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

Czervik.Construction said:
That is essentially AB porn. Fantastic.

They could have built bleachers and sold all of us hacks tickets to watch that and we would gladly have paid.
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I don't know about you -- but just like the Millennium Tower pour -- I needed a cold shower after the video played!:mad:
 
True facts: I wasted hours of my life hypnotized over the past few weeks, watching the concrete pours at this little 25 floor hotel going up behind me. I tried to stop, but just couldn't.
If you look closely at the yellow crane arm, you will see a guy about 3/4 of the way up the arm, just sitting on there doing something.

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odurandina said:
Cambridge Crossing is about as exciting kissing the a wood turtle.
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Maybe not for the individual architectures -- But what is going to occupy the buildings of Cambridge Crossing will have a major impact:
  1. Global R&D for Phillips -- 2000 employees in 350,000 sq ft [430,000 sq ft in building]
  2. Global R&D for Sanofi -- similar numbers in 1 Million sq ft dedicated building
more to come

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  • 43 acres connected to what is believed to be the world’s highest concentration of intellectual capital
  • 11 acres planned for activated public parks and open space
  • 4.5 million square feet of planned commercial, retail and residential
  • 2.1M square feet of science and technology space​
  • 2.4M square feet of new state-of-the-art residences in addition to 2,500 existing units​
  • 100K square feet of unique & eclectic cafés, restaurants and retail space​


it just needs a better connection to Kendall -- start digging!
 
Czervik.Construction said:
That is essentially AB porn. Fantastic.

They could have built bleachers and sold all of us hacks tickets to watch that and we would gladly have paid.
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They did a pretty good organizational job until the last 2-3 hours, when a number of their cement truck drivers began breaking the "not on Morgan AVE" (old Northpoint BLVD) rule and not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks, stop signs, and the like. Caused a bit of a stir.
 
FitchburgLine said:
Interesting that :14 in the video shows the parcel behind JK, which started before G/H, hasn't progressed beyond pile driving. I wonder if they'll rotate crews once this goes vertical
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Lot EF was deprioritized after the Sanofi-Aventis contract for Lots G & H. According to presentations given last December, EF should have been ahead of G & H had the latter two not recorded such an important lessee.

I live across from Lots W and JK, and can see I, G, & H easily. I'm glad that these are the ones under construction since I can't see Lot EF. lol
 
FitchburgLine said:
Oh, is I under construction? That's great news
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Hi, Fitch ... I think the correct response is: not yet. They moved mounds around for months but finally brought in some soil testing equipment in the last few weeks. The DivCo team suggested (in May) that construction would begin in 2019, before delivery of the park, Lot W, and Lot JK to Philips on/about New Year's.

After a lengthy hiatus from AB, I'm back ... I'll let the community know what I see at I, W, JK, G, & H...(by the way, Lot W has much of its restaurant glass installed...)!
 
BeeLine said:
Crane base is up at the parcel H site.
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It is! (This past) Saturday was one of the busiest days onsite (not related to Lots JK or W) in many months. Tens of folks were in the pits at G&H, with more in the latter.

In other news, The Common (original park opened when Lots S&T were the only ones complete) is a few steps closer to being reopened as construction has moved from settling the areas in front of JK and W (and the eastern strip of Jacobs AVE) to rebuilding the drumlin (housing most of "the project's" stormwater handlers) directly across from Lot S.
 
 
From a Lechmere station discussion in the GLX thread:
ant8904 said:
Like I said, even in a road dieted version, it is still inherently less safe than a bridge. You can't beat with just not being there at all. And there's something to be said of the single street crossing of the current Lechmere to reach the Galleria.

But since it's a island platform, you're right that a pedestrian bridge would be a poor experience as nobody like going up stairs. Though to say it is not a solution is too final. It is a good solution. It is engineer-able to do something that is not a up-down-up experience but a seamless connection the station. Though not as easy versus if this station was set up like Science Park or something like that.
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Study after study has shown that putting pedestrians up on the bridge is a loser--what the 1950s thought the 1980s should look like. Overpass thinking led to downtown hamster tubes in Minneapolis, Cinci, Atlanta and they've since been acknowledged as an urban-design disaster.

1) It is way more expensive than curbing and paint
2) It de-energizes the street level retail and amenities
3) ) For the pedestrians it sucks to have to schlep up, over, and down. It imposes WAAY to much work on them: either climbing steps, trudging a long ramp, or, for ADA-compliance and freakishly expensive elevator. Time and effort wise it is like you just moved the station another block away
4) By dividing pedestrians, you then leave those at street level lesser-protected and drivers emboldened to speed.

Cars need to slow down. They need to see a street that calms them, rather than looking like an F-1 racetrack.

Things that calm:
1) fewer, narrower lanes
2) Nearby vertical visual obstructions (trees, signs, fire hydrants)
3) People. People. People.

The point of Poynton Regenerated is that putting the pedestrians "more in" the intersection" made things safer and more humane. Check it out:
 
Street design for O'Brien Hwy thru Lechmere
chmeeee said:
Hop to page 47.
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Thanks! As for the plan: Yuck. After pinching the O'Brien inbound down to 2 thru lanes as they approach today's Lechmere (this is good), and then become 2 thru and a right-only (this is good) they then spring back out after the next crosswalk (this is bad)

Insane, really. If you'd gotten the thru lanes down to 2, you then get this "only-in-Boston" un-weave as everyone from 2 lanes tries to figure out which of 3 lanes is "theirs" as they cross the intersection.

Wellington Cir used to have a crazy 3-becomes-4 and you got a mess as people tries to figure out if the "new" lane was being added on the left, the right, or the center. The design c. p 47is *slightly* better in that it is a little more natural to believe that the 3rd lane is being added on the right. (But Bostonians use a greedy algorithm to sort themselves, so you never know)

I don't see this X becomes X+1 "in" the intersection anyplace else in the country. Elsewhere, if you drop a lane for a turn the farside still has only the same number as thrus as the nearside. And if you are going to add back a through lane you do it *after* the next cross walk, not at it.

But in boston, there's this crazy habit of X lanes entering an intersection, and the nearside crosswalk serving as the starting line for a race across the intersection (and farside crosswalk) to see who ends up where in the X+1 lanes that beckon from the other side.
 
Arlington said:
Cars need to slow down. They need to see a street that calms them, rather than looking like an F-1 racetrack.
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We have an intersection in MA that works like the one in the video: Kelley Square in Worcester. It's the deadliest road in the Commonwealth.

Watching the video on mute without whatever spoken accolades and calming music they're playing over it - it looks absolutely terrifying. For everyone involved.
 
Equilibria said:
We have an intersection in MA that works like the one in the video: Kelley Square in Worcester. It's the deadliest road in the Commonwealth.
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Super cool, but, golly, I chase my own wormhole digression from GLX to Cambridge Crossing and already I feel the need to create a Kelley Square redesign thread (and have in the Regional subforum)
 
Arlington said:
From a Lechmere station discussion in the GLX thread:

Study after study has shown that putting pedestrians up on the bridge is a loser--what the 1950s thought the 1980s should look like. Overpass thinking led to downtown hamster tubes in Minneapolis, Cinci, Atlanta and they've since been acknowledged as an urban-design disaster.
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I'm not talking about creating Minneapolis, Cinci, or Atalanta. I'm talking a single pedestrian bridge going over the O'Brien. You just argued all pedestrian overpass are losers. So the pedestrian overpass at Charles MGH should just be curbing and paint? Same for the one at the Hatch Shell? Then there's the pedestrian underpasses. I don't know about you, but I am much happier that people don't have to cross to street to traverse North Station anymore (and I know you may argue North Station is different, but my point is about avoiding conflicting with streets - traversing stairs does change the math). Assembly Station isn't crossing over a road, but it doesn't make you feel you're crossing a hamster tube. It just feel like normal part of the station.

Arlington said:
1) It is way more expensive than curbing and paint
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Depending on the viewpoint, the thing can be viewed as taking the cheap and easy route.

Arlington said:
2) It de-energizes the street level retail and amenities
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A bridge isn't going to kill street level retail at the O'Brien. How does Science Park entrance street crossing feel like?

Arlington said:
3) ) For the pedestrians it sucks to have to schlep up, over, and down. It imposes WAAY to much work on them: either climbing steps, trudging a long ramp, or, for ADA-compliance and freakishly expensive elevator. Time and effort wise it is like you just moved the station another block away
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That, I did give credit as a good point. A pedestrian bridge needs to be seamless. Like how Assembly with it's essentially being a pedestrian bridge. Ideally, it just act as an extension of the station. You feel like you've reach the station just by crossing the Cambridge St.

However, they choose an island platform with only 2 levels. So reality is already the reality. But that only invalidate plausibility of a pedestrian bridge in this one context. Meanwhile your other points attacking all kinds of contexts. I cannot agree with that.

Arlington said:
4) By dividing pedestrians, you then leave those at street level lesser-protected and drivers emboldened to speed.
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I'm not one to want to purposefully expose people to more "conflicts" so the dangers and risks get lowered but exposed to more people. By this logic, we should not have bring back the North Station Pedestrian Tunnel.

Arlington said:
Cars need to slow down. They need to see a street that calms them, rather than looking like an F-1 racetrack.

Things that calm:
1) fewer, narrower lanes
2) Nearby vertical visual obstructions (trees, signs, fire hydrants)
3) People. People. People.

The point of Poynton Regenerated is that putting the pedestrians "more in" the intersection" made things safer and more humane. Check it out:
Click to expand...

By all means, for the sake of safety of that area becomes a huge pedestrian zone, we'll need to eliminate/minimize the dangers to pedestrians as we don't people to die. But I don't share this view that pedestrian bridges cannot be part of the equation. Ultimately, nobody can get hurt if nobody is literally there. Of course, there's a balance there too as a total separation gets you Kuala Lampur. But I'm not talking about building tubes everywhere, I'm talking about essentially having a closer entrance for Lechmere users.
 
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^ @ant8904, I largely agree with you, but I think that O'Brien can be sufficiently calmed between the RR overpass and the MOS that an overpass is rendered unnecessary. I think if possible an at-grade solution works best for urbanism. Storrow Drive is *not* currently a place where at-grade solutions could work, but I think of O'Brien as more like Memorial than Storrow. Though building an overpass to the stations should definitely be looked at if the flood of riders walking between Lechmere and the Cambridgeside area causes traffic problems for both the riders and drivers.
 
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