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

One of the Bristol Meyers Squibb building

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I went to the Tatte here a day or two ago. The sun was low-ish in the sky and the glare off of the Tatte building and the one to its right was awful. Felt like a rotisserie chicken. I couldn't turn my head in any direction without having my eyes burn in their sockets. I cast 3 shadows.
 
Blackbird said:
I went to the Tatte here a day or two ago. The sun was low-ish in the sky and the glare off of the Tatte building and the one to its right was awful. Felt like a rotisserie chicken. I couldn't turn my head in any direction without having my eyes burn in their sockets. I cast 3 shadows.
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Yes, that is called "late autumn".
 
From November to May, any time I drive 93 north out of the tunnel and pass this neighborhood I'm struck at how nicely all these buildings blend in with the boundless shades of gray this city throws up for half the year. Kudos for maximizing environmental context alignment.
 
DZH22 said:
12/8 From Charlestown

IMG_6933 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_6937 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_6938 by David Z, on Flickr
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I'm having trouble explaining it, but I really like the pattern on the angular building in the foreground in this pic. I always enjoy looking at it on the loop ramps...maybe because it's a more unfamiliar pattern in Boston (though the new Volpe does a riff on this too).

I would like to see this pattern expressed on a structure with more height in a manner reminiscent of the Aon Building in Chicago.
 
cburns said:
I'm having trouble explaining it, but I really like the pattern on the angular building in the foreground in this pic. I always enjoy looking at it on the loop ramps...maybe because it's a more unfamiliar pattern in Boston (though the new Volpe does a riff on this too).

I would like to see this pattern expressed on a structure with more height in a manner reminiscent of the Aon Building in Chicago.
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You like it because vertical lines are way more attractive on buildings than horizontal lines. We have a lot of the latter in Boston. Imagine One Financial Center with vertical stripes.
 
yeah, look just to the right to see how horizontal lines are terrible.
the screening on the top of the building is atrocious. just terrible and plainly visible from 93 and Charlestown.
the front of the building is nice too so its a shame. the renderings had so much more contrast between the grey colors and they didnt even bother to carry the stripe theme through on the vents.
 
cburns said:
I would like to see this pattern expressed on a structure with more height in a manner reminiscent of the Aon Building in Chicago.
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Should have been THIS structure with more height, considering it's in the 1000' FAA zone! The whole neighborhood stands as one of our all-time missed opportunities. I glance in whenever I drive by and still have 0 desire to actually walk through the neighborhood itself. Not a single thing catches my interest to draw me in and see the place up close. If I could hit a button that razes the whole place and makes them start from scratch, I would. I know many of you like the park or whatever, but there are plenty of parks in neighborhoods that aren't otherwise terrible.
 
I agree 100% - this could have been like LIC in NYC where they are building 500-600ft residential and is becoming its own little skyline. However, given Boston/Cambridge seems to have an insatiable demand for lab space from small/emerging biopharma all the way up to top 5 global gorillas, I get why they did what they did. I don't like it, but I get it.

DZH22 said:
Should have been THIS structure with more height, considering it's in the 1000' FAA zone! The whole neighborhood stands as one of our all-time missed opportunities. I glance in whenever I drive by and still have 0 desire to actually walk through the neighborhood itself. Not a single thing catches my interest to draw me in and see the place up close. If I could hit a button that razes the whole place and makes them start from scratch, I would. I know many of you like the park or whatever, but there are plenty of parks in neighborhoods that aren't otherwise terrible.
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Czervik.Construction said:
I agree 100% - this could have been like LIC in NYC where they are building 500-600ft residential and is becoming its own little skyline. However, given Boston/Cambridge seems to have an insatiable demand for lab space from small/emerging biopharma all the way up to top 5 global gorillas, I get why they did what they did. I don't like it, but I get it.
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For the lab space it makes sense and is reasonable. However, having all those fat blocky buildings is all the more reason to pepper in a few taller residentials! Instead, the residentials are just as fat and blocky as the labs!!!

People like to complain about the Seaports' buzzcut, but at least there is a good excuse of it being directly in the flight paths. There is no good excuse here. Aesthetics matter, or at least they SHOULD matter, and proportions are absolutely part of that. Height variation is part of that. Peaks and valleys are always going to be more visually appealing, and what better opportunity than a 1000' FAA zone away from older parks, away from the harbor, and away from existing historical neighborhoods? These developments don't feel like they integrate with the rest of the city whatsoever. It's like an island of s***, a wall-like fortress lacking any inspiration at all, and is visually in the way of the rest of the city, not part of it. Nothing about the place even feels urban. It might as well be an office-park complex in the suburbs. This garbage belongs in Bethesda, not right next to downtown Boston with the highest FAA allowance we have being completely squandered with mind-numbing JUNK!

This place is my #1 disappointment in Boston, even worse than not getting the Copley Place Tower, even worse than the crap that's going to be built on the Back Bay Garage, even worse than Winthrop Square being knocked under 700', and even worse than the Hub on Causeway cutting the residential tower so the entire North Station skyline is a 4-building buzzcut! This is the worst because we are losing ample opportunities for height, variety, and a visual extension of downtown, and due to the airport we don't have any other neighborhoods that could have pulled it off like this one could have. That's the real crime here. If you compare the FAA map to the existing neighborhoods, this was basically the best opportunity for height that we will ever have in this city for the rest of our lives, and it's squatter than the Seaport. It absolutely kills me. https://www.massport.com/media/mplj0snm/bostonairspacemap_9-8.pdf
 
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Czervik.Construction said:
I agree 100% - this could have been like LIC in NYC where they are building 500-600ft residential and is becoming its own little skyline. However, given Boston/Cambridge seems to have an insatiable demand for lab space from small/emerging biopharma all the way up to top 5 global gorillas, I get why they did what they did. I don't like it, but I get it.
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DZH22 said:
People like to complain about the Seaports' buzzcut, but at least there is a good excuse of it being directly in the flight paths. There is no good excuse here. Aesthetics matter, or at least they SHOULD matter, and proportions are absolutely part of that. Height variation is part of that. Peaks and valleys are always going to be more visually appealing, and what better opportunity than a 1000' FAA zone away from older parks, away from the harbor, and away from existing historical neighborhoods? These developments don't feel like they integrate with the rest of the city whatsoever. It's like an island of s***, a wall-like fortress lacking any inspiration at all, and is visually in the way of the rest of the city, not part of it. Nothing about the place even feels urban. It might as well be an office-park complex in the suburbs. This garbage belongs in Bethesda, not right next to downtown Boston with the highest FAA allowance we have being completely squandered with mind-numbing JUNK!
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Hunters Point only works because the 7 train runs 11-car trains every 3 or 4 minutes and delivers you to 42nd in just a few minutes and downtown in 7 stops by the 4-5 Lexington Express.

And similarly Queens Plaza/Queensboro Plaza have the E-M-R and the 7-N-W. Even the F plays a reliever role at 21st/Queensbridge. There's so much capacity to move people from Queensboro into the different parts of midtown Manhattan that it's a no-brainer neighborhood for a midtown worker.

In comparison, North Point has a future with 2-car GL trains every 5 minutes and a distant station with 6-car OL trains every 6-8 minutes (at the peak load point on the OL, too. Natch.). Where are all those residents going to be going? The neighborhood doesn't connect that well to the Financial District as its closest connection is through a transfer from the GL to the OL at North Station. While, the high spine is a relatively long trip on the GL or a long walk to the OL. Worse, there's not even an MBTA bus that takes any residents directly to the heart of Kendall-MIT-Mass Ave. A group of 500-footers residential towers just doesn't work. Maybe in an urban ring future with subway service.
 
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