CambridgeSide Galleria Reno/Redev | First Street | East Cambridge

 
Credit to @RandomWalk who has already reported on this effect. I couldn't help but snap my own shot as I was passing by. The down-lighting on the slightly imperfect hand-laid brick (with its detailing) is just wonderful. At nighttime, a passerby would not be able to tell this was a new building.

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So they’re now paving the stone dust areas and coating it with a tinted traction surface. Previously, it was going to be integrally colored.
 
So the mall's food court has closed for a gut-renovation and rebranding. I was walking through yesterday (2/10) and it is entirely walled off, and a peak inside a gap showed a total construction zone. The have a small (~4-6 stall) food vendor pop-up on the second floor as an interim stopgap. These signs were up:
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I had heard they were renovating the food court as part of the overall redevelopment project, but had yet to see the details. Now they have apparently launched a website with renderings. It is being branded as CanalSide Food Hall. It seems like the layout will now better integrate the new entry from First street. Also it looks like the perimeter adjacent to the canal will get a nicer-scale restaurant with some removal of the exterior wall/windows to open it up to the canal, whereas the interior will be the self-serve areas.

CanalSide Food Hall | Lab + Office

CanalSide Food Hall will feature best-in-class food and beverage operators making this an energetic space to enjoy the riverscape. Learn more!
canalsidefoodhall.com

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At first I was thinking they don't currently have the foot traffic for something like this, but if the two corporate lab tenants move in as-planned at the former Sears site, and the 3rd floor lab coworking space (SmartLabs) opens within 2024 as planned, then those workers could be the injection this needs. Interesting to see how it pans out.
 
bigpicture7 said:
At first I was thinking they don't currently have the foot traffic for something like this, but if the two corporate lab tenants move in as-planned at the former Sears site, and the 3rd floor lab coworking space (SmartLabs) opens within 2024 as planned, then those workers could be the injection this needs. Interesting to see how it pans out.
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In the past few years, as stores have closed in CSG and overall "mall traffic" is down in most places, I've consistently been surprised at how *many* people still went out of their way to get food at the old food court. Given the absurdly long lines at Taco Bell, Panda Express, and others when I was there this year, I suspect they won't have any issues with foot traffic (though, yes - new tenants will only help avoid that problem).
 
Looks great. It really needed a refresh from the 80's neon. I love the better connection to the Canal. YEARS ago, there was an Uno's along the canal, and that was always a nice view. Uno's was located where the current hotel is located if I remember correctly.
 
Java King said:
Looks great. It really needed a refresh from the 80's neon. I love the better connection to the Canal. YEARS ago, there was an Uno's along the canal, and that was always a nice view. Uno's was located where the current hotel is located if I remember correctly.
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I agree it was definitely due for a major refresh. The mall opened in '90, and while I think the food court area was slightly renovated at least once since then, it nonetheless still had the 20th-century mall aesthetic. They did not refresh it recently when they otherwise did a full mall renovation ~4 years ago; they left it alone, presumably because they knew this was coming. Moreover, the whole mall area has been in a holding pattern for several years. The mall basically used to be encircled with restaurants, as you note, but now Cheesecake Factory is the only one left (though I will say it is usually quite full). The many planned public-facing projects are really overdue, since there had been massive construction throughout the pandemic but none of the public-facing components have yet delivered.
 
I for one hope they upgrade the space but still have some room for the panda express types but I'm sure it will be all Time Out types. I'm probably in the minority as people seem to love the bougie and buck the basic these days
 
Suffolk 83 said:
I for one hope they upgrade the space but still have some room for the panda express types but I'm sure it will be all Time Out types. I'm probably in the minority as people seem to love the bougie and buck the basic these days
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I agree with you, I would hope they retain at least some of the existing options.
 
Not to derail this, but I was at Hub Hall last week, and I thought it was definitely more "food court" than upscale Food Hall. Nothing wrong with that at all. I just noticed the options were fairly basic. So maybe this CambridgeSide renovation will be more like Hub Hall than Time Out or High Street Place?

By the way, does anybody remember shopping at the original Lechmere at this location? I do! LOL
 
bigpicture7 said:
So the mall's food court has closed for a gut-renovation and rebranding...
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So, per Globe today, the new Food Hall ("Canalside") line up has been announced:
www.bostonglobe.com

Thereâs a new food hall coming to Cambridge (and it will appeal to â90s âmall babiesâ) - The Boston Globe

The centerpiece of CanalSide Food + Drink will be a new bar from the mixologists at The Baldwin Bar, Birds of Paradise, and Grill 23.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Looks like it is:
C-Side (bar/cocktails)
Anoush’ella (Eastern Mediterranean street food);
Caffe Nero (coffee);
Chilacates (Mexican);
DalMoros Fresh Pasta (pasta to go);
Fresh (deli sandwiches and bowls);
InChu (Asian Fusion);
Lala’s Neapolitan-ish Pizza;
Nu Burger;
Sapporo Ramen;
Tezza Tea Shop (bubble tea and smoothies).
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Those looking for Taco-bell/BK -level of cheapness will be disappointed, but at least a few of those offerings are on the somewhat affordable side

Meanwhile, it seemed like the mall itself was going through some form of the apocalypse, but after a slew of stores closed, it looks like it was largely because ~4+ store slots are being gutted and merged into a large new Zara. This whole mall is a construction war zone, but its clear there's a lot of investment being pumped into this.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Amusingly (though perhaps better than many alternatives) they are proposing planting a bunch of pine trees on the roof of the mall to hide the new lab mechanicals...
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Apparently they really weren't kidding about planting a crapload of pine trees on the roof of the mall (from 6/23):

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bigpicture7 said:
Apparently they really weren't kidding about planning a crapload of pine trees on the roof of the mall (from 6/23):

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I'm all for trees but these look very strange. Where do the roots go? How tall do they get? This whole picture is odd.
It's like someone said "right, we've 5 mins left, how can we breathe some life in to the back of the building?"
 
Ruairi said:
I'm all for trees but these look very strange. Where do the roots go? How tall do they get? This whole picture is odd.
It's like someone said "right, we've 5 mins left, how can we breathe some life in to the back of the building?"
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They do kind of look like 1980s-era LEGO pine trees just stuck on top of a Town set.
 
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