Hello, all,
I took my camera and walked around 22 Water Street with the intent on letting fellow ArchBostonians know what is happening. Sadly, despite shooting about 20 useful images, I cannot reliably get them to share into this site. So, I will describe with text (and someone else can shoot again unless I find a way to get them here).
Many folks do not know that Zinc has been open for at least a month. It has quite a few tenants, if the cab and car and bike parking lots and gym activity are representative! At night, the lit windows feature folks moving about (unlike Twenty|20, which lights lots of rooms sans inhabitants). The property is clean and contemporary. Facing a very small plot of grass (not yet grown) and then the northern tip of the train yard makes for a desolate location, though. And it makes the building feel hulking. There is a long bike road (approximately 10 feet wide) that runs roughly north to south between the building and the grass. If you follow the trail north to the building's end, you will find...
The green line construction! Yes, for weeks I thought the ginormous crane was for Superior Nut renovation or some thing else related to that building. The rail expansion is clearly underway, however, and there are myriad places to take photos of the rail support columns (no, they are not just clearing materials: there are pillars already finished!), building forms, equipment, and even construction diagrams displayed on signs. Strangely, the construction is wide open, with no barriers (as of Sunday) between Zinc's property and the (literal) tracks of the crane or vehicle roadways. By the way, I did not know there was so much land back there. If any of you visit, you will note a huge expanse - almost another Northpoint, but more banana shaped as it curves behind Sav-Mor and the Rt 28 bridge toward Somerville - that is nearly all dirt up to the extant tracks. All of it is being developed: from the aforementioned columns to the retaining walls, to grade leveling, to other processes that I do not recognize.
After writing this I really want to try to upload some images. In any case, if anyone visits, walk past the crane (behind Shell) and down toward the retaining wall: that's where are of the documents are. It's looking good!
I took my camera and walked around 22 Water Street with the intent on letting fellow ArchBostonians know what is happening. Sadly, despite shooting about 20 useful images, I cannot reliably get them to share into this site. So, I will describe with text (and someone else can shoot again unless I find a way to get them here).
Many folks do not know that Zinc has been open for at least a month. It has quite a few tenants, if the cab and car and bike parking lots and gym activity are representative! At night, the lit windows feature folks moving about (unlike Twenty|20, which lights lots of rooms sans inhabitants). The property is clean and contemporary. Facing a very small plot of grass (not yet grown) and then the northern tip of the train yard makes for a desolate location, though. And it makes the building feel hulking. There is a long bike road (approximately 10 feet wide) that runs roughly north to south between the building and the grass. If you follow the trail north to the building's end, you will find...
The green line construction! Yes, for weeks I thought the ginormous crane was for Superior Nut renovation or some thing else related to that building. The rail expansion is clearly underway, however, and there are myriad places to take photos of the rail support columns (no, they are not just clearing materials: there are pillars already finished!), building forms, equipment, and even construction diagrams displayed on signs. Strangely, the construction is wide open, with no barriers (as of Sunday) between Zinc's property and the (literal) tracks of the crane or vehicle roadways. By the way, I did not know there was so much land back there. If any of you visit, you will note a huge expanse - almost another Northpoint, but more banana shaped as it curves behind Sav-Mor and the Rt 28 bridge toward Somerville - that is nearly all dirt up to the extant tracks. All of it is being developed: from the aforementioned columns to the retaining walls, to grade leveling, to other processes that I do not recognize.
After writing this I really want to try to upload some images. In any case, if anyone visits, walk past the crane (behind Shell) and down toward the retaining wall: that's where are of the documents are. It's looking good!
