Dana-Farber Cancer Center | 1 Joslin Place | Longwood

[Jeremi]

I wonder if this is a function of both short height, wide girth, and narrow streets. I read this and first thought that perhaps this is why big buildings dont fit onto small streets, yet the City of London has plenty of tall buildings on tiny streets and it works fine without feeling suffocating. I actually wonder if this building would "feel" less imposing if it were three times as tall. There is something about height that "flumes" the eye upward, which implicitly signals that there is breathing space, since the "energy" is moving. With short buildings, your eye sizes up the entire building and sees the top of it readily, which is sort of like experiencing the aesthetic version of a dead end street. No energy movement, no escape ... suffocation. If this is true (and I'd be curious if any architects can weigh in here), this suggests that the fight against tall buildings actually might be misguided, and that at least at the immediate, local level, the presence of taller buildings might be less imposing than that of medium height ones.

Something about LMA (especially the area around Binney, Blackfan, etc.) is like a slice out of another country’s urbanism. It makes me think of like Ginza, Tokyo. Very dense, imposing architecture, narrow streets, but also strangely clean and dead half the time.

I do like walking around here but I think the area could really use more homes and hotels. There are at least 5 large parking garages in a three block radius, and while I understand the need for it in this kind of neighborhood, the parking could just as easily be underground. The garages are all owned by large medical centers, presumably land banked for future medical expansion.

 

[FK4]

Something about LMA (especially the area around Binney, Blackfan, etc.) is like a slice out of another country’s urbanism. It makes me think of like Ginza, Tokyo. Very dense, imposing architecture, narrow streets, but also strangely clean and dead half the time.

I do like walking around here but I think the area could really use more homes and hotels. There are at least 5 large parking garages in a three block radius, and while I understand the need for it in this kind of neighborhood, the parking could just as easily be underground. The garages are all owned by large medical centers, presumably land banked for future medical expansion.

The real problem is institutional ownership, which is bad enough if it’s a university, and even worse if it’s a hospital, when it comes to doing anything nice at the street level. You could argue that’s not what these places are for, but I would counter that argument with saying there should be some independent ownership of space in Longwood and the absence thereof is what makes it such a ghastly experience where the best you can hope for is some local chain like Anna’s pretending it’s not just another fast food chain.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Anna’s and I love fast food, but when every commercial offering in a ten by ten block radius is a business you can find in dozens of locations elsewhere across the state and or country, that does not make for great options. Despite doing its best to destroy the surrounding neighborhood, at least MGH is contained by Cambridge Street, and there are plenty of good places for employees and families alike to go for dinner or drinks. In Longwood, you settle for the Longwood Grill, a windowless pit at the back of a mall.

 

[MjolnirMan]

You are exaggerating. There are also 3 Panera Breads (BWH, BCH, BIDMC).

 

[Stlin]

The real problem is institutional ownership, which is bad enough if it’s a university, and even worse if it’s a hospital, when it comes to doing anything nice at the street level. You could argue that’s not what these places are for, but I would counter that argument with saying there should be some independent ownership of space in Longwood and the absence thereof is what makes it such a ghastly experience where the best you can hope for is some local chain like Anna’s pretending it’s not just another fast food chain.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Anna’s and I love fast food, but when every commercial offering in a ten by ten block radius is a business you can find in dozens of locations elsewhere across the state and or country, that does not make for great options. Despite doing its best to destroy the surrounding neighborhood, at least MGH is contained by Cambridge Street, and there are plenty of good places for employees and families alike to go for dinner or drinks. In Longwood, you settle for the Longwood Grill, a windowless pit at the back of a mall.

Wait, but that's the point of the Galleria - it's one of 2 parcels in longwood not owned by one of the Longwood institutions. Given it's very central location, it has a ton of potential - It's just owned by Druker. Despite its 90s nostalgia vibes, the place desperately needs a reinvention, but it could be a great food hall space. Couple that with maybe building a replacement hotel vertically and some additional housing?

Also, as much as I appreciate RTH's mission generally, at least as far as the urban fabric is concerned I do think in some ways they're actually worse than the other institutions that make up Longwood.

 

[DZH22]

....but when every commercial offering in a ten by ten block radius is a business you can find in dozens of locations elsewhere across the state and or country, that does not make for great options. Despite doing its best to destroy the surrounding neighborhood, at least MGH is contained by Cambridge Street, and there are plenty of good places for employees and families alike to go for dinner or drinks. In Longwood, you settle for the Longwood Grill, a windowless pit at the back of a mall.

Longwood has one of the 2 remaining Bolocos in the Commonwealth so at least there's that.

 

[Java King]

Longwood has one of the 2 remaining Bolocos in the Commonwealth so at least there's that.

BOston LOcal COmpany............that's what I was told a long time ago. I really like their wraps.

 

[DZH22]

BOston LOcal COmpany............that's what I was told a long time ago. I really like their wraps.

Speaking of wraps, that was their original name: The Wrap. I worked on Federal Street in 2005 before their name change. It looks like that location at 133 Federal is no longer there, although the Cosi next door apparently survived the 20 years.

 

[FK4]

I have to say I never liked Boloco, but I am blown away to know that they are the same entity as The Wrap, which I do remember from way back. In fairness, I have never been a wrap guy in general, though.

@Stlin, that is very interesting. I read all about RTH years ago when first getting into urbanism of the LMA, which was when I also used to work there. I either forgot or did not they had anything to do with the Galleria. I can say I have eaten McDonald's there a pretty astounding number of times at least for someone who should know better. And been to the Longwood Grill many times. I think the facelift that would improve it would be one that improved the interaction with the Longwood Ave side of the building as well.

 

[RandomWalk]

I remember them as The Wrap & Smoothie Joint.

 

[Stlin]

@Stlin, that is very interesting. I read all about RTH years ago when first getting into urbanism of the LMA, which was when I also used to work there. I either forgot or did not they had anything to do with the Galleria. I can say I have eaten McDonald's there a pretty astounding number of times at least for someone who should know better. And been to the Longwood Grill many times. I think the facelift that would improve it would be one that improved the interaction with the Longwood Ave side of the building as well.

I should clarify - RTH doesn't own the Galleria, since that's a Druker property. And while a facelift would be appreciated, I do think it could and should take the level of redevelopment that went into Cambridgeside - the hotel and building at large dates to the 60s, and the rooms overlooking the galleria were always odd.

I was just commenting that the RTH properties in some ways seem to be worse for the urban fabric than the actual institutions of Longwood. To elaborate, I have basically no issue with the Fenwood/Francis blocks of RTH owned historic triple deckers, or with the Riverside Mosaic property. My issue is Mission Park, which despite its all-affordable nature feels more like a gated community than basically anywhere else in urban Boston. It's 8 foot tall brick wall, staffed gate houses, up on the hill when viewed from the riverway, plethora of no trespassing signs - it feels much more standoffish. That's not even touching how sub-optimal the townhouses really are for land use - I understand that like Umass Boston they're built atop a substructure that contains parking for the towers, which makes them hard-to-impossible to redevelop, but still.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it's amazing to live there for the tenants as that's the RTH mission, and it's technically porous to pedestrians. But for someone who say needs to go from MEEI to BWH? It's hostile enough to disincentivize someone from passing through, and given that they're a monolithic abutter, I think it's fair to consider them an institution as far as Longwood urbanism is concerned.

 

[FK4]

I should clarify - RTH doesn't own the Galleria, since that's a Druker property. And while a facelift would be appreciated, I do think it could and should take the level of redevelopment that went into Cambridgeside - the hotel and building at large dates to the 60s, and the rooms overlooking the galleria were always odd.

I was just commenting that the RTH properties in some ways seem to be worse for the urban fabric than the actual institutions of Longwood. To elaborate, I have basically no issue with the Fenwood/Francis blocks of RTH owned historic triple deckers, or with the Riverside Mosaic property. My issue is Mission Park, which despite its all-affordable nature feels more like a gated community than basically anywhere else in urban Boston. It's 8 foot tall brick wall, staffed gate houses, up on the hill when viewed from the riverway, plethora of no trespassing signs - it feels much more standoffish. That's not even touching how sub-optimal the townhouses really are for land use - I understand that like Umass Boston they're built atop a substructure that contains parking for the towers, which makes them hard-to-impossible to redevelop, but still.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it's amazing to live there for the tenants as that's the RTH mission, and it's technically porous to pedestrians. But for someone who say needs to go from MEEI to BWH? It's hostile enough to disincentivize someone from passing through, and given that they're a monolithic abutter, I think it's fair to consider them an institution as far as Longwood urbanism is concerned.

Ah. Yes, I agree with you there. I grew up close to here in Brookline Village and always assumed that whole housing campus was just a federal housing project. It wasn’t until my 20s that I learned otherwise. What I appreciated about RTH was that they took on HMS/BWH, and that’s no easy feat. The urbanism is not great, but it is reminiscent of the various church organization and other local community organization driven planned housing developments that replaced the vast swaths of Roxbury that were cleared in the 60s, like Madison Park, Academy I and II, etc. I think part of the problem is just what happens when you have an institutional body planning developments. Somehow it usually ends up being overly manicured. And in the above examples including RTH, it’s also easy to miss likely motivations for why such designs might have been appealing. Those neighborhoods in their “natural state” in the 60s and 70s were probably at nadir urban decay, so it might be understandable why people did not want to integrate new neighborhoods with the old.

As an aside, I do appreciate that they saved the old brick wall with the mile marker built into it along Huntington. It’s a multi-layered anachronism adjacent to that big tower.

 

[HenryAlan]

I remember them as The Wrap & Smoothie Joint.

At the very beginning, they were just smoothies. I think it was Jera's Juice, which then became Jera's Juice and Wraps, then The Wrap, etc. The smoothies were good, I never much cared for the wraps, and the items they pretend are Mexican food in the BoLoCo formulation are an abomination. I'm glad they are on their last gasps.

 

[RandomWalk]

Boloco always struck me as a trend follower. When I was a student at the BAC in the late 90s, I would frequent their location across from Berklee. The whole aesthetic (menu, decor, etc.) was very much of that time. Once the trend moved on from smoothies, they had to leave it behind.

 

[DZH22]

One of Boloco's biggest issues is that they kept getting rid of their best stuff. They had one of the best chicken caesar wraps I have ever had but changed it to a "Mexican caesar" wrap. They had a solid one I think was Thai that I used to get with steak and it had peanut sauce and was very filling. It also had a Mediterranean wrap where I would swap out the olives for pickled onions and it was literally the freshest tasting, healthiest tasting wrap I have ever had. Absolutely amazing with chicken. So of course they discontinued that one too!

At this point the best thing is probably this one, which I typically get with the chicken:

Even that I think had a slightly better recipe before being changed to something simpler. Maybe the tortilla chips was Mexican popcorn instead and there might have been additional seasoning.

The other best thing is The Summer, but ask for half mango salsa and half pico de gallo and it perks it up into something much better than the default wrap.

I also agree that the regular Mexican offerings are not good. The best smoothie was the Jimmy Carter which was banana, peanut butter, and frozen yogurt. It looks like they might not even have smoothies anymore. Again, that goes back to the crux of the problem: They kept discontinuing their best stuff!

 

[RandomWalk]

I remember the Thai wrap as my go to. Around thanksgiving they had a wrap with Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and gravy that I deeply regretted ordering once.

 

[dirtywater]

I used to love their chicken caesar wrap too. I would have that for lunch at least a couple of times a week.

 

[RandomWalk]

To tie this back to the subject of the thread, I suspect us patrons of the Wrap probably sliced a couple of years off our lives.