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

Equilibria said:
February aerials: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cxcambridge/albums/72177720306229208/with/52706697370/
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The aerials are really nice, and this development is a win in my opinion. It's not AMAZING or anything, but it's pretty good compared to other recent examples that I can think of for new neighborhoods such as Assembly or Seaport. My only wish is that the MBTA and the neighborhood had spent some more money on Lechmere Station making it more architecturally "iconic." I understand the other stations on the two new branches being more utilitarian, but this location seems to call out for something iconic...........such as a Calatrava-inspired canopy, tower clock like at Forest Hills, or some other really striking artistic architectural feature. That's my two cents.

Spectacular Train Station Architecture Around The World | The Design Gesture
 
Java King said:
The aerials are really nice, and this development is a win in my opinion. It's not AMAZING or anything, but it's pretty good compared to other recent examples that I can think of for new neighborhoods such as Assembly or Seaport. My only wish is that the MBTA and the neighborhood had spent some more money on Lechmere Station making it more architecturally "iconic." I understand the other stations on the two new branches being more utilitarian, but this location seems to call out for something iconic...........such as a Calatrava-inspired canopy, tower clock like at Forest Hills, or some other really striking artistic architectural feature. That's my two cents.

Spectacular Train Station Architecture Around The World | The Design Gesture
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I'm still hoping someone proposes moving the "Live Long and Prosper" monument to the triangle left by the old station's removal and renaming the station and intersection from Lechmere Square (he was a slaveowner) to Nimoy Square.

As discussed elsewhere, the new station should have been named "East Cambridge" from its inception in the first place.
 
Site Progress February 2023

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#bancars said:
Golden hour from the second floor of Lamplighter last night (at the AHMA / ABC social)!
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Lovely shot! And that Lamplighter location is a gem. When I see that view, though, I keep concluding how the infill of parcels L/M (along mid- left side of your photo) will really make-or-break this view for me. When that's filled in, and the park is fully hemmed in, it will actually feel like an urban central park.
 
#bancars said:
Golden hour from the second floor of Lamplighter last night (at the AHMA / ABC social)!

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Really nice lighting and framing with this picture. Great job! The new glass building reminds me of a super stumpy version of 35 Hudson Yards. (ie it built the base but forgot to add the tower on top) With the highest FAA limits in the region, we actually could have had a tower similar to this, but instead everything is wider than it is tall. The more I think of it, Cambridge Crossing is basically our super lame, loser mentality version of Hudson Yards. We're going to leave 65-75% of its total potential on the table when all is said and done.

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DZH22 said:
Really nice lighting and framing with this picture. Great job! The new glass building reminds me of a super stumpy version of 35 Hudson Yards. (ie it built the base but forgot to add the tower on top) With the highest FAA limits in the region, we actually could have had a tower similar to this, but instead everything is wider than it is tall. The more I think of it, Cambridge Crossing is basically our super lame, loser mentality version of Hudson Yards. We're going to leave 65-75% of its total potential on the table when all is said and done.

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I personally would much rather have the airiness of Cambridge Crossing over the shadow-filled canyons of Hudson Yards. Boston is not New York, nor should it try to be.
 
Brick Top said:
I personally would much rather have the airiness of Cambridge Crossing over the shadow-filled canyons of Hudson Yards. Boston is not New York, nor should it try to be.
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What's "airy" about the Great Wall of Cambridge where every building has the proportions of a football stadium? There's quite the gulf between a dense cluster of supertalls and a dense cluster of 200' megablocks. Something in between, say mainly in the 300-600' range with maybe 1-2 taller ones poking though, would have been much more appropriate for our city. Setbacks would create more airiness above. The demand was/is certainly there to build tall residential buildings in the vicinity of multiple T stops.

Instead of a neighborhood that seamlessly integrates with the rest of the city around it, we get one that visually denies the existence of its location. It has created a visual barrier that is 10x more oppressive than some "shadow filled canyons" would be in a major city such as ours.
 
I would have preferred Chicago-style (thin tower over a small portion of the site and a cap on the rest) to NYC-style (ziggurat of setbacks). That would have given a different feel to the area from the rest of the city, while acknowledging that the lab developers are going to fill the envelope otherwise.
 
RandomWalk said:
I would have preferred Chicago-style (thin tower over a small portion of the site and a cap on the rest) to NYC-style (ziggurat of setbacks). That would have given a different feel to the area from the rest of the city, while acknowledging that the lab developers are going to fill the envelope otherwise.
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You're not going to get a thin tower for lab use.
 
RandomWalk said:
It’s all a hypothetical exercise, but I was thinking non-lab tower over lab.
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Exactly. There are several non-labs there. There should be a good opportunity for some skyscrapers (WITH attention to ground level human activity) in that location.

I am proud that Boston is different from NYC and love many of the reasons in which Boston surpasses NYC. I just wish Greater Boston could borrow some of the optimism/ambition NYC has always had. Take a full swing when the location/opportunity arises - - not so many self-conscious swinging bunts. Why couldn't Cambridge Crossing be a small-version of Times Square or Shibuya District (with the labs mixed in) complete with the large screen jumbotrons and news feeds streaming?????
 
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shmessy said:
Exactly. There are several non-labs there. There should be a good opportunity for some skyscrapers (WITH attention to ground level human activity) in that location.

I am proud that Boston is different from NYC and love many of the reasons in which Boston surpasses NYC. I just wish Greater Boston could borrow some of the optimism/ambition NYC has always had. Take a full swing when the location/opportunity arises - - not so many self-conscious swinging bunts. Why couldn't Cambridge Crossing be a small-version of Times Square or Shibuya District (with the labs mixed in) complete with the large screen jumbotrons and news feeds streaming?????
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Doesn't even need to go to that level in my opinion. I just spent some time around the Hunters Point area of Queens and was impressed by the new condo towers along the river, which in some ways reminded me of what Cambridge Crossing was going for with its structures being nestled among nice landscaped areas. I can't help but think of how CCX had the chance to definitively leapfrog the current era of redevelopment if only it were anchored by a couple of taller towers, instead of the admittedly nice but somewhat run-of-the-mill Boston-area landscapers that we've all been getting used to. I will continue to enjoy the project however and look forward to seeing it reach its maturity.

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Watching NYC shift in real time from a monocentric business district on manhattan island (though split in two) to the polycentric version were starting to see now with downtown brooklyn, williamsburg, domino park, greenpoint, hunters point, long island city, jamaica, willets point, jersey city, journal sq…etc. all having their own cores has been awesome to watch. Its exciting to also see the proposed interborough express that could help tie it all together. Eventually more cities in the us are going to have to build radial transit lines and theyll finally have an example to look to. Very exciting!
 
stick n move said:
Watching NYC shift in real time from a monocentric business district on manhattan island (though split in two) to the polycentric version were starting to see now with downtown brooklyn, williamsburg, domino park, greenpoint, hunters point, long island city, jamaica, willets point, jersey city, journal sq…etc. all having their own cores has been awesome to watch. Its exciting to also see the proposed interborough express that could help tie it all together. Eventually more cities in the us are going to have to build radial transit lines and theyll finally have an example to look to. Very exciting!
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If Greater Boston can shed its Puritanical self-consciousness, and finally grasp the high rise residential solution to the housing demand crisis, the nascent satellite downtown potentials in Allston/Brighton Somerville, Everett, , Chelsea, Malden (the 'Mystic Riviera'), East Boston, Revere/Suffolk Downs, Quincy, Lynn, etc are sitting right there under our noses. This is a 75 mph straight pitch right down the middle of the plate. To date, Greater Boston has mostly chosen to bunt with long fat landscrapers. There are bright rays of sunshine poking through in 135 Broadway in Cambridge, Union Square D2 Somerville and a few others.
 
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