East Cambridge biolab tower

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PaulC

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This is the first I've heard of this project
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x2081097739/E-Cambridge-residents-decry-biolab-tower
E. Cambridge residents decry biolab tower
By Jillian Fennimore/Chronicle staff
Tue Mar 10, 2009, 03:45 PM EDT

Cambridge -
East Cambridge residents say a proposed 105-foot biolab tower will be a detriment to their neighborhood, its access to sunlight, and the life of their vegetable gardens.
More than 20 residents of Linden Park, Cornelius Way, and the Wellington-Harrington community attended the City Council meeting Monday night to voice their opposition to a proposal from real estate firm The Beal Companies LLC to amend the city?s zoning ordinance and construct a building and extended parking garage at the northeast corner of Binney Street and Cardinal Medeiros Way.
?Would you like a building the size of the Holyoke Center behind your backyard?? asked Michael Lane resident Richard St. Clair.
Despite requests from East Cambridge residents to stop the project in its entirety, councilors unanimously voted to refer the zoning petition to the city?s ordinance committee and planning board for public hearings.
City Councilor Tim Toomey said although the proposed tower ?overshadows a unique neighborhood,? the council voted to move it forward as an administrative step.
Many residents said developers failed to effectively reach out to the neighborhood. They addressed particular concerns of the proposal, including setbacks that place the project within 50 feet of abutting properties, and heights that would tower over the neighborhood.
?They have not been working with the neighbors, they have been working the neighbors,? said Cornelius Way resident Anthony Keber.
Sean Hope, a Cambridge attorney for Beal,said there would be many opportunities in the future to work with residents.
?This is the first step in a lengthy public process,? he said. ?We will continue to work with neighbors.?
Residents also argued that a development of this size would increase industrial noise, decrease temperatures, make installed solar panels obsolete, and set a precedent for allowing for developers to build beyond the city?s current zoning requirements.
Some residents said they feared the proposal would end up similar to the zoning variance granted by the City Council last month, allowing for Alexandria Real Estate to develop a sprawling bio lab campus along Binney Street.
?Trust must be earned and they have failed to earn ours,? said Richard Fanning, a Linden Park resident for 27 years.
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Maybe instead of building a new tower, they should just convert the Middlesex County Courthouse to this use?

northeast corner of Binney Street and Cardinal Medeiros Way.
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Isn't this exactly where the Kendall Square Cinema is located? I'd hate to lose that.
 
It's probably not the theater itself but the buildings adjacent to it. This building would be roughly 10 stories which I do kinda feel like would be too tall for the neighborhood.
 
For the immediate area it'd be quite tall...but there are some buildings nearby around the same height.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...bp=12,23.99480827099262,,0,0.7673203230507314

Seems strange to develop this here, though. Kendall Cinema is already annoyingly far from the T, and there are plenty of developable sites that are closer. I wonder if the development of that former mill that's now half-filled with bars is catalyzing development around there.
 
Beal Company response

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridg...fication-on-proposed-E-Cambridge-biolab-tower

Guest commentary: A clarification on proposed E. Cambridge biolab tower
By Peter A. Spellios
Mon Mar 16, 2009, 10:16 AM EDT

Cambridge -
I am responding to misinformation circulating in the community about The Beal Companies' redevelopment proposal for One Kendall Square.
The portion of One Kendall Square north of Binney Street was mostly excluded from the redevelopment of One Kendall Square back in the 1980s and, therefore, remains very industrial especially as it fronts along Cardinal Medeiros Avenue. In coming to the unavoidable conclusion that it was time to update this portion of One Kendall Square, we developed a plan that was guided by the following five key principals: to improve on the dynamic mixed-use environment of One Kendall that has become a terrific community amenity, to maintain and improve the cinema, to maintain and improve the day care, to continue with the same uses that have existed at the property for the past 25-plus years, and to limit the size of the building to within the maximum densities and heights permitted under existing zoning. This proposal achieves all of these important planning objectives.
This proposal redevelops the cinema, day care, lab and office complex, keeping the exact same uses as those that already exist, within a six-story building.
This proposal greatly improves the Kendall Square Cinema so to ensure its continued success as other cinemas across the country struggle. Cinema operations will not be disrupted during construction.
This proposal provides a new and better home for the Bright Horizons day care (which is now contained in basement space) and provides an adjacent outdoor play area so the children have a wonderful environment to explore every day. Day care operations will not be disrupted during construction.
This proposal calls for a height no greater than what current residential zoning allows, which is 85 feet, and the redevelopment is consistent with the adjacent Building 1400 at One Kendall Square. Moreover, any new shadows caused by the building will be virtually imperceptible and for immediate abutters on Cornelius Way there will actually be some reduction in shadows as a result of a reduction in the size of the parking garage.
Even though Beal has a long and esteemed track record of building housing in Cambridge and Boston, during our nearly 40 meetings with the community over the past 9 months we came to the clear conclusion that a significant residential project at this site would add new unwelcomed activity to the neighborhood during nights and weekends and would not peacefully coexist with the cinema, which is a one of a kind community institution.
This proposal provides more than an acre of community green space.
This proposal provides for the implementation of over a quarter mile of the Grand Junction Community Path, a pedestrian-bike route along the Grand Junction Rail Line. This community path has been in the works for years and we are proud that we are the first landowner in Cambridge to dedicate property for this purpose.
This proposal vastly improves the streetscapes on Cardinal Medeiros Avenue by eliminating loading bays, dumpsters and truck deliveries on Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, and softening and quieting the urban environment with significant landscaping.
This proposal includes a 2,000-square-foot community room for public use adjacent to the cinema.
Finally, this redevelopment will generate approximately $3.9 million in real estate tax revenue for the city, compared with $700,000 today; and it will create 350 union construction jobs and many more permanent full-time positions on site.
We look forward to working with the community on this exciting project.
Peter A. Spellios is the senior vice president of The Beal Companies.
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In the middle of this article it mentions how making a residential project would have resulted in unwelcome activities on the nights and weekends. What exactly is that? Life? Do the people not want life to occur there, just business? What kind of argument is that? Um we don't want people to live in this area, we want to be the only people to live around here. Kendall Sq. needs more people in it. At some people in office are going to have to point out that nimbys have no logic.
 
GW2500 said:
Um we don't want people to live in this area, we want to be the only people to live around here.
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What's the old saying?

"Developers are people who want to build a house in the woods. Preservationists are people who already own a house in the woods."

I guess it works in urban ares as well.
 
I think you have it backwards. They think it would be hard to market residential units that share the same property with a cinema.
 
That wasn't an issue with the Ritz on the Common and those are multi million dollar condos
 
Yeah, I'm sure most people wouldn't really mind living next to a cinema. One of the great benefits of urban life.

The problem is that the cinema is pretty far from...everything else. It should be down in Kendall Square proper, but it's a surprisingly long walk from the T stop and such.
 
^ Well, on their website, they set you up to think it's right close.
 
http://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/14651

Beal Companies Withdraws Kendall Square Upzoning Petition

According to Beal Co. Senior Vice President and General Council Peter Spelios, the company filed a formal withdrawal of their zoning petition yesterday.

The petition, filed with the City on March 5, 2009, generated almost unanimous opposition from neighbors living nearby. The Company sought to relax zoning on their property surrounded by Binney St, Cardinal Medeiros Ave., the Grand Junction rail line and residential property on Cornelius Way (Linden Park subdivision). This is the block that contains the Kendall Cinema. Under the proposal, the maximum buildable square feet of commercial space would have been increased to that allowable for residential use as laid out in the Eastern Cambridge Housing Overlay district (ECHO). This represented an increase in height from 45 to 85 feet I believe. The intended use of this expansion was for lease to biotech research companies. This usage usually requires rooftop ventilation equipment that adds 20 or so feet to the building. These "penthouses" are generally excluded from the limits imposed by zoning. They are there but not counted, making discussion of them difficult. Another feature of the petition that displeased neighbors was a provision to reduce the maximum height setback from 100 to 50 feet.

Wellington-Harrington Neighborhood Association members met repeatedly with Beal Co. representatives over the last several months, and from what I can gather, little support was gained. Some of the objections raised by neighbors were the lack of a buffer between commercial heights and residences and shadowing of gardens, solar collectors and homes (raising heating costs and increasing gloom).

As mitigation, Beal offered to build "up to" 1200 linear feet of the Grand Junction Community Path. Beal owns a strip of land about 15 feet wide abutting the railroad tracks on the west side running from Binney St. north to the Saint Anthony's church property.

The Grand Junction Community Path is a combined use bicycle and pedestrian path that is to run along the Grand Junction tracks from the Cottage Farm (BU) bridge to the Somerville line at Medford St. near the Twin Cities shopping center. According to a source at the Community Development Department, there are some sections of this pathway that have had funding dedicated.
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