This. It makes no sense for the university to build a tall tower. MIT has a enormous campus, it doesn't need to build tall.
Even SUNY Albany with a huge campus chose to build 4 285 foot towers to house students. Colleges seem to love dorm towers.
I would assume a dorm tower over 400ft would make much sense logistically....
I'd be pretty surprised if MIT goes tall here. Especially if it's just lab buildings with retail at ground level and some minor residential.
Don't forget, MIT will have to build a 400K foot building for the feds in order to have the right to build here. They are going to have to build something tall or dense in order to recover that cost plus the cost of building. Those who hope for a big park are off their rockers.
It was reported by multiple sources with renders that they may want to hit 1000'. Im not sure if that is now dead or what.
Certainly a circumspect announcement, and possibly there are more pieces in play.
GSA, early on, said it would consider a land swap as part of the development; i.e., a developer who had four acres elsewhere in Cambridge could build new Volpe there, and have the entirety of the Volpe parcel to develop.
Its possible MIT could swap potential projects/uses on the Volpe site with Mit-owned sites elsewhere.
MIT has zero interest in being a residential landlord, so no super-tall or even tall. Private developers of residential property are interested a.) in selling the residential units as quickly as possible to recoup costs and hopefully make a profit; b.) owning rental property for the depreciation life. Cambridge has zero enthusiasm for MIT housing MIT students at Kendall Square in what would be a tax-exempt building.
I agree with whighlander that MIT could take on one or more partners, either by selling off part of the land, or jointly developing. This parcel will not be land-banked, nor will it be a multi-decade development. MIT has to consider how much capital outlay it wants to commit to, and certainly, academic buildings would have a long recoupment period of capital spent (unless a generous donor pays for it).
The city of Cambridge would be delighted if most of the development was commercial / lab which would generate large tax revenue.
Think short, dense and ugly. Just like the vast majority of their campus. I may be in minority here, but I think this selection was the absolute worst case scenario to see anything of note or landmark status built here.
MIT owns 2.922 million square feet of non-taxable residential space (dorms). MIT owns 164,000 sq ft of taxable residential space.
MIT told Cambridge it was not increasing the number of undergraduate beds over the next ten years (perhaps a 100 beds or so), and would increase the number of graduate student beds by perhaps 500 or so.
I believe if MIT were to develop a residential property to either sell the units, or rent, it could lose its tax exempt status. Non-profits, given the significant tax advantages they have, are not supposed to compete with the private sector.
CAMBRIDGE REAL ESTATE TEAM
The Cambridge Real Estate Team manages MIT’s investment real estate holdings in Cambridge. This consists of:
• Maintaining and improving the quality of the innovation environment in Cambridge and surrounding the campus
• Creating direct economic support for the Institute
• Ensuring that the Institute has appropriate amounts of flexible space to accommodate its evolving long-term needs
we manage a portfolio of real estate in Cambridge around the MIT campus. Because MIT owns a critical mass of land holdings in Cambridge and is a large driver of demand for real estate space, we have advantages in this arena that third parties cannot match. In this particular circumstance, it also is important for MIT to take direct control of these investments because our goal is not simply to seek the highest financial returns with the properties.
While it is important for a real estate project to be financially viable for itto be sustainable, we also want to attract innovative companies to the Cambridge area and to create a lively
interactive environment that benefits local residents, local businesses and the MIT community.
It was reported by multiple sources with renders that they may want to hit 1000'. Im not sure if that is now dead or what.
Theres actually a video they made rendering some pretty significant towers being built here.
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/06/26/five-things-that-must-be-considered-before-volpe-site-zoning-remakes-kendall-square/
Theres also this from Cambridgeday.com
And an article talking about a study done on different schemes one of them including a supertall.
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/06/27/city-prepares-for-meeting-on-volpe-zoning-releases-3-d-models-of-visions-for-kendall/
Halcyon -- do you care to share with us your most ugly [5] and least ugly [5] MIT buildings on the campus -- and you can't use buildings such as 20 or 12 which have been replace by something else
Halcyon -- do you care to share with us your most ugly [5] and least ugly [5] MIT buildings on the campus -- and you can't use buildings such as 20 or 12 which have been replace by something else