Harvard Law proposal to redevelop long closed Mass Ave taxpayers.
https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media...2016/1607massave/lpr_1607mass_plans.pdf?la=en
I like Mass Ave taxpayers the way they are. Why do they need to be redeveloped?
Harvard Law proposal to redevelop long closed Mass Ave taxpayers.
https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media...2016/1607massave/lpr_1607mass_plans.pdf?la=en
I like Mass Ave taxpayers the way they are. Why do they need to be redeveloped?
I like Mass Ave taxpayers the way they are. Why do they need to be redeveloped?
Harvard, the Local Monster
Despite the nearly rabid hostility on this forum towards "taxpayers" (the single-story business the line major thoroughfares), these are as integral to Boston as the stone 3- and 4-deckers and everything else that makes Boston great. Sure - some are less attractive than others, and some can be redeveloped, but just because they have the audacity to not sustain the level of density deemed acceptable by current standards doesn't mean they should all get ripped down.
What should be more concerning is that the likelihood of destruction often depends not so much on the importance of the existing businesses to the community but on the aesthetic quality of the buildings - if they're more attractive, early 20th C buildings with architectural flourishes, less likely; if newer and plainer, not as much of a "historic" or "preservation" argument to save them (and let's face it - preservation movements are run by fair-skinned elites and have much more political pull than the average little guy in some taxpayer in Medford, eg. Sorry to be inflammatory, but it's true).
Even when a redevelopment includes replacements for street-level retail, the rents inevitably are higher and the businesses usually wind up being more upscale. It appears that here, Harvard doesn't even bother to attempt to replace these businesses, instead offering up one single retail space when the building once had FOUR. Ugh. Fuck Harvard. Fuck the universities that come in and tear down stores and replace them with walls.
You guys, the "taxpayer" in question here has been vacant since 2009. There was once a dry cleaner here and it leaked toxic perchloroethylene into the building and into the soil. Harvard has owned the building for almost thirty years, and has spent much of that time trying to deal with this inherited problem. The last business to occupy the space, a pizza shop, left in 2009 so that Harvard could work on further remediation of the contamination. Another business, the barber shop, moved into the space next door that will be preserved in the planned redevelopment. The current building is architecturally worthless and unfit for habitation or commercial use due to lingering contamination. It has sat empty for the last decade with nothing but Harvard posters hanging in the windows. Harvard tearing this thing down, fully cleaning up the site, and rebuilding in its place is the best thing that can happen for the site and the area. No businesses are being displaced that didn't leave in the previous decade (due in large part to the site contamination).
Going on a "fuck Harvard" rant because of this project is beyond idiotic.
And the result, no surprise, is atrocious, proving yet again a camel is a horse designed by committee. Apparently there is no bottom to the general public's love of treacly schlockitecture.This project was the result of numerous neighborhood meetings and planning board beat downs.
This project was the result of numerous neighborhood meetings and planning board beat downs. It's a difficult site but concerns over height and density were repeatedly points of contention. The city was very specific in what the wanted this to look like...ahem (board members)
^ cambridge is in the midst of a massive identity crisis
On the one hand it is bursting at the seams with innovation and corporate investment, at the other, it's a city clinging to a prior error. One thing's for sure: there isn't enough housing to support the tech scene in kendall. Do they want the kendall scene there or not?
^ cambridge is in the midst of a massive identity crisis
On the one hand it is bursting at the seams with innovation and corporate investment, at the other, it's a city clinging to a prior error. One thing's for sure: there isn't enough housing to support the tech scene in kendall. Do they want the kendall scene there or not?
This will take at least a decade because today most of the young professionals are commuting from outside of Cambridge.
BigPicture -- I presume that you meant era
But anyway --
Some money shot renders for Mass+Main. My understanding from following the debate a bit is that this will end up getting built.
http://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/...lPermits/sp321/sp321_application1_3.pdf?la=en
That first shot though, the aerial looking down Main Street - that whole corridor is begging for redevelopment. And the projects (which are currently being renovated) should have been torn down and densified like they are doing in Charlestown.
That first shot though, the aerial looking down Main Street - that whole corridor is begging for redevelopment. And the projects (which are currently being renovated) should have been torn down and densified like they are doing in Charlestown.
Its location and scale make it an attractive site for academic uses. The site provides an opportunity to improve street frontage in an area with retail and restaurant space at Tech Square and new retail planned for the future north building on the 610 Main Street site.