Forest City/MIT Project @ University Park | 300 Massachusetts Ave | Cambridge

Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Thanks for starting this thread - always nice to see things split off from the confusing amalgamation in the Cambridge Developments thread.

Central Square is soon to be a major employment center - and Mass Ave is already a traffic and transit disaster. Time to rethink the #1 bus for real.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Yes, great call on giving this one a proper thread. This section of Mass Ave is changing so rapidly!
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Bring on the non-descript development! For such a lively and dynamic place as Central, it would a shame in the square started looking as plastic as neighboring university park or became as alienating to the pedestrian as Kendall Square.

This building and the new Novartis building indicate that this is the direction of Central...
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Revitalist said:
Bring on the non-descript development! For such a lively and dynamic place as Central, it would a shame in the square started looking as plastic as neighboring university park or became as alienating to the pedestrian as Kendall Square.

This building and the new Novartis building indicate that this is the direction of Central...
Click to expand...

Revit ... Stop trying to suck-up to Pits, Bullets and the others who trash everything without exception

Let's see -- over the past 30 to 40 years years:

University Park today << -- Vacant, Vacant and a couple of really low-rent places <<-- Simplex Wire and Cable

Kendall today: is infinitely better than the random low-rent industrial of 30 years ago and the promise of MIT's new Northern Campus Portal at Kendall offers a further huge improvement

As for Central just because you are grimy and gritty doesn't mean that you are lively and dynamic -- just that you offer some spaces with really cheap rent

Finally the piece of Mass Ave between true Central and MIT will be amazing in a few years after Novartis' current Campus is completed and others upgrade the surrounding low-rent district

Between the prosperous industrial period of Kendall / Central East Cambridge -- aka the heyday of Boston Woven Hose, The Kendall Company and Kendall Boiler and Tank, NECCO, Simplex Wire and Cable -- and today's dynamic rapidly evolving Global R&D Nexus there was a whole lot of vacant lots, low rent-dives and "picturesque" but undoubtedly not lively "Bum country"
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Shepard said:
Thanks for starting this thread - always nice to see things split off from the confusing amalgamation in the Cambridge Developments thread.

Central Square is soon to be a major employment center - and Mass Ave is already a traffic and transit disaster. Time to rethink the #1 bus for real.
Click to expand...

Besides even greater frequency, curb-extensions, articulated busses, I'm not really sure what more they can do for the corridor. Signal priority? Mass Ave is just too overtaxed. The Red Line is approaching the point where its dwell times are getting unsustainable too.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

BussesAin'tTrains said:
Besides even greater frequency, curb-extensions, articulated busses, I'm not really sure what more they can do for the corridor. Signal priority? Mass Ave is just too overtaxed. The Red Line is approaching the point where its dwell times are getting unsustainable too.
Click to expand...

Main St. to BU Bridge got computer-resignaled in the roadway rebuild. But that's generally the least-congested portion. They've got to do the same from Harvard to Central. Then of course > half the #1's struggles are on the Boston side of the river.

Definitely need artics. There just isn't a yard equipped to handle them except for Southampton, so they're all assigned to the Silver Line, 39, and 28. Every other route that needs them can't get them.

The CT1 is the dog they really have to improve here. It's been a half-assed service since the day it was born, and the whole Crosstown scheme is little more than abandonware now.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Grand Junction rapid transit might also alleviate the bottleneck here - although it seems to be the consensus on this board that this won't happen until the N-S link is completed (or am I wrong here)
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

One thing that might help would be to ramp up CT2 frequencies and have it run on nights/ weekends with the hope that it picks up more of the traffic from West.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Shepard said:
Grand Junction rapid transit might also alleviate the bottleneck here - although it seems to be the consensus on this board that this won't happen until the N-S link is completed (or am I wrong here)
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Yeah I don't think they can let the Urban Ring take over Grand Junction because it's the only connection between the northern and southern Commuter branches. Unless they finagle something between the Worcester and Fitchburg lines by 128, Grand Junction is needed for CR transfer moves.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

I wonder whether a DMU shuttle with rapid transit frequency could help matters: Vassar and Mass (Central) --> Binney (Kendall) --> Cambridge Street --> North Station
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

BussesAin'tTrains said:
Yeah I don't think they can let the Urban Ring take over Grand Junction because it's the only connection between the northern and southern Commuter branches. Unless they finagle something between the Worcester and Fitchburg lines by 128, Grand Junction is needed for CR transfer moves.
Click to expand...

Nope. That's a 3-hour trip around the horn. If you've doing a dead tow to Boston Engine Terminal of a southside locomotive with an oil leak emergency-patched with a rag and duct tape or a wheel that's come loose and is in danger of falling off you're not taking the scenic route around the shores of Wachusett Reservoir. It's an emergency backup route only for when the GJ is out-of-service like it was earlier this year.

For very good reason it can't be cannibalized until there's a replacement route somewhere inside 128 or the southside gets a maint facility of equal heft to BET + the commuter rail equipment pool (incl. work equipment) is flush enough on both sides of the divide that north-south swaps/realignments don't need to happen any more than like once a week. Then the scenic route will suffice no longer being needed for emergencies and not needing to run too often chewing up too much fuel and crew hours. The latter scenario of near-segregated fleets + native southside maint is a more plausible scenario than the former, which more or less requires the N-S Link or some rail line to be snaked along 128 through Stony Brook Reservoir. But it's still a 9 figure investment they don't need to be making until they have more equipment than BET can maintain alone. Especially since the Everett-Chelsea-Airport quadrant of the Urban Ring can be front-loaded without dependencies.

Shepard said:
I wonder whether a DMU shuttle with rapid transit frequency could help matters: Vassar and Mass (Central) --> Binney (Kendall) --> Cambridge Street --> North Station
Click to expand...

Not with the grade crossings. Cambridge freaked out a little too far at the last GJ proposal, but that was only for a very modest 10 Worcester trips per day. There's no way to manage putting the Mass Ave. gates down every 15-25 minutes all day long. If the goal here is to somehow correct Mass Ave. congestion, that makes things much worse. And the #1 and CT1 are the first to suffer the collateral damage so it arguably hurts more total riders than it helps. You wouldn't be able to just stop short at the literal crossing...but not cross...and reverse there. The gates go down regardless because FRA regs say you can't assume the brakes will work and that no train will overshoot the platform and stick out into the middle of the road. To do that without triggering the gates the platform would need to be halfway down the alley almost closer to Main St.

BTW...Mass Ave. grade separation is only possible by changing the roadway and doing a Cambridge St./Harvard Sq.-like tunnel. There isn't enough run-up space from the air rights buildings to Mass Ave. to change the elevation of the tracks. Track overpass only becomes possible when it goes Urban Ring and LRT or BRT that can climb steeper grades.
 
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Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

whighlander said:
Revit ... Stop trying to suck-up to Pits, Bullets and the others who trash everything without exception

Let's see -- over the past 30 to 40 years years:

University Park today << -- Vacant, Vacant and a couple of really low-rent places <<-- Simplex Wire and Cable

Kendall today: is infinitely better than the random low-rent industrial of 30 years ago and the promise of MIT's new Northern Campus Portal at Kendall offers a further huge improvement

As for Central just because you are grimy and gritty doesn't mean that you are lively and dynamic -- just that you offer some spaces with really cheap rent

Finally the piece of Mass Ave between true Central and MIT will be amazing in a few years after Novartis' current Campus is completed and others upgrade the surrounding low-rent district

Between the prosperous industrial period of Kendall / Central East Cambridge -- aka the heyday of Boston Woven Hose, The Kendall Company and Kendall Boiler and Tank, NECCO, Simplex Wire and Cable -- and today's dynamic rapidly evolving Global R&D Nexus there was a whole lot of vacant lots, low rent-dives and "picturesque" but undoubtedly not lively "Bum country"
Click to expand...


While Kendall is a success as a economic engine, it is a failure as a pedestrian zone--the place is a ghost town at night and even during the day is an awkward design of high offices and wide streets, looking more like San Jose than Massachusetts. Just because a place used to be underutilized doesn't mean new development is inherently good and shouldn't aspire to quality.

In the South End, developers have largely taken a neighborhood with a great "sense of place" and supplemented it with thoughtful and aspirational buildings. Mass Ave in Central Square, which also has a great sense of place (unlike the Kendall of old), is not a desolate industrial zone like 1980's Cambridgeport and Kendall. It's, for the most part, a thriving place (with high end restaurants and better pedestrian traffic than Kendall) and the design of this development at this stage looks underwhelming.

I support new development, I just wish this building didn't look like a mid-budget, suburban Austin design. Central has a context and it would be great if a development integrated that context. I think the building in Central housing Flour bakery was ambitious, attractive and huge success--it can be done on this stretch.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

^ It really does look like it could've come from Austin. Good call.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Cambridge is booming more than Boston.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

It looks like there is 4 street facing retail spaces here. That is good and should make an interesting streetwall. Offices or residences above don't really matter (how many 3rd floors do you go to in buildings you don't live/work in?). The area has kendall down the road and a town of housing around, so I don't think this building hurts Central's round the clock appeal.

Central sq. has a lot of cool spots, but also a lot of crap spots (and some right in between)- that's what makes it interesting. If it keeps good restaurants (at both high and low ends) and some good stores, I think it will be fine. If it gets overrun with pinkberries and urban outfitters we gots a problem.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Central Sq, needs some more residential towers. Build a bunch of 30 story studio and 1 bedroom buildings and you get affordable housing and eclectic retail and restaurants. The sad irony is that people think building is worse for affordability then not building.

That's when cambridge will be booming more than boston. The T will be a nightmare, its already packed at Central in the 8-9 am hour. That needs to be fixed and the only real way to fix the one bus is to do something about the boston side of the bridge.
 
Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge

Kind of a dull building, but whatever. When will all the Cambridge nut jobs complain about losing the Cambridge Port Saloon?
 
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