Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

Oh, I actually can tell you all the ALLLLL the plumbing and HVAC that goes into these lab buildings... I only stare at and edit the risers for 9 hours a day. ;-)

Also, LEED for Healthcare will kick in (very late - original kickoff was supposed to be March 2010) on Jan 1, 2012. Company-wide memo went out today.
 
JohnAKeith said:
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?
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Yes -- it's a huge floor plate -- 120,000 gross sq. ft on 40,000 sq. feet of the lot -- that's an acre per story

These kind of labs have high ceilings for all the ducts with high floor loads and widely spread structures -- to give large open labs without too many intermediate pillars or walls.

Its not uncommon to spend close to $1000 per sq ft including the build-out for the end user -- this one is relatively cheap (70 /120) * 1000$ or the build-out is not included.
 
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Looks like a leftover from the Northridge earthquake.

Datadyne, this is the Education First project going up next to their current building by the Museum of Science. Their current HQ is in the center with green glass:

screenshot20110930at947.png
 
Boston02124 said:
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So from three sides the building looks like your typical shitty Rt-128 boxy-strip-windowed-office-park jobber, but from the the front it's your typical shitty Rt-128 boxy-strip-windowed-office-park jobber with a kewl inexplicable glassed-up fissure running through the facade. Awesome.
 
briv said:
So from three sides the building looks like your typical shitty Rt-128 boxy-strip-windowed-office-park jobber, but from the the front it's your typical shitty Rt-128 boxy-strip-windowed-office-park jobber with a kewl inexplicable glassed-up fissure running through the facade. Awesome.
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Precisely my reaction and then came WTF?! Who the hell is the architect??

Well... now we know what Rte 128 will look like after an earthquake!!
 
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"Make it look like an office park circa 1989... but different."
 
PaulC said:
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2011/08/04/law-allows-ef-building-to-go-up-in-northpoint/
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Interesting -- in connection with the discssion of private and public parks

The Nothpoint development will feature a privately created park just across from the Big Dig related parks on the Charles

In a few years we can see which one works out better

http://www.condominiumsatnorthpoint.com/park.htm

PS: another privately created park associated with a large development is the University Park development just off Mass Ave in Cambridge (Pacific and Green Streets area)
 
Have you ever stepped foot in either Northpoint park? Well, don't let that stop you from pointlessly pontificating.
 
I've been to both. I agree that comparing them in a few years would be useful, provided the the promised development actually happens.
 
Ron Newman said:
I've been to both. I agree that comparing them in a few years would be useful, provided the the promised development actually happens.
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I've walked and taken pictures on / around lose if not all the paths crossing the 3 parks built by the Big Dig

Paul Revere Landing

The Jail House Park (not sure its formal name)

North Point on the River

I like Revere for its views. I like Jail House as a path from the MOS to North Station. I like North Point for the skyline views of Boston and the MOS

I took one brief walk around the "Privately" built Northpointe -- it was still very early after (perhaps not even) it had opened
 
datadyne007 said:
Oh, I actually can tell you all the ALLLLL the plumbing and HVAC that goes into these lab buildings... I only stare at and edit the risers for 9 hours a day. ;-)
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Don't we have fun doing it though?

And, yes the price tag sounds about right. Since it sounds like a spec. lab building, there is no additional costs included I would assume for any real exciting lab procedures. Those would be added and paid for by whomever would be doing research there.

I'm finishing a similar sized lab in CT that was budgeted for about $80m, but thanks to the economy came in closer to $50m. This has some exotic functions in it as well which drives the cost up, as it's obviously cheaper to build in rural CT as compared to Cambridge.

I wouldn't be surprised if the $70m was only for a shell and core lab building with riser closets, and maybe a pH system, RODI system, compressed air, and vacumm systems installed. Kind of like the CLS.
 
Ron Newman said:
the formal name is Nashua Street Park
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Yea -- I knew that -- it's just more fun and ore descriptive to say Jail House Park

I never understood why they built the jail on such potentially prime real estate over there when they could have stuck it out at the end of one of old piers at the Charlestown Navy Yard -- such as where the Spaulding is being built
 
Neither do I. The jail really should be converted to a hotel (as its predecessor on Charles Street was).
 
What's so Scandinavian about a strip-windowed box atop three-levels of parking garage essentially plopped into a park?
 
There is nothing Scandinavian about this project.
 
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