Hotel and Residential Development | 20 Inner Belt Road | East Somerville

Equilibria

Equilibria

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I think I posted this to the general Somerville thread in 2018, but under the new norms it gets its own thread.


1582052040427.png
 
I didn't realize they had decided to reconnect Roland to Inner Belt when they split the project into two buildings. Good stuff.
 
205 units, nice. Hopefully they continue to build out that area. On the other hand, nearby a strip mall at 90 Washington St was closed for a proposed development, however it has sat vacant for years with no construction. Anyone know what's going on there?
 
tysmith95 said:
205 units, nice. Hopefully they continue to build out that area. On the other hand, nearby a strip mall at 90 Washington St was closed for a proposed development, however it has sat vacant for years with no construction. Anyone know what's going on there?
Click to expand...

City is taking it by eminent domain for a combo Fire/Police HQ. Allows current Police HQ to be redeveloped by US2.

City Submits Proposal for Relocation of Public Safety Building to Former Site of Cobble Hill Shopping Center | City of Somerville

www.somervillema.gov www.somervillema.gov

www.thesomervilletimes.com

Somerville’s continued use of eminent domain

www.thesomervilletimes.com www.thesomervilletimes.com
 
RIP Potato Freak, we hardly knew ye. The neighborhood is more or less behind the city on 90 Washington though - the old owners were more than happy to land bank the property with the excuse that it was tied up in court (you'll notice the court case suddenly went away when eminent domain came up). Using ED here was part of the election pitch for some of the current city councilors, so the plan was in a way checked with the voters before it happened.

Anyway, that's an aside on a different property.
 
^Sorry for the topic swing, but yes that was a blighted property.
 
tysmith95 said:
^Sorry for the topic swing, but yes that was a blighted property.
Click to expand...
potato freak was a blighted property.... heyooo

As for the cobble hill plaza, I wonder how they are going to deal with all the emergency vehicle activity around the entrance to the east somerville t station.
Seems like there'll be police, fire and ambulance all centered around a heavy pedestrian area.
 
Well, the garage is better than a giant parking lot.
 
If I'm reading this right, it's because that garage is actually serving a lot of purposes:

1) The hotel next door (both building use one parking garage) gets 103 spaces
2) The City Club isn't going away, it's going to be absorbed into the residential building - they get 80 spaces
3) The Paradigm building next door, which owned the surface lot this building is replacing, get 125 spaces
4) The residential building itself.

It's still a bit larger than is optimal, but this is only 1.4 spots per unit in the residential portion, which is really not bad.

So it's not a giant parking garage for an apartment building. It's a giant parking garage for an apartment building, a restaurant, a hotel, and an office building. It's actually quite nice to see a parking garage being used for so many things centralized together.
 
kjdonovan said:
I see this as a natural phase in urban evolution.
Everybody has a small parking lot --->
One parking lot for multiple businesses --->
Above ground garage for multiple business --->
Underground garage with building/park above --->
Manhattan
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There's nothing natural about it; you're just describing the American taxonomy as you slide up by density/cost. It's "natural" in the sense that it's the one we have, but there are other parts of the world where this isn't the case. To say nothing of the fact that we are not bound to travel through these stages on rails, since we can plan for the future. Cities don't just become New York by accident.
 
Site gate was open yesterday so I got a good shot of this rig. Slurry was bubbling up from the ground so I assume it was pumping concrete down to displace the slurry? Or maybe it was just pumping in more slurry? Not sure if I saw concrete infrastructure on site. Big site though, lots of activity.

IMG_20210420_095514495_HDR - Copy.jpg
 
erom said:
It's still a bit larger than is optimal, but this is only 1.4 spots per unit in the residential portion, which is really not bad.
Click to expand...
Iono, even with the shared-use parking, a 1.4 ratio in this neighborhood feels super off. Smack between two rapid transit lines.

I didn't know that the City club knock-down was tied to this. I drove to the dog park as they started the knock down but thought it was a renovation. Haven't been by that park in a while but need to do soon.
 
Apparently I'm in charge of documenting this one!

The parking garage is several stories up, with prefab sections being moved into place with the crane. Pillars for another section of the building are above ground. If you zoom in a bunch in the middle of this pic you can see them assembling(?) a section of concrete form.

IMG_20210708_084635362_HDR.jpg
 
The front section of the site (the hotel) is still in use as a parking lot and hasn't been started.

The middle section (the residential building) is still pouring concrete. I guess there was a lot to do. Still a few forms up, but a veritable forest of pillars as well.

The back section (the garage) is topped off.

IMG_20210808_160627231_HDR.jpg
 
Is it really cheaper to build an 8 story garage fortress than dig a 1/2 story bathtub under the length of the property? Thing looks enormous.
 
Given the amount of pollution in the soils under the formerly industrial land, I would not be surprised if it is cheaper to leave it in place and cap it with a garage.
 
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