Flats on First (Kendall East) | 107-139 First Street | East Cambridge | Cambridge

Great time leap from one pic to the next. And making me realize that, though I live two miles away from there, I haven't been through that neighborhood in six months. Wow.
 
RandomWalk said:
Hey... it’s the hand laid brick, with detailing, that One Kenmore should have had.
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Id love to see more projects with real laid brick like this. They went all in on the municipal building in Roxbury and it came out freaking incredible. Its definitely worth the extra money to put up something of high quality that will stand the test of time. If you haaaave to go precast theres high quality stuff out there these days like the quinn in the south end. Its worth it.
 
stick n move said:
Id love to see more projects with real laid brick like this. They went all in on the municipal building in Roxbury and it came out freaking incredible. Its definitely worth the extra money to put up something of high quality that will stand the test of time. If you haaaave to go precast theres high quality stuff out there these days like the quinn in the south end. Its worth it.
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How much extra do you think real brick costs versus the usual they do?

It does look nice with the brick even if it is yet another 4+1.
 
jklo said:
How much extra do you think real brick costs versus the usual they do?

It does look nice with the brick even if it is yet another 4+1.
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Heres the weird part because I, like most people, believe real brick is more, but many places you look say the contrary. Concrete construction.net says that “precast concrete costs 2.7% more than real brick” and “metal curtain wall costs 13.1% more than brick.” To expand further “A five- to 10-story office building with a metal panel curtain wall costs 10.8 percent more than brick with CMU, and 5.7% more in precast concrete than brickwith CMU.”

So idk apparently theyre using precast to save time and not have to hire separate brick layers?

Heres the link :https://www.concreteconstruction.ne...ings-cost-less-than-precast-metal-and-glass_o
 
stick n move said:
Heres the weird part because I, like most people, believe real brick is more, but many places you look say the contrary. Concrete construction.net says that “precast concrete costs 2.7% more than real brick” and “metal curtain wall costs 13.1% more than brick.” To expand further “A five- to 10-story office building with a metal panel curtain wall costs 10.8 percent more than brick with CMU, and 5.7% more in precast concrete than brickwith CMU.”

So idk apparently theyre using precast to save time and not have to hire separate brick layers?

Heres the link :https://www.concreteconstruction.ne...ings-cost-less-than-precast-metal-and-glass_o
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Though the study you cite is supposedly "independent," it was commissioned by the Brick Industry Association, so I'm not sure how much faith to place in it.

Either way (and I've said this in other threads) I think we lose the forrest for the trees when we debate materials rather than materials+implementation. I am sure brick could actually span a range of costs, depending on how much detailing and handwork is inherent in the specific design chosen (for instance: a blank wall with no detailing vs. extensive trimwork and 3D texturing). Same deal with precast: it's not all created equal.

I do think developers cheap out on facades, and that the apt comparison is to nicely detailed brick (like this building appears to be), not simply to brick in general.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Though the study you cite is supposedly "independent," it was commissioned by the Brick Industry Association, so I'm not sure how much faith to place in it.

Either way (and I've said this in other threads) I think we lose the forrest for the trees when we debate materials rather than materials+implementation. I am sure brick could actually span a range of costs, depending on how much detailing and handwork is inherent in the specific design chosen (for instance: a blank wall with no detailing vs. extensive trimwork and 3D texturing). Same deal with precast: it's not all created equal.

I do think developers cheap out on facades, and that the apt comparison is to nicely detailed brick (like this building appears to be), not simply to brick in general.
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A brick implementation, after all, can end up like the State Transportation Building.
 
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Nice shots Beeline. I feel like aB's been sleeping on this development overall. It fills out almost a full block along First street (i.e., the brick portion in the 1st photo) and really fills in the streetwall nicely. The cool thing is it replaced mostly junky single story non-architecturally relevant structures, so it's a nice improvement for the stretch.
 
This morning:

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bigpicture7 said:
This morning:

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Great pics, BP7! I’m looking at that first one in particular, and I’m struck with the realization that the time has come to ban on street parking.

To paraphrase And twist Churchill “Never have so few taken from so many”. There are literally two vehicles parked along that street, yet the entire vibe is transformed by just those two. Underground garages and make ‘Em pay. Stop giving out handouts/benefits to behavior that takes away from urban life.

Streets should be for moving, not for storage.
 
shmessy said:
Great pics, BP7! I’m looking at that first one in particular, and I’m struck with the realization that the time has come to ban on street parking.

To paraphrase And twist Churchill “Never have so few taken from so many”. There are literally two vehicles parked along that street, yet the entire vibe is transformed by just those two. Underground garages and make ‘Em pay. Stop giving out handouts/benefits to behavior that takes away from urban life.

Streets should be for moving, not for storage.
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Two parked cars, on a street empty of any pedestrians, cyclists, not even a pigeon. The horror...

Honestly, your realization is rather childish and, given how many low-income and POC rely on vehicles to get to varying-hours jobs, at very least elitist.

P.S. - Churchill also said "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." Building parking garages encourages vehicular transportation; when the garage fills, those who would otherwise use it must look elsewhere.
 
HarvardP said:
Two parked cars, on a street empty of any pedestrians, cyclists, not even a pigeon. The horror...

Honestly, your realization is rather childish and, given how many low-income and POC rely on vehicles to get to varying-hours jobs, at very least elitist.

P.S. - Churchill also said "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." Building parking garages encourages vehicular transportation; when the garage fills, those who would otherwise use it must look elsewhere.
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I'm not going to weigh in on either side of this, but allow me to just provide some context for that first photo (since I don't think either of you are really interpreting it correctly). It was early morning (I don't remember exact time, but close to 8am), the right side of the street is a no-parking zone, and the left side is a construction zone at mid-photo, while the immediate foreground is the recently-completed and still substantively vacant first-phase of the Kendall East project. If you squint and look far down the street, you will see a much more normal parking config for this street.
 
bigpicture7 said:
I'm not going to weigh in on either side of this, but allow me to just provide some context for that first photo (since I don't think either of you are really interpreting it correctly). It was early morning (I don't remember exact time, but close to 8am), the right side of the street is a no-parking zone, and the left side is a construction zone at mid-photo, while the immediate foreground is the recently-completed and still substantively vacant first-phase of the Kendall East project. If you squint and look far down the street, you will see a much more normal parking config for this street.
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Great info to go with this pics, BP7. It’s great to see First Street become more filled-in, stitched together and dynamic. 👍

Here’s to the elimination of side of street parking in the future and the ability to use that extra lane for traffic flow (flexible with e-signs depending on the time of day or situation, therefore a flexible 2-1 instead of a constant 1-1). Clear the arteries, avoid the heart attack/strokes/jams and improve the body/economy. This pandemic is easing and the people living/working in that area are coming back to a far denser/more traffic choked area when they return (think of the massive development a few blocks away in Northpoint.) Simply wasting road space is not an available creature comfort anymore.

In the meantime, it was instructive to learn from HarvardP that on-street parking is somehow a civil rights issue, not for white suburbanites at all, but for all those “low-income and poc” Bostonians who are evidently the ones eschewing the T trolleys and busses for the comfort of their cars....... Who knew?!😂
 
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shmessy said:
In the meantime, it was instructive to learn from HarvardP that on-street parking is somehow a civil rights issue, not for white suburbanites at all, but for all those “low-income and poc” Bostonians who are evidently the ones eschewing the T trolleys and busses for the comfort of their cars....... Who knew?!😂
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You joke, but the people with jobs at weird hours that aren't well served by public transportation typically do trend low income and poc. That's like... an actual thing, not some concern troll.

Obviously the best solution long term is to expand public transit, not retain the parking forever. But it is something you need to think about.
 
erom said:
You joke, but the people with jobs at weird hours that aren't well served by public transportation typically do trend low income and poc. That's like... an actual thing, not some concern troll.

Obviously the best solution long term is to expand public transit, not retain the parking forever. But it is something you need to think about.
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I agree with every single word in your post.

Now, what percentage of them live in town and drive their own cars to work?

Let's face it, the poster before was using "low income/ poc" as a human shield for rich white suburbanites to park their SUV's sedans. Of all on-street parkers, I would estimate not more than 5% are low income/poc, yet, hilariously, THAT was the rallying cry used. Sorry, but THAT argument for THAT reason was less than genuous.

But, I agree with everything in your post. Expanding public transit is FAR better for low income/poc (and the public in general) than wasting valuable street side real estate to house personal automobiles.
 
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We could (somewhat) get rid of on-street parking, but we would need to start building municipal, permit parking garages.

We would still need some on-street spaces for handicapped people.

shmessy said:
Let's face it, the poster before was using "low income/ poc" as a human shield for rich white suburbanites to park their SUV's sedans. Of all on-street parkers, I would estimate not more than 5% are low income/poc, yet, hilariously, THAT was the rallying cry used. Sorry, but THAT argument for THAT reason was less than genuous.
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I would love to see the data that brought you to these estimates/conclusions.
 
Gameguy326 said:
We could (somewhat) get rid of on-street parking, but we would need to start building municipal, permit parking garages.

We would still need some on-street spaces for handicapped people.



I would love to see the data that brought you to these estimates/conclusions.
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Boston has been selling off municipal garages as development sites.
 
Charlie_mta said:
I really like the solid and detailed look of the brickwork and windows on this one, compared to the very flimsy and flat look of Kenmore Square North. Also the warmer color of this brick is much better than the pinkish look of Kenmore Square North,
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Pretty sure Kenmore Square North isn't really brick. It's vinyl or some other material halfassed to look like brick.
 
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