Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

^^I agree; it's seems totally contrived.

My biggest beef, however, is the seemingly walled-in entry at the base of the steeple. What kind of message is that sending?
 
Re: Cambridge Developments -- Rt:2

ja -- At that point, once it reaches Faces, route 2 is no longer a limited access highway. You enter/exit the parking lot directly into the lanes, the the speed limit is posted as 35. Remove the guardrails, remove the fencing, add a u-turn lane, and bam, you have an "urban" street instead of a highway. (it would be as urban as something like memorial drive).

You could even demolish the pedestrian overpass and add a crosswalk with a traffic signal.

Are you serious -- have you ever tried to drive down Rt-2 about 8:00 AM

What you are suggesting would cause the existing back-up to back-up to the top of the Hill in Arlington on a Good to Fair day

On a bad day -- say some rain or a bit of snow the back-up could pass the point where Rt-2 goes back to 3 lanes and conceivably back-up to the existing back-ups at the ramps to I-95/Rt-128

No -- what needs to be done is to provide a path for the people who don't want to do anything except to get around the Fresh Pond rotary to do so

As it is the people branch off Rt-2 and take the Alewife T ramp then cut back on Cambridge Park Drive this causes back-ups at both the Alewife Ramp to Cambridge Park and Cambridge Park to Freshpond Parkway intersections

Tear down Faces and take a strip along the entire Rt-2 RW for a lane dedicated to the Alewife Ramp keep lanes for the turn to Freshpond and 2 lanes for the Left turn to Alewife Parkway

Of course a lot of this could have been solved by extending the Red Line to the Lexington Ton Dump at Rt-128/I-95
 
Funny how I was just asking myself that same question on Tuesday when I went to check out the Cambridge Public Library.
 
I found this outdated information that was expected to renovate the property in time for September 2009

Then, I cam across this Data:
"1 Apartments/Condominiums, 5 Stories Above Grade, Approximately 43,000 sq ft New Construction with 20 Unit(s). Parking Garage, 1 Story Below Grade with 38 Parking Spaces. Retail., Demolition."

Environmental Documents here.
 
Re: Cambridge Developments -- Rt:2

whighlander said:
ja -- At that point, once it reaches Faces, route 2 is no longer a limited access highway. You enter/exit the parking lot directly into the lanes, the the speed limit is posted as 35. Remove the guardrails, remove the fencing, add a u-turn lane, and bam, you have an "urban" street instead of a highway. (it would be as urban as something like memorial drive).

You could even demolish the pedestrian overpass and add a crosswalk with a traffic signal.

Are you serious -- have you ever tried to drive down Rt-2 about 8:00 AM

What you are suggesting would cause the existing back-up to back-up to the top of the Hill in Arlington on a Good to Fair day

On a bad day -- say some rain or a bit of snow the back-up could pass the point where Rt-2 goes back to 3 lanes and conceivably back-up to the existing back-ups at the ramps to I-95/Rt-128

No -- what needs to be done is to provide a path for the people who don't want to do anything except to get around the Fresh Pond rotary to do so

As it is the people branch off Rt-2 and take the Alewife T ramp then cut back on Cambridge Park Drive this causes back-ups at both the Alewife Ramp to Cambridge Park and Cambridge Park to Freshpond Parkway intersections

Tear down Faces and take a strip along the entire Rt-2 RW for a lane dedicated to the Alewife Ramp keep lanes for the turn to Freshpond and 2 lanes for the Left turn to Alewife Parkway

Of course a lot of this could have been solved by extending the Red Line to the Lexington Ton Dump at Rt-128/I-95
Click to expand...

Sorry to 'beat a dead horse' but the best route into Boston from Route 2 would be if they created a "big dig" below the Fitchburg line, have it pass below Porter Square and Somerville Ave, and have it terminate at Route 93 near Northpoint. Porter Square is perfect because the Red Line is already extra deep in the ground so it should be able to fit a Commuter Rail and Road level under there. I rode the Commuter Rail one day from N. Station and literally 10 mins was all it took and I was already up by Alewife. I started thinking to myself if the 74/78 schedules lined up with the commuter rail I might actually start taking the train to Belmont Centre and then take the bus back into Cambridge. If Commuter Rail could do it in 10-15 mins, an underground highway (with limited on/off ramps) should be able to do the same... That could relieve some pressure off Route 16, Mass. Ave. Soldiers' Field Road and Memorial/Storrow Drives.
 
Whig, to use the quotation function you can either go to the post you are quoting and click the little "quote" button in the bottom right corner, or you can simply surround the quote in your post with

<quote> blah blah blah </quote>

change the < > to [ ]
 
Things have already improved with the conversion of the old Acorm Park buildings into a real landscapted park

Now what needs to be done -- Take down Faces -- widen RT-2 to have a dedicated lane for T and other Parking, Cambrdige Park Dr. and the new Discovery Park development cluster

Then re-develop the old motel / hotel & bowling alley into a couple of residential hotel buildings -- moved back from the highway travel lanes
 
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Faces is being demolished this summer or fall. I'd rather keep the bowling alley, because so many others have been closed or demolished elsewhere.
 
Ron, not opposed to the alley -- but the structure housing it and its parking / drive pavement is too close to the highway at a crtical point -- I'd love to see that all of the curb cuts on RT-2 be replaced by access to a road connecting Cambrige Park Dr. with the existing ramps
 
The single-story commercial building which housed the Bowl and Board on Mass Ave outside Harvard Square has been demolished and a new five-story condo building is being built in its place. There's also a pretty substantial building going up on Green St. at the edge of University Park. Anyone know anything about these?
 
Please not the Bowl and Board -- the next thing you'll try to tell me is that the Boston Garden itself has been torn down for something connected to a Bank

Assure me that at least the Orson Wells still plays King of Hearts to capacity crowds on a Friday Night
 
1075 Mass. Ave. (Bowl and Board site) will be a 5 story glass box, with retail on the first floor and 20 condos above. There was to be a small green roof element (2010 drawings), but that's probably been VE'd out. I have some renderings around, but nothing that I'm sure is current.
 
$70m earmarked for Cambridge lab project in Kendall Square

09/29/2011 8:19 AM
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Skanska USA Inc. said it is investing $70 million to develop a laboratory and office building at 150 Second St. in Kendall Square, Skanska’s first commercial real estate investment in Cambridge.

Skanska USA, a development and construction company headquartered in New York, said it acquired the site’s 60,000 square foot parcel in November. It added that Elkus Manfredi Architects is now designing a three-story building that aims to meet the US Green Building Council’s LEED Gold standards. The building will house about 120,000 square feet of lab space.

Skanska USA said it will self-finance 100 percent of the development costs.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been retained to handle the agency leasing and property management assignments of the new development.

Link
 
kz1000ps said:
$70m earmarked for Cambridge lab project in Kendall Square

09/29/2011 8:19 AM
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Skanska USA Inc. said it is investing $70 million to develop a laboratory and office building at 150 Second St. in Kendall Square, Skanska’s first commercial real estate investment in Cambridge.

Skanska USA, a development and construction company headquartered in New York, said it acquired the site’s 60,000 square foot parcel in November. It added that Elkus Manfredi Architects is now designing a three-story building that aims to meet the US Green Building Council’s LEED Gold standards. The building will house about 120,000 square feet of lab space.

Skanska USA said it will self-finance 100 percent of the development costs.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been retained to handle the agency leasing and property management assignments of the new development.

Link
Click to expand...

Amazing -- I decided to Google Map to see exactly where it was so I Googled 150 2nd St. -- and low and behold I hit the building head-on -- it has a short slide show with renders

http://www.usa.skanska.com/Projects/Display-project/?pid=1296&lang=en-us

By the way it says that " The 3-story Class A lab building is centrally located in the heart of Kendall Square’s world-leading biotech cluster in Cambridge, MA " -- this is part of the ever-expanding definition of Kendall Sq. -- as the site is much closer to Leachmere and even a nit closer to Science Park than to Kendall / MIT / Cambridge Center

As an aside -- because of the above expanding definition of " located in the heart of Kendall Square’s world-leading biotech cluster " -- the DTX Filene's hole and the SPID can just say that they are

located near to the heart of Kendall Square’s world-leading biotech cluster
 
Is this currently a parking lot, or the site of an existing building to be torn down?
 
Can we roll it back a bit? It's 60,000 square foot parcel, it's only three stories tall, but it's costing them $70 million? Is that normal?
 
^^ Aside from the increased cost associated with LEED Gold (i.e. double plumbing loop to allow for grey-water recycling), the $70 million price-tag may include fixed-in-place assets like hoods, biosafety cabinets, laboratory furniture, and an advanced air-handling system (for clean rooms).
 
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