Belmont Developments

This looks like maybe a case where you need to wait for the facade to be done to judge.... but the render looks much better than the reality right now.

Note to mods: maybe combine this thread with the Somerville High thread so we have one for high schools generally? This is definitely not about Cushing Village :).
 
Don't think we should make final judgements based on these obscured photos, during winter, with some pretty terrible natural lighting (the gloomiest of gloomy).
 
Bananarama said:
Don't think we should make final judgements based on these obscured photos, during winter, with some pretty terrible natural lighting (the gloomiest of gloomy).
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We just lost our dog when I snapped these pics. I was a bit off my game when she called me with the news.
 
Is the high school called "Cushing Village"?
 
sm89 said:
Is the high school called "Cushing Village"?
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No, but the thread was basically turned into a "Belmont" development thread because there is nothing else going on there really.

Cushing Village was the name of the original apartment & retail development referenced on the first page in the Cushing Square area of Belmont. The apartments are now called "The Bradford" and they are open and leasing. Toll Brothers developed and The Davis Companies is the equity partner. Apparently there is a lawsuit between Toll and the original developer Smith Legacy Partners over the retail rights. Toll was supposed to deed the retail condos back to SLP but because of undisclosed environmental issues and the subsequent cost overruns, they are trying to nullify that agreement. I think it originally broke ground 3.5 years ago...
 
That thing looks like they cribbed an old 1980’s DEC office building out on 495.
 
Belmont high and middle schools
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Demo of old high school
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What's up with the flimsy and featureless faux brick cladding on this new high school? I hope this unfortunate architectural fad goes away soon. In contrast, the brick work on the old high school (bottom photo) looked substantial and solid, but the new stuff looks like cardboard.
 
Yeah, WTF is with new local high schools being so goddamn ugly these days?

This is hideous. Same goes for Somerville High School ... or any other local high school built in the last decade. Winchester. Concord-Carlisle. Newton North/South. One side of Needham High School (a mutant facadectomy) is one of the ugliest structures I've ever seen.

Who's designing all this gar'bahj? And the cumulative cost of these high schools runs into the billions easily.
 
It’s based on the model schools that the MSBA pushes districts towards, in exchange for the highest level of reimbursement.
 
Yeesh...so much wrong here....the windows are so bloody small. All the proportions are off. And of course, the brick looks paper thin.
 
RandomWalk said:
It’s based on the model schools that the MSBA pushes districts towards, in exchange for the highest level of reimbursement.
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Not necessarily. The MSBA goes as far as selecting recently built schools to be model schools that districts can choose to utilize, but they don't really push districts toward them, apart from adding a few reimbursement points, and these custom-designed schools don't have any 'kit of parts' taken from the model schools. Maybe they can be kit of parts pieces from the firms themselves, though. With most projects, the MSBA is just there to make sure their state grant money isn't being thrown into an abyss. When it comes to what color or quality brick the town chooses, that's out of the MSBA's scope.

Belmont HS/MS is by Perkins+Will, who has designed some nice buildings and schools, Billerica HS (award winning) as an example. But Belmont is a tragedy of a design, despite it coming in at almost $300 million. It really does read as a corporate office building.

SMMA designed Somerville HS, along with many other schools in the state. SMMA has a very distinct material palette, apparent in their K-12 portfolio.

I don't foresee this fad going away any time soon unfortunately, unless you can reverse construction cost trends. From the MSBA themselves, you can tell why a town may be skimping on the details:

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http://info.massschoolbuildings.org/TabPub/TableauCostData.aspx

https://www.massschoolbuildings.org/building/CP_Information_Cost_Data
 
The MSBA did have a points system that favored the model schools, but appears to have quietly dropped the points for using them. I had missed that memo on their site.

However, schools really are hemmed in by what will get funded and won’t make the various stakeholders look profligate on the front page of the Globe.
 
itchy said:
Yeah, WTF is with new local high schools being so goddamn ugly these days?

This is hideous. Same goes for Somerville High School ... or any other local high school built in the last decade. Winchester. Concord-Carlisle. Newton North/South. One side of Needham High School (a mutant facadectomy) is one of the ugliest structures I've ever seen.

Who's designing all this gar'bahj? And the cumulative cost of these high schools runs into the billions easily.
Click to expand...

Gotta argue a little there. This is uniquely bad. I'm no fan of Newton North or Somerville (South has the same architectural vernacular in 2021 that it had in 1960), but they're way better.
 
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