Harvard - Allston Campus

Thank you BeeLine!

bigpicture7 said:
^ agreed. This development is part of a monumental effort to remake Western Ave and surrounding neighborhoods....

Western Ave is tough...it has long barren stretches...some pockets of blight. It will take a concerted effort (and patience) to weave it all together. But very glad to see it underway.
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stick n move said:
I love to see this. Harvard is making this building to seamlessly fit into the fabric of the university and when finished it will look like it was always there. Its matching the rest of the architecture of the campus perfectly.
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incredible!
 
Wow. The massive expansion into the former train yards is really getting hammered by some iag members and concerned members of the Board. iag is a bunch of wusses.

Landsmark; "I want you to do this right. Frankly, i'm disappointed. Where is the President of Harvard University? Why is he not here?"

Dozens of concerned questions.... dialogue is running very long.

Monahan seems to get it.

Harvard; "We don't even have a development partner yet...."

Sends a huge message to Amazon,

in other words.....

APPROVED...
 
odurandina said:
Wow. The massive expansion into the former train yards is really getting hammered by some iag members and concerned members of the Board. iag is a bunch of wusses.

Landsmark; "I want you to do this right. Frankly, i'm disappointed. Where is the President of Harvard University? Why is he not here?"

Dozens of concerned questions.... dialogue is running very long.

Monahan seems to get it.

Harvard; "We don't even have a development partner yet...."

Sends a huge message to Amazon,

in other words.....

APPROVED...
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Can we get an English translation of this post?
 
shmessy said:
Can we get an English translation of this post?
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On the BPDA board agenda tonight, there was a PDA for part of Harvard's eventual Enterprise Research Campus. For some reason, odurandina thinks this has something to do with former train yards, but none of this proposal is on former train yards.

The architect on the board, Landsmark, criticizes Harvard for not bringing anything real to the board. He's right, Harvard just has a layout of the site, no real building plans. This project is Harvard's largest and they have a new president. He should be there describing their vision. Steve Jobs went to the Cupertino City Council to present the new Apple Campus. Why wouldn't Harvard's president be present to describe how they aim to develop this huge chunk of land?

The union guy on the board, Monahan, is supportive because he just wants jobs for his union and Harvard always hire union workers for their jobs.

I have no idea what the rest of this is about other than some weird belief by odurandina that Harvard is trying to court Amazon as a potential development partner when that is clearly not what they are doing.
 
Thanks. i'm no quick study on this. i didn't think Harvard is courting Amazon per se. More like having this thing moving forward improves the messaging for Boston's Amazon HQ2 bid. Then again, i'm probably overstating the potential value in the context of Amazon, here.

That's a lot of land over that way. i'm needing a program guide with lots of illustrations, maps, diagrams and big fonts.

BostonPlans said:
38. 5:30 p.m.: Request authorization to approve the Master Plan for Planned Development Area No. 115, Harvard Enterprise Research Campus pursuant to Section 80C-5.4 of the Zoning Code for the first phase of the Harvard University’s Enterprise Research Campus in Allston; to petition the Zoning Commission for approval of the PDA Master Plan and associated map amendment removing the Institutional Master Plan Area Overlay District from a portion of the area and adding a Planned Development Area Overly District to the entire area; and, to take all related actions.
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dwash59 said:
On the BPDA board agenda tonight, there was a PDA for part of Harvard's eventual Enterprise Research Campus. For some reason, odurandina thinks this has something to do with former train yards, but none of this proposal is on former train yards.

The architect on the board, Landsmark, criticizes Harvard for not bringing anything real to the board. He's right, Harvard just has a layout of the site, no real building plans. This project is Harvard's largest and they have a new president. He should be there describing their vision. Steve Jobs went to the Cupertino City Council to present the new Apple Campus. Why wouldn't Harvard's president be present to describe how they aim to develop this huge chunk of land?

The union guy on the board, Monahan, is supportive because he just wants jobs for his union and Harvard always hire union workers for their jobs.

I have no idea what the rest of this is about other than some weird belief by odurandina that Harvard is trying to court Amazon as a potential development partner when that is clearly not what they are doing.
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Thanks, dwash!

Here's the Globe story on last night;

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/03/15/allston/FPMlRZzFrsEHNAvn4nXNFK/story.html
 
LOL - - evidently the Globe reporter had to leave the meeting early last night and didn't care (nor did his editor) to complete the story on what else the meeting was addressing :rolleyes:

"...The Allston plan was one several major projects before the board Thursday evening.

It was also set to vote on a plan to dole out $5 million in annual tax breaks to Amazon, in return for the company bringing 2,000 new jobs to the Seaport District.

Also on the docket was a proposed condominium tower on Boylston Street, expansion of Hood Park in Charlestown, and redevelopment of the One Post Office Square building downtown.

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan."
 
The current President of Harvard is the 'old' President, Drew Faust. There is not yet a new President, and the President-to-be cannot represent Harvard in any official way.

Landsmark is a graduate of Yale, so he was either grandstanding, or is a fool, or both.
 
shmessy said:
LOL - - evidently the Globe reporter had to leave the meeting early last night and didn't care (nor did his editor) to complete the story on what else the meeting was addressing :rolleyes:

"...The Allston plan was one several major projects before the board Thursday evening.

It was also set to vote on a plan to dole out $5 million in annual tax breaks to Amazon, in return for the company bringing 2,000 new jobs to the Seaport District.

Also on the docket was a proposed condominium tower on Boylston Street, expansion of Hood Park in Charlestown, and redevelopment of the One Post Office Square building downtown.

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan."
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Mr. Logan and his Globe editor must've had tickets to the opera or something.

At least Odurandina stayed to report the approval of the Post Office Sq project at 7:34pm.

Post #115: http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?p=315830#post315830

Seriously, when will the Globe start hiring FULL TIME reporters instead of soccer moms and dads?
 
stellarfun said:
The current President of Harvard is the 'old' President, Drew Faust. There is not yet a new President, and the President-to-be cannot represent Harvard in any official way.

Landsmark is a graduate of Yale, so he was either grandstanding, or is a fool, or both.
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While Landsmark is a complicated person, he provides a useful perspective on the BPDA board. I'm actually surprised by how piss poor Harvard's submission is. They should be embarrassed by the lack of content and poor graphics (they do have a pretty well regarded Urban Design program and the funds to hire someone competent to plan for them). I'm sad that the BPDA let them get away with this. It will be interesting to see what happens when they have a development partner and how much that diverges from this.
 
Indeed, Tim had 4 topics to cover ranging from huge to enormous.... He could be seen banging away on his laptop for a solid 2 no make that 3 hours–taking notes and probably writing his first draft for the Harvard-Allston Campus project .... He remained quite busy throughout the evening speaking with Harvard and Post Office Square officials....

There was a lot of info to cover to fill in the story after the 90 minute Harvard project discussion, back and forth with the Board and several iag nutjobs (about to see their property values soar to Pluto).....

A video transcript of the discussion would be of great benefit to this thread.

i wonder if the eventual, total urbanization of Allston/Brighton is near.
 
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estyle said:
It is also pretty funny looking at this stage--
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For real. The lack of a proper core makes it look more like temporary staging. Plus the fact the non-structural steel is almost as tall as the structural stuff is unusual. Like Steve Buscemi, "funny looking!"
 
kz1000ps said:
For real. The lack of a proper core makes it look more like temporary staging. Plus the fact the non-structural steel is almost as tall as the structural stuff is unusual. Like Steve Buscemi, "funny looking!"
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Your going to love this when it is done. Leers Weinzapfel are great designers. It will be a new landmark.

Not a real core because its not an "occupied" building. Just equipment. The non-structural steel is structural. Its holding up the screen wall that will keep us from having to look at the garbage that has to go on a roof like this.

Dont get too AB on us. This one will be a winner.

cca
 
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cca said:
Your going to love this when it is done. Leers Weinzapfel are great designers. It will be a new landmark.

Not a real core because its not an "occupied" building. Just equipment. The non-structural steel is structural. Its holding up the screen wall that will keep us from having to look at the garbage that has to go on a roof like this.

Got get to AB on us. This one will be a winner.

cca
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I'm sure someone has posted the renderings at some point, but I hadn't seen them:

https://www.lwa-architects.com/project/harvard-university-district-energy-facility/
 
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