Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

[Toucano]

Speaking of Kendall Square...

Does anyone know what's going on in the Plaza directly in front of the Marriott? This Plaza needs some serious rehab - the tiles are a deathtrap waiting to happen. There is green construction fence cordoning off most of the Plaza and they've begun to demolish the awkward tower/ventilation shaft on the Southeastern Corner...

I work in the area and will snap a picture of it soon...

 

[Boston02124]

Is this the site ur talking about?

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Wait, where is that going in?

 

[found5dollar]

well now... that is interesting...

 

[bdurden]

These renderings are for the Broad Institute expansion project.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I mean, I like it for what it is.

The big problem that those renderings of Kendall Sq point out is that almost thing there has any sense of scale. The person feels like they are walking around in a vacuum filled with abstract blocks. There are no buildings to define Kendall Sq as a space, just random, giant shapes. This building just keeps that aesthetic.

The Gehry building would work so much more if it was surrounded by a more classically designed space. Imagine how it would look placed in the Harvard Medical School Quad, or as one end of the Harvard Yard. I'm not suggesting that should be the case but merely pointing out that the building would work better as a reaction to something, not as a single shout inside a vacuum surrounded by other single shouts.

 

[stellarfun]

Its a 300,000 sq ft building. Basically doubles the Broad Institute space.

 

[erikyow]

Mmmmm... render-porn.

 

[PaulC]

Speaking of Kendall Square...

Does anyone know what's going on in the Plaza directly in front of the Marriott? This Plaza needs some serious rehab - the tiles are a deathtrap waiting to happen. There is green construction fence cordoning off most of the Plaza and they've begun to demolish the awkward tower/ventilation shaft on the Southeastern Corner...

I work in the area and will snap a picture of it soon...

I copied this from MIT's newspaper:

adjacent to the mit coop, the courtyard by the Kendall marriott is being renovated this winter by the owner of 3 Cambridge Center, Boston Properties? The existing plaza will be demolished, new drainage and waterproofing will be added, and it will be re-paved and landscaped.

 

[Toucano]

Kendall Square Redevelopment:

 

[Boston02124]

this building just had a new slanted top put on,have yet to get up close,anyone know what happen here? Alewife

 

[Mayor Menino's Crohn's]

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news...oval_could_make_faces_diss.html?p1=News_links

Cambridge officials have approved a long-awaited makeover for the dilapidated ?Faces? discotheque site along Route 2.

The Planning Board approved a special permit Tuesday for Criterion Development Partners to build a four-story, 227-unit apartment building on the site of the run-down old club near the Alewife MBTA stop.

?This has been a site that we?ve been hoping will be developed for a very long time,? said Susan Glazer, the city?s deputy director of community development. ?It?s nice to see it moving forward.?

The club has developed into an eyesore since it was vacated in 1990, and Criterion Development Partners and partner the McKinnon Co. have a purchase and sale agreement to take over ownership of the property from the Martignetti family, which owns the neighboring Lanes and Games bowling ally and the Cambridge Gateway Inn.

Rich McKinnon, president of the McKinnon Company, said the development team is now preparing to begin work on construction drawings.

?We are moving full steam ahead,? McKinnon said. ?We?re still hoping to begin construction late spring, early summer.?

Criterion Development Partners and the McKinnon Company had proposed a similar redevelopment plan in 2008 for an apartment building on the site. But that proposal derailed during permitting process.

McKinnon said Thursday that he was happy to get the Planning Boards approval, but he knows many people are more interested in the demolition of the dilapidated nightclub than the new construction.

The developers have already covered the dirty old ?Faces? sign at the request of neighbors, and McKinnon said they will tear down the old club as soon as possible.

?We don?t want to wait any longer than we have to,? McKinnon said. ?We know the public wants it down.?

--Brock.globe@gmail.com

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

That's going to be a lousy place to live until they get better pedestrian access. The only way off that boxed property without driving on 2 is a little connecting path to Alewife. It's isolated from everything else. They need to rehab that decrepit footbridge across 2 in front of Lanes & Games, landscape an inviting path connecting to the Minuteman at Thorndike Field so Arlington's actually accessible, and spit another path out the southwest side w/footbridge over the brook connecting to the Fitchburg Cutoff trail and providing Belmont access.

Even that doesn't solve the total street grid isolation.

 

[ablarc]

The charms of everyday life in the suburbs...

I once stayed in a motel in Atlanta that was directly beside a convenience store, isolated by a fence. To access it on foot, I had to slip-slide down a grassy bank, plod through a ditch beside an access road, and enter the convenience store parking lot as though I was an approaching car.

That little connecting path to Alewife was there 25 years ago. What a sad dump!

And the motel had roaches.

 

[Ron Newman]

I can't see why anyone would want to build a residential development in that location and expect to make money. Who would rent there?

 

[GW2500]

I wouldn't want to live right there either, but there are plenty of apartments like this already on the side of highways. Look at 93 around N Woburn/Wilmington. Or the new apartments on 128 in Peabody. My friend was a foreman for a big development in Billerica right off route 3. So I guess people are buying them.

 

[Ron Newman]

Yes, but in the suburbs you could easily drive into and out of such a development without getting on the Interstate and without the traffic mess that is Alewife. It looks to me like the only road access to this development will be directly onto and off Route 2.

 

[jass]

Boys and girls, take a seat, pull out some popcorn, and enjoy the very first tour of the Alewife area, including the subject of the above conversation.

We begin at alewife of course.

Looks like someone enjoys living in the area

New bridge?

Lets begin our walking trip

 

[czsz]

Proof positive that suburban wastelands don't always have to include tract houses or strip malls.

 

[jass]

By the way, this office park thing is a very easy walk from Alewife, great for reverse commuters...although that gravel path was a bit wet. There is an asphalt sidewalk which is longer and not pedestrian friendly.

Car access sucks. As far as I can tell, you can only enter by taking the alewife exit and making a hard right immediately after that.

Anybody familiar with the area know that it is a parking lot during inbound rush hours, so that access plan is a major fail....and will further delay alewife buses.

Arlington planning fail.

Also, there is a giant parking garage....again, right by alewife here.

Think that it could be sued as overflow for alewife patrons? Unlikely. The garage said "key card access only" (no cash) and is too inconvenient for impatient commuters.

Anyway, on we go.

All this new construction, and you still have overhead wiring blocking the road...?

And this is what we were looking at