Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

Ruairi said:
It's funny, I live in Somerville and most of the people I know have kinda forgotten about Assembly. Maybe that's a covid thing but I think it was trending that way anyway. I do think it's a success for what it is tho.
Click to expand...

That'll be case until I-93 is made permeable. FWIW, the time I went to Trader Joe's there a few weeks ago, both it and the Xfinity store had lines well down the sidewalk, so someone thinks of it.
 
Equilibria said:
That'll be case until I-93 is made permeable. FWIW, the time I went to Trader Joe's there a few weeks ago, both it and the Xfinity store had lines well down the sidewalk, so someone thinks of it.
Click to expand...
yea, they definitely do, I just think they are mainly car oriented people from north of Assembly and not ped/bike/transit from any other direction.
on a totally different note... why are people lining up for the xfinity store? Is their service any better in person? One bucket of your crappiest internet please!
 
Ruairi said:
yea, they definitely do, I just think they are mainly car oriented people from north of Assembly and not ped/bike/transit from any other direction.
on a totally different note... why are people lining up for the xfinity store? Is their service any better in person? One bucket of your crappiest internet please!
Click to expand...

FWIW, I've actually had good experiences at Xfinity stores with getting/turning in equipment and working through billing problems. It's harder for them to put you on hold in person :).
 
Went running by, and looks like the lower level interiors of Block 8 and the balconies are being assembled. I think original filings had a 1Q2021 opening expected, any word on naming or preleasing dates yet?

While it always appears busy enough from visitors to my eyes, I'm sure adding 500 more units with local residents (working from home) would help bolster this neighborhood with local cash.
 
20201015_132724.jpg
20201015_132719.jpg
 
Gameguy326 said:
Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
Click to expand...
Which one is it? If nobody goes there, how is it crowded...🤔

But in all seriousness, I do think that the area is far too isolated to everything but vehicle traffic. Better connections to the adjacent neighborhoods are really going to be needed in the near future to really tie this area into the fabric of Somerville.
 
wilkee said:
The area is far too isolated...Better connections to the adjacent neighborhoods are really going to be needed in the near future to really tie this area into the fabric of Somerville.
Click to expand...
Chicken and egg... Existing residents are naturally NIMBYs. If we want dense housing soon, Assembly is the perfect location due to its MBTA+93 connectivity. The neighborhood is establishing its own density, and not fighting existing residents for it.

Comparison: Look at how hard it is to get anything built in Union Square only 1.5 miles away- there are community packages left and right because of each individual building's height, density, etc. Assembly and its surrounding properties are getting the "downtown experience" in under a decade specifically because there is no existing fabric.

If you are just moving to town, Assembly serves a very different set of needs than a Davis Square or Allston might, and will age into its own. I like to think of it as serving a different population set. In 25 years - think of all the dive bars that might be in the neighborhood!
 
wilkee said:
Which one is it? If nobody goes there, how is it crowded...🤔

But in all seriousness, I do think that the area is far too isolated to everything but vehicle traffic. Better connections to the adjacent neighborhoods are really going to be needed in the near future to really tie this area into the fabric of Somerville.
Click to expand...

so you don't like heading over to assembly via one of the sketchy rte 93 underpasses, which -- despite all the new-ish murals and lighting -- always feel like 1:15 am with multiple stalkers in close pursuit?
 
Gameguy326 said:
Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
Click to expand...
It's a super easy bike ride over on a BlueBike. I live near Union Sq and probably go to Assembly 2-3 times per month. The connection at Broadway near the Mt Vernon is pretty straight forward.
 
wilkee said:
But in all seriousness, I do think that the area is far too isolated to everything but vehicle traffic. Better connections to the adjacent neighborhoods are really going to be needed in the near future to really tie this area into the fabric of Somerville.
Click to expand...

Fellsway lane diet. Fellsway lane diet. 👏


First step's been taken with the newly-unveiled plan to finally redo the godawful 6-lane Mystic bridge with lane reductions begatting cycle track and widened sidewalks. That then needs to carry forward beyond the bridge itself to reductions from 3 travel lanes to 2 and 2 left-turn lanes to 1 at the Grand Union Blvd. and Middlesex Ave. intersections. Then either trade the reductions for a wider-open median that's safe to cross at both intersections and/or plunk a footbridge around Grand Union to link the Mystic paths together on the Somerville bank of the river.

That's the lane-diet. The actual thru traffic reductions that throttle back some of the Assembly-specific volume growth comes from MassHighway completing the missing 2 legs of the 93/16 interchange upstream to pry crosstown volumes the hell off Fellsway + Mystic Ave. and re-weight Wellington Circle loading more in the east-west direction and less in the north-south direction.

Do #1 for the physical properties, then #2 for the load-reshaping and Assembly will be bound much tighter with the dense island of residential across the street.


Sullivan Sq. redev de-uglifying Mystic Ave. will help tons from the Charlestown side to bind them tighter. The Mystic path extension to Alford St. under construction right now is also highly underrated for that direction. East Somerville, despite having to cross under the dank 93 underpass, is already highly accessible to Assembly. Don't let ugly looks fool you. I used to live a few blocks up Mt. Vernon St. in the early-aughts, and Home Depot + K-Mart were a piece of cake to walk to thanks to the traffic-calmed crosswalks @ Broadway/Lombardi and decent sidewalk + lighting under the underpass. And that was all pre-redev. It's been spiffed up quite a bit since with only the Mystic Ave. crosswalk still any bit dodgy (-1 lane reduction overdue now that the demolished overpass isn't merging in). Before Assembly became ¡ASSEMBLY! it was basically an unofficial East Somerville domain in terms of being able to cross the asphalt sea easily enough on-foot. No real-world troubleshooting is needed from that direction.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Then either trade the reductions for a wider-open median that's safe to cross at both intersections and/or plunk a footbridge around Grand Union to link the Mystic paths together on the Somerville bank of the river.
Click to expand...

Maybe I have you wrong, but pretty sure there is a Somerville side causeway linking the Mystic paths together....
www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Vagabond said:
Although grandstanding on development forums is fun... for those who want some of their big ideas to be heard, there are 5 public design meetings happening over the next 2 weeks.

www.thesomervilletimes.com

Assembly Square Neighborhood Plan Update Public Design Charrette, 11/30-12/4

www.thesomervilletimes.com www.thesomervilletimes.com
Click to expand...

FWIW, here are their current concepts. Hooray for "Somerville Barrow", which I would love to see them try (Assembly is probably not the best setting for it - Cambridge Crossing would have been), just to prove it can be done.

1606247343943.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top