AVA North Point II | Archtone phase II | East Cambridge

You know what folks. I posted earlier that this is a "bottom line" building, but I am going to have to revise that statement after looking at it a bit more. This is a well designed project. I think there were some very serious budget constraints which likely took out a fair amount of "delight" from the facade, but I will have to say that there is a sophistication to the massing, scale, detailing, and materiality. It is cheap ... but it is high value.

I know we are shaking our fist at the lack of height ... but this is turning out to be a very solid piece of urban fabric.

Put the pitchforks down and back away slowly.

cca
 
I agree this reminds me of Proto. Tight budget so cant use the greatest materials so the architect gets creative and delivers a solid addition to the urban fabric by shear good design over anything else.
 
cca said:
You know what folks. I posted earlier that this is a "bottom line" building, but I am going to have to revise that statement after looking at it a bit more. This is a well designed project. I think there were some very serious budget constraints which likely took out a fair amount of "delight" from the facade, but I will have to say that there is a sophistication to the massing, scale, detailing, and materiality. It is cheap ... but it is high value.

I know we are shaking our fist at the lack of height ... but this is turning out to be a very solid piece of urban fabric.

Put the pitchforks down and back away slowly.

cca
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I completely agree, very well said. I live near this building. There was a point a few months ago where I was prepared to hate it given how the facade was turning out. Now, I think it looks OK - not good, but not terrible. The corner of it that you can see from North Point Common actually looks pretty good, along with the glimpse from between Sierra and Tango. It looks worst from 28, but to be honest that street is so awful right now you don't focus on this building. Plus, the long brick building across the street is SO much worse, both in terms of the facade and it's complete lack of street level interaction.

This building definitely helps knit the urban fabric together in this area. There's a ton of potential here.
 
Keep in mind as well that this will be even more blocked from 28 by the Green Line bridge and headhouse once GLX is complete.
 
The buildings are well appointed, with clean common spaces and well designed units of impressive variation. I've been in them a number of times over the past weeks as friends searched for a space. They opted for AVA over remaining in Avalon Lofts, and will be moving into the south building in early July.

The south building should experience up to 25 move ins this week, which would push occupancy to almost 40%, with leases a few points higher since Avalon's leasing specials continue.

The north building is more than 10% leased as of last weekend, and will be open for 1 June occupancy.

Nothing firm on whether the commercial space at the north's tip (first floor) will be the Starbucks that Avalon baited us with when they began the project.
 
Most of the landscaping for both buildings is done now, unrestricted, and pretty spiff (the lit benches are a surprising addition that survived the glossy literature phase).

The recent storms did a number on the appointments, though: uprooting new trees, flooding out many flowers/bushes/coverings (outflow pipes just above those areas!), and shorting out a number of lights around the pool.

Still, nice grass. And those buildings are hopping with folks, despite Avalon Tower's quieting down as many students depart...
 
Lol and the Boston development circle of life lives on in this thread. Ooh renders, when its half built comes pitchforks, then it finishes..ahh thats not so bad. Rinse and repeat.
 
stick n move said:
Lol and the Boston development circle of life lives on in this thread. Ooh renders, when its half built comes pitchforks, then it finishes..ahh thats not so bad. Rinse and repeat.
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I'm guilty of this. As time goes on, I've lowered my standards and expectations around how I want new construction to contribute to this city's built environment.

This AVA could have used higher quality materials on the facade, it could be just a little bit taller given that it's next to the much taller Avalon and will always have the elevated Green Line on one side, and so on. But ultimately, it's a decent building, and it's much better than the empty space that came before it. I do really like the benches around the building, some of the details are well done. Overall it contributes to making CX/Northpoint a denser, more urban part of Cambridge. I have high hopes for this neighborhood at full build-out.

I hope that realigning the Lechmere station will help with this, but I wish that the CX was better integrated into the existing East Cambridge neighborhood. It's always a pain crossing 28 to get from CX to 1st street, and maybe because of that they feel like very distinct areas when it would be great if one flowed into the other.
 
Back when I joined aB, Bos77 summed it up quite nicely:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Czervik.Construction View Post
What happened to the discussion about potential construction in front of the Garden?

You haven't been on here that long... There is a cycle:

1) Post article from Globe, Herald, or BBJ
2) Excitement ensues for 3-10 posts.
3) Rendering released. 10-30 more posts, possibly from only 2-5 members about the architectural apocalypse being upon us.
4) Community meeting time... NIMBYs/BRA suck, this wouldn't happen in NYC, etc.
5) Revised proposal released. Floors cut, value engineering done, and discussion about alucobond.
6) More community meetings and bitching. Something keeps being posted about "lack of vision and the Krafts/seaport". Thread also derails into some ridiculous topic like this thread, independent movie houses now closed, or DTX BIDs.
7) Construction may or may not start. Surprise BRA or Mass Dep/DOT permitting issue.
8) If construction continues, some awesome folks will do their damnedest to document it all with a gallery of pics.
9) For every 1 pic there is a ration of 5-10 posts judging materials like precast and glazing. 50% chance of thread derailing again. And with construction not even at 10% complete people will declare the building to be the end of Boston.
10) Building complete, it turns out 'not as bad' as people thought or 'better than a parking lot'. Thread dies.
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http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?p=174637#post174637
 
^Meh (the building, not your photos). Not overtly offensive, but that's the best I can say for it. Well, that... and it's better than this.
 
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