Boynton Yards | 99-101 South/808 Windsor | Somerville

A27E0A99-2674-4219-8841-3693D37B7045.jpeg
9D9ACC89-4BAF-467C-9F71-2492810E4B1E.jpeg
 
Latest progress at 101 South. Am I in Somerville anymore? Kidding of course, as I am glad and proud to see such investment in my city. The contrasts are also fascinating - architecturally and in an urban design sense - making physical the outcomes of rising and falling industries in such a dense/small area.
11893F8B-8C21-4034-A87A-1CC138E7BE81.jpeg
DF7D2680-F130-431B-A5ED-3C1D233A6EA9.jpeg
 
I am glad they are building without waiting to straighten South St. That will make it marginally less likely that it will look like a collection of super blocks.
 
RandomWalk said:
I am glad they are building without waiting to straighten South St. That will make it marginally less likely that it will look like a collection of super blocks.
Click to expand...

The consequence of that, though, is that the south facing facade is BOH with no interaction at ground level. I believe their long-term plan is to have the current South Street alignment turn into a driveway with a lawn to the south, which is why they have all the service doors there, but that's still the side more people will see. Maybe it makes more sense with their elevation changes.
 
I'm not directly involved with the team so I can't confirm, but I believe you are correct Equilibria regarding the future south condition.

It's true the wall that the service side creates isn't great, I'll agree on that point. There have been pushes for softening that edge/creating better connections but ultimately compromises have to be made. You can't get around needing a service face to the building, and while the south side may be the most "obvious" looking right now, with future plans for both Boynton Yards and Union SQ, orienting the building north probably makes more sense. At least, that was the approach taken. Hopefully when South St is realigned that south face can be readdressed a bit.

I'm not sure how much I am allowed to share but I will say it has been exciting seeing this project develope.
 
Last edited:
^^^So basically it looks like the existing building will be the shortest out of 5! That's quite exciting for this area of town. Building 4 could be close to 275-300'.
 
It looks plain and cheap. The architects should have acknowledged the historical context of the area. MIT is doing this when developing the Main Street/Kendall Square area, and even the Hub on Causeway designed that in their complex.
 
The selected massing studies are a tell. Each one has the central lab plate, and they just wrap it in a different shell. Some of the unselected options played with slicing the mass, but no way they would be further developed.
 
Bananarama said:
Soulless, glassy AC unit #2, coming online soon...
Click to expand...
yea, when I posted negatively about the first building, a few said that it was typical of big developments like this. The first building would be the canary in the coal mine and any subsequent buildings would be a big improvement.
I'm failing to see any improvement here.
Boynton yards looks horribly boring so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top