should really limit the amount of parking added, ideally adding no more to whats there. I think theres enough to allow commuting, but its past the tipping point after these next 2 projects and its time to move away from a commuter centric model to the natural progression towards transit centric.
 
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stick n move said:
Tearing the garages down later and adding new buildings in their place later can actually add more “realism” to the neighborhood and make it better. The buildings built now have similar styles and are essentially part of a masterplan. In the future there will be different building styles and that mixing of styles of old and new makes for better neighborhoods ultimately. Neighborhoods that have quirks, blending of time periods and styles, repurposing of things, and a blending of materials, uses...etc end up better than places that are all built at the same time.

Like other parts of Boston the garages can be filling a need now, while ensuring there is room for expansion in the future when the neighborhood matures. I think this can definitely lead to an overall better neighborhood than if everything were built to capacity now and the only room for new development was to expand outward. The best neighborhoods have mixtures of styles and with this being built new from scratch, it at least leaves room to blend the future with what we have now.

I too think there is too much parking now. Theres a lot for a neighborhood on the orange line, and from here on out they should really limit the amount of parking added, ideally adding no more to whats there. I think theres enough to allow commuting, but its past the tipping point after these next 2 projects and its time to move away from a commuter centric model to the natural progression towards transit centric.
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No! We have to preserve our historic parking garages!
 
Thats different.. The art deco structure is being used for the base of a tower.
 
JeffDowntown said:
From the discussions I've heard with other (not to be named) companies (not Puma), the idea that some older, car-centric, suburban employees (who are also expensive) will not make the move, to be replaced with younger, urban dwelling, T riding, theoretically hipper employees (who are likely less expensive) is a feature, not a bug for these moves.

Also being on the T makes it easier to attract talent from Converse, New Balance and Reebok.
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Agreed with this and a lot of the parking discussion following. That said, it's still mind-boggling to include parking in the build cost rather than trying to work out a shared parking arrangement with the adjacent garages that have non-overlapping hours of utilisation with the residential and retail uses of the area.

617 said:
I certainly won’t buy a place unless it includes parking...
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That's fair. There are plenty of people behind you, including retiring Boomers looking to downsize who are willing to live urban without a car.

Strangely, Zipcar hasn't bolstered their rental options here for people...but maybe that's because there's so much gorram parking here that people can hold onto their cars and park them indefinitely (for the people with the means to both live here and park). If only we had data...

Seriously though, it's criminal Block 8 is literally straddling the T and still has a 1:1 ratio. Just... 🤦*♂️
 
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