Cambridge Crossing (NorthPoint) | East Cambridge/Charlestown | Cambridge/Boston

[Charlie_mta]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

It all looks disturbingly like Charles River Park. Nicer buildings, yes, but still no normal neighborhood blocks, no density, no street frontage with small shops, etc..

Just more towers in the park.

 

[whighlander]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

It all looks disturbingly like Charles River Park. Nicer buildings, yes, but still no normal neighborhood blocks, no density, no street frontage with small shops, etc..

Just more towers in the park.

Charlie_MTA -- I think that you are not quite on target -- No its certainly not the old West End -- but nor is it Charles River Park either

the plan seems to offer to companies and individuals an alternative form factor to Kendall -- its quite dense both in terms of Office / Labs [2+ m sq ft]and also residences but it is a bit more open

 

[Charlie_mta]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

I agree the density is mathematically high (due to the high rises).

However, the super blocks, and the wide setbacks from what few streets there are, result in basically a car suburb.

 

[curcuas]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Because you totally need a park across the street from another park.

Welcome to Cambridge - the city that fetishizes "parks" - leaving barren fields amidst booming neighborhoods and not concentrating the funds to build some properly nice ones.

 

[shmessy]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Charlie_MTA -- I think that you are not quite on target -- No its certainly not the old West End -- but nor is it Charles River Park either

the plan seems to offer to companies and individuals an alternative form factor to Kendall -- its quite dense both in terms of Office / Labs [2+ m sq ft]and also residences but it is a bit more open

Actually, Charlie_MTA hits the bullseye.

There is no excuse for this office park style so close to Kendall and downtown Boston. This location is gold. What is being developed there hits far below its weight.

All the statistics and algorithms in the world about density cannot erase what the human eye can see. That plan right there is automobile centric with virtually no ground floor attraction to the pedestrian.

It's obvious goal is to FUNNEL the human being away from the first floor and into the holding pens (parks).

This development is a "Taker" not a "Maker" urban fabric-wise. The community has provided it much (great MBTA access, unparalleled Biotech sector, etc.) and it does nothing to give back. It merely is a private golf course or Mar-A-Lago type selfish inward development without any semblance of urban fabric.

Please. More Back Bay and less Dwarfed Dubai.

 

[Cortes]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

The plans have the parcel between "EF" and "G" (north of Baldwin Park), labeled as "open space". Its northern border is train tracks. What exactly is this place supposed to be? Like a place that hasn't even been remotely thought of yet, or what...?

Given the comments regarding its similarities to Charles River Park (whether right or wrong), can we just talk about what it will take 50 years from now to make this thing at least remotely interesting?

 

[CSTH]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Yeah i just can't understand how this ended up being as crummy as it is. Its between two transit stations for crying out loud.

Charlie, can you re-post your fantasy plan for extending the E Cambridge grid across McGrath? Just so we can all weep for what might have been?

 

[CSTH]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

i don't see how the layout is critical.

It's critical if your passion / priority is enhancing street-level urbanism and human-scaled neighborhoods throughout the boston area.

For some us us those things are as much of an obsession as height is for you and some other posters (and ultimately the obsession might be just as arbitrary).

 

[Gameguy326]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Yeah i just can't understand how this ended up being as crummy as it is. Its between two transit stations for crying out loud.

Charlie, can you re-post your fantasy plan for extending the E Cambridge grid across McGrath? Just so we can all weep for what might have been?

I think this was completely feasible until Zinc. That is blocking the absolute best prospect for connection from continuing: Third Street. Zinc bothers me to no end because of that.

Honestly the whole "superblock" aspect isn't even a problem. Assembly pulls that off fine. The main problem is the lack of retail, with connections to East Cambridge being a secondary problem. But retail needs to be dense and robust with all these high-rises going up.

 

[stick n move]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Call me crazy but I feel like this is going to turn out just fine. Just like assembly, the seaport...etc.

 

[shmessy]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

Call me crazy but I feel like this is going to turn out just fine. Just like assembly, the seaport...etc.

Rationale? Or just gut feeling?

 

[odurandina]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

No, it's a fact. Like CRP, In 45 years ycgbar2otlsfh....

Only this time, the execution is great.

you can go back and redo 2 of the low sections for highrises

 

[ivyhedge]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

I think this was completely feasible until Zinc. That is blocking the absolute best prospect for connection from continuing: Third Street. Zinc bothers me to no end because of that.

Zinc isn't part of the Northpoint DivCo West development (neither is Twenty|20, since PanAm sold it to Prudential shortly before DivCo took over).

As owners, many of us will be happy with increased density to mitigate a feeling of living in the shadow of what might have been had the previous developer gotten an Assembly-esque project off of the ground instead have calling the project "largely finished" after they completed the park.

 

[CSTH]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

 

[stick n move]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

View along Glassworks Avenue from East Street by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

View along Monsignor O'Brien Highway and MBTA Green Line by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

View along Leighton Street by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

View from Amelia Earhart Park by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr


Building and street plan by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

Landscape plan by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

View along Glassworks Avenue from East Street by BLDUP Boston, on Flickr

 

[stick n move]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

 

[stick n move]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

 

[stick n move]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

The 3rd render up is the most current masterplan to date:

I was looking at this development and kind of came up with a theory. This area is basically going to be secluded off in its own corner of Cambridge enclosed on all sides. To me it looks like its going to be a separate little nook of the city where the best of the best of Cambridge work. Essentially an office park/our mini little silicon valley right in the city. We've for years been trying to retain talent from MIT and Harvard after they graduate who usually move on to bigger and better things. To me this looks like an answer to that.

You can see it has its own courtyard for the people who work here. Also a park, waterfront, transit... Its basically its own little city, for the most part cut off from the rest of Cambridge. It looks like the perfect place to build a bunch of shiny new office buildings/labs, that are just separated from each other enough to give them space to work and park, where people can drive from their expensive suburban homes right up to their building or walk over from the green line.

Basically you get the benefits of an office park, but in the middle of the city, the modern take on an office park. It seems designed to keep these people in this one area where they don't have to really deal with the bs of chinatown or dtx or anything like that. Just the best minds of our college base off in their own corner working together, mingling, taking a stroll through the park at lunch, and then they hop in their audi in the parking garage and go home at the end of the day. Its close enough to the rest of the surroundings to venture out, but inclusive enough that you don't have to.

Basically this looks like the answer to keeping talent in the city, give the best minds their own piece of the city to work together, a nice park, access to the water, transit, but separated enough that they don't have to really be bothered by the normal hustle and bustle of downtown. Then you still get the entire rest of Cambridge and Boston in very close reach plus the 128 belt and seaport and it looks like a perfect storm.

 

[FK4]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

I'm going to keep saying it, its pathetic that they didn't keep the bike track that could eventually connect to a trail along the glx. Even if the latter is up in the air right now, it will eventually be done. Having a safe, direct connection from the Somerville linear path to the Charles River is about as critical a connection as anything in the entire region for bike infrastructure.

That being said, some of these I hadn't seen so thanks for posting.

 

[atlantaden]

Re: NorthPoint Cambridge (The one that was train yards, the big plan.)

In all of the renderings, in all of the photos of the present park area, I don't see one park bench. I see what looks like concrete borders maybe used for seating, and scattered flat boulders for seating, but no park benches anywhere? Are park benches, with backs, a thing of the past?