Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

So with the new building going up behind it, how much life does everyone think the Harvard Square Hotel has left?

1) It's horribly anti-urban, with a ground floor parking garage and ramps on all sides

2) It doesn't make nearly the maximum use of the site, with a parking podium and only 6ish floors (most nearby buildings are as tall, if not taller)

3) It's ugly as sin.

A new building on that site could double, if not triple the amount of square footage available. There's also the potential for the bus waiting experience to be improved, the two shelters are okay but aren't that great. An architecturally significant building could also do a lot to enliven Eliot Square. The legacy block with Charlies, etc does a great job on the south side of the street, and the Charles Hotel is pretty good with programming it's plaza, but it still feels like a lot more could be happening there that isn't.



In a similar vein, as much as I love the single story art deco building that fronts Brattle Square, I feel like it's begging for another two or three floors on top of it. The only argument I'd have against that happening is it's one of the last bastions of independent businesses in the area, the majority of new construction are banks and chain shops with terrible storefronts (I'm looking at you, One Brattle).
 
how much life does everyone think the Harvard Square Hotel has left?
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It's actually owned by the Kennedy School. They're getting started on a big renovation of their existing campus (site prep going on now, ground breaking this summer), so I'd imagine that unless the hotel itself wants to make any changes (or even leave), any redevelopment of the building is 5+ years off minimum. Taking into account how slowly Harvard in general moves and that HKS is one of their cash poorer schools (generally speaking), it might be closer to 20+.
 
What is the status of 88 Ames Street (Ames Street Residences)? Did it get approved on Dec. 2 by the planning board? I read this was 22 stories and 284 feet tall.
 
SHAZBAT73 said:
What is the status of 88 Ames Street (Ames Street Residences)? Did it get approved on Dec. 2 by the planning board? I read this was 22 stories and 284 feet tall.
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from the Cambridge Community Development Department website
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Planning/amesstreetlanddisposition.aspx
Date: December 3, 2013
Subject: Ames Street Land Disposition
Recommendation: The Planning Board supports the proposed disposition.
To the Honorable, the City Council,
The Planning Board recommends that the land disposition proceed in accordance with the terms
outlined in the City Manager's November 18, 2013 report, the attached Request for Proposals
and the winning proposal submitted by Boston Properties Limited Partnership.
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Still needs City Council approval for the sale of the 20' wide strip of Ames St. -- on the agenda for 12/09/2014
 
That is from one year ago for the sale of the land, which was approved.
 
No pictures, but the Porter Square boutique hotel has steel up three floors.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
No pictures, but the Porter Square boutique hotel has steel up three floors.
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That project has been INSANELY slow. It was a hole in the ground for six months, then there were four or five columns sitting alone for two months. It's only in the past couple of weeks that it has picked up to a seemingly normal pace. I wonder what kind of issues this thing had/has.
 
BeeLine said:
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This was not built. It was snapped together from an off the shelf kit. May as well be vector art wallpaper.
 
RandomWalk said:
That is from one year ago for the sale of the land, which was approved.
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OK -- so what is the status

I was over at Google a week ago Monday and the GNUrds* were interested in the prospect of living at work

* as in GNU translates into GNU is Not Unix
 
So nice that the cold storage hulk will actually look like a place people want to be, instead of a place where bodies get put on ice. Seriously, that building was scary looking.
 
Alewife building boom spurs calls for better planning
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Link

This is a great juxtaposition to Somerville and Assembly Sq where you have a city that plans a massive development project right. The People's Republic of Cambridge could use a bit more authoritarian planning in this regard (while keeping residents informed and involved, obviously).
 
Unrelated, I drove up 93 during my brief Christmas visit and was pleasantly surprised just how dense the Northpoint area is becoming. You don't get the sense of scale from images of single buildings alone.
 
The Alewife area has a few big problems: Lack of connectivity, Route 2 dumping more traffic than the parkways can handle, Alewife garage acting as a huge traffic magnet, and dysfunctional intersections (particularly along the parkways.)

Not extending the Red Line to 128 is becoming an even bigger planning mistakes than it once was. Much of that traffic coming from Route 2 onto the parkways, particularly people who continue towards Boston, SHOULD be transit passengers. If there were actually Red Line Stations in Arlington and Lexington, fewer people who be driving into and/or through Cambridge.

Improving bus service could help, but the buses to Alewife get stuck in the same traffic as everyone else, making the trip take even longer than driving would.

The intersection of Route 2/Route 16 is a huge mess. MassDOT has plans to make it marginally better, but based on what I've seen of those plans, I'm not very hopeful.

The Alewife area also needs more connections across the commuter rail tracks, and more direct paths for walking and biking. It also needs more urban fabric and fewer parking lots. For having such a key transit station, the area feels very car-oriented. When I do walk in the area, I feel like the oddball, rather than the norm; this is unlike most other parts of Cambridge.
 
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