Cambridge Discovery Park | Alewife | Cambridge

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whighlander

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The long static Cambridge Discovery Park is set to begin moving forward

Bulfinch Co's will develop a Marriott AC Hotel fronting on RT-2 just at the exit to the Alewife T

story in BBJ
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...finch-cos-planning-20m-ac-by-marriott-at.html

Bulfinch Cos. planning $20M AC by Marriott at Cambridge Discovery Park
Mar 23, 2015, 1:51pm EDT UPDATED: Mar 23, 2015, 2:19pm EDT

The Bulfinchs Cos. is planning to start construction in April on a 150-room, $20 million AC Hotel by Marriott at its 27-acre Cambridge Discovery Park off Route 2 near the Alewife MBTA station.

Catherine Carlock
Real Estate Editor-
Boston Business Journal

Real estate development and management firm The Bulfinch Cos. is planning to start construction in April on a 150-room AC Hotel by Marriott at its 27-acre CambridgeDiscovery Park.
Bulfinch in February received approval for an additional 400,000 square feet of mixed-use development at the West Cambridge park, part of which will host the AC Hotel by Marriott. The hotel will be located on a parcel fronting Route 2, according to an updated Bulfinch Cos. site plan.


overall plan
CDP_ACHotel_SiteLocationAerial.jpg


hotel
090314i-Bulfunch-hotel.jpg


AChotel rt2 rendering View Photos
Courtesy of The Bulfinch Cos.
Click to expand...

Lo and Behold its April and I saw a fence with machinery and already a pile of dirt in the midst
 
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That view really shows what a disaster of urban planning Alewife has been.
 
Shepard said:
That view really shows what a disaster of urban planning Alewife has been.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

I'm curious whether it's always been planned to be semi-urban, or if things have just happened that way. Had the Red Line been extended to Lexington that would have alleviated some of the traffic around Alewife, possibly giving planners more flexibility in dealing with roadways and traffic in the area. Alewife is really convenient for getting into the city from the Concord area. There were also plans back in the day to build a ramp into Alewife from Route 2 itself, which I imagine would be helped traffic in the area (but been an eyesore for sure). I wish the city would do more to improve congestion around Alewife, as many of the people using Alewife would take the Pike as an alternative over using the commuter rail if traffic keeps getting worse.
 
Lisbon said:
Absolutely.

I'm curious whether it's always been planned to be semi-urban, or if things have just happened that way. Had the Red Line been extended to Lexington that would have alleviated some of the traffic around Alewife, possibly giving planners more flexibility in dealing with roadways and traffic in the area. Alewife is really convenient for getting into the city from the Concord area. There were also plans back in the day to build a ramp into Alewife from Route 2 itself, which I imagine would be helped traffic in the area (but been an eyesore for sure). I wish the city would do more to improve congestion around Alewife, as many of the people using Alewife would take the Pike as an alternative over using the commuter rail if traffic keeps getting worse.
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Lisbon -- Alewife has one huge advantage -- Location at the nexus of Red Line & Rt 2 in Cambridge

Unfortunately 3 problems are limiting the realization of the huge potential:
  • Rt-2 access
  • Rail Road tracks
  • brooks, ponds and swampiness


    • 25 years ago the solution would have been simple -- today you can't do to much with the water, the highway is for the most part set with small opportunity to alter things and there are limited crossings over the tracks [Note because of the water issues crossing under the the tracks is essentially not going to happen]

      The best approach is to rationalize the 3 exits from Rt-2 and create a network of local streets using Cambridge Park Dr and Acorn Park Dr. as the parallel relievers to Rt-2 and at least one additional crossing of the tracks to connect to Concord Ave via Faucett St.
 
29420130858_4276110ffc_b.jpg


It blows my mind that this type of parking paving is so rare in the US
 
I think I'm gonna be sick. Please tell me this is actually in some other Cambridge far, far away.
 
It can be very very far away if you never go there.

cca
 
^ I somehow managed to almost never go to Alewife in the 10 years I lived in Boston. But now I find myself going through there probably once a month, and for the life of me I can't wrap my head around the layout of the place, nor will I actually spend the two seconds it would take looking at it on Google Maps to figure it out. I just know how to get through there, and apparently that's all it's good for.
 
kz1000ps said:
^ I somehow managed to almost never go to Alewife in the 10 years I lived in Boston. But now I find myself going through there probably once a month, and for the life of me I can't wrap my head around the layout of the place, nor will I actually spend the two seconds it would take looking at it on Google Maps to figure it out. I just know how to get through there, and apparently that's all it's good for.
Click to expand...

Its a mess. Pieced together planning wise. A big disappointment. Its like they tried to use all their planning mojo on northpoint and just shrugged their shoulders over here and said "whelp, I guess it is what it is."

cca
 
I used to work in Alewife, its actually not bad, nice actually, with the ponds, Danehy park, and the fresh pond walking trail there. The area in these pictures thats right at the station is bad, because the station/garage is located in a triangle of land right at the junction of a highway, the parkway, then cutoff on the backside by the CR tracks, but once you get out of that immediate area its actually pretty nice. Trust me I know that section is VERY bad. That area looks like a shitshow coming out of the station where they jammed those apartments and offices in there next to the station which is just a parking garage all located on that single street.

If you walk literally 500ft out of the station though and take a left at those apartment towers onto ringe ave it immediately becomes normal working class Cambridge. Theres another pond over there too. Down where I used to work is a further walk on the pretty hectic parkway, but if you hit the rotarys and go either direction your in regular anywhere Cambridge. It looks no different than any other neighborhood off of that main drag there. If you guys saw the area next to fresh pond its actually really nice and looks no different than the other Cambridge neighborhoods.

Im not sure what the boundaries of Alewife even truely are, but to me I just break it down to fresh pond. Directly north of fresh pond but south of the CR tracks has the trails around fresh pond, and some decently nice condos. North of fresh pond and north of the tracks is the disaster area with the red line station and that mish mash of office park/apartments, highways, parking garages, and general badness. This is what you see in the pictures is this triangle where theyre building office parks and condos by the station. Northeast of fresh pond though where the towers are looks like more of anywhere working class Cambridge or Boston. Then Danehy park is across the CR tracks but still on the northeast side and thats a nice area with lots of people outside. Finally directly east of fresh pond is the really nice part of Cambridge thats upper class separated houses. Id imagine these are some of the most expensive individually separated like real (houses) in Cambridge tbh. Idk if thats right or if Alewife literally means just at Alewife station, but thats what we considered Alewife.

But yea Alewife station-bad, directly north of fresh pond-getting better plus the trails, northeast of fresh pond-working class and parks/soccer fields, east of fresh pond-very nice.

Theres a ton of room for development so they should take advantage of the station and land up there and try to make it better connected with some bridges, retail, better ped connections. It has potential I think they just need to tie in the area by the station into the neighborhood. Honestly though if youve never been around fresh pond dont knock it. If your on the red line it has some great trails for walking, jogging, dog walking etc. Once you get away from the immediate station area and that main parkway its like anywhere else.
 
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