Lowell's Hamilton Canal District Development

Is anyone else sick of artist lofts? Honestly, it seems like every new housing development is either luxury, or for artists. How many damn artists are there, and what the hell makes them so much better than regular people?! [/rant]

Nice project, can't wait to see some photos, though. Seems like they're talking about canals without really embracing them as much as they could. I'll have to look at it more closely, but couldn't they set up more sidewalks and pedestrian bridges? Not to mention the hydroelectric dam idea - I really like that.
 
Lowell, like Somerville, is trying to forge an identity as a haven for creative arts. Seems like a good idea to me.
 
^ aren't artists the stereotypical "urban pioneers"?

first come the artists to make the neighborhood hip, then come the yuppies etc...etc...till the cycle starts again?
 
kennedy, your rant is worthy of analysis.

You ask, are there enough artists?

I don't believe there are. Right now, there are condos available for sale only to BRA-certified artists and apartments available for rent only to BRA-certified artists and I don't think there are enough artists to fill the spaces. So what happens then?

I would never recommend a client buy a restricted condo - they never seem to make any financial sense. Yes, you might be able to buy cheaply but who's to say you'll ever be able to find a buyer?

Same goes for income-restricted units. The hoops you have to jump through reduce the pool of available buyers so much that you'll regret making the decision.
 
Regardless of the finances, which to me seem silly (why on Earth would you need a required profession to purchase a home?), why do cities like Lowell want artists at all?

It's Somerville's niche, it's Brooklyn's niche, in St. Louis, it's University City's niche. Lowell: find your own niche! Same goes for every burgeoning neighborhood or city.

I hear that UMass Lowell has good nano-tech and some kind of life sciences prestige. Why not focus on that? Attract some of those, intelligent professionals, who likely have more money to spend than an artist. Money being spent will do a hell of a lot better job bringing in artists than special, cheap housing will.

Artists/Hipsters are good urban pioneers, but they really aren't needed in Lowell's situation. Anyone can be an urban pioneer, it just takes a little bit more effort to attract people that aren't actually looking for gritty lofts and faux-dive bars serving fine sushi.
 
On a side note: looking at Google Maps for Lowell, that place is a f*cking urban planning dream. I have very literal envy for the team of planners and designers that gets to have their way with this project.
 
kennedy said:
On a side note: looking at Google Maps for Lowell, that place is a f*cking urban planning dream. I have very literal envy for the team of planners and designers that gets to have their way with this project.
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How do you mean?
 
kennedy said:
Is anyone else sick of artist lofts? Honestly, it seems like every new housing development is either luxury, or for artists. How many damn artists are there, and what the hell makes them so much better than regular people?! [/rant]
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I've always assumed it's basically a "Hipsters are Welcome" type of thing.
 
kennedy said:
I hear that UMass Lowell has good nano-tech and some kind of life sciences prestige. Why not focus on that? Attract some of those, intelligent professionals, who likely have more money to spend than an artist. Money being spent will do a hell of a lot better job bringing in artists than special, cheap housing will.
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How do you attract them to live downtown though, and why can't you attract both? Maybe i am playing into stereotypes, but artists would seem to make a much more active nightlife than full time scientists. (Speaking from a little experience, as I work in a biology lab.)

Artists are the first step in the cycle of gentrification.
 
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kennedy said:
Regardless of the finances, which to me seem silly (why on Earth would you need a required profession to purchase a home?), why do cities like Lowell want artists at all?

It's Somerville's niche, it's Brooklyn's niche, in St. Louis, it's University City's niche. Lowell: find your own niche! Same goes for every burgeoning neighborhood or city.

I hear that UMass Lowell has good nano-tech and some kind of life sciences prestige. Why not focus on that? Attract some of those, intelligent professionals, who likely have more money to spend than an artist. Money being spent will do a hell of a lot better job bringing in artists than special, cheap housing will.

Artists/Hipsters are good urban pioneers, but they really aren't needed in Lowell's situation. Anyone can be an urban pioneer, it just takes a little bit more effort to attract people that aren't actually looking for gritty lofts and faux-dive bars serving fine sushi.
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Lowell does have a thriving artist community, and has been for more than a decade. These mills are perfect for artists - huge open concept floor plans that allow them to do there...art work. I've run into quite a few artists that have left places like the South End and Somerville and have moved to Lowell. Just think - the architecture in the city of Lowell is amazing, as they have preserverd a huge portions of these buildings, and have incorporated them into the fabric of downtown. Like a urban musuem. The canals, built by hand, the mills - ugly, but nostalgic. There was a study done a few years back - between Lowell, and medium sixed city in New Jersey (can't quite remember which city) that analyzed Lowell's preservation strategy vs. tear down historic, well built buildings and replace with ugle box style office buildings. Downtown Lowell became a functioning National Historic Park, where this other city (I apologize the name escapes me) was just another drab city that lost the uniqueness of the past. With this in mind - people are starting to realize that - WOW - cobblestone streets, old brick buildings, and other uniquely architected buildings from a century past is a cool ass place to eat, drink, people watch, and ultimately live. This project is using those same ideals mixing in modern amenities while preserving the past archticture. Downtown Lowell is very walkable, and with Hamilton Canal - it will add 5 more acres of living (restaurants/bars/work place/etc.). Umass Lowell is gaining a presence downtown - recently aquiring Doubletree Hotel downtown turning that into student housing. Moving Nano-Tech to the Mass Mills complex, acquiring the Tsongas Arena...and some other projects solidifying a student presence downtown. Artists bring culture, and yes I agree, bring a sense of a hipster vibe to a downtown. It's an excitin movement for the city, and only gaining momentum.
 
Cities like Lowell suffered badly from "white flight" and the loss of industry. Lowell has had a bit of a renaissance, but it's still not complete. Artists are a natural magnet for drawing people back to the city center. Think about it. Artists have followers who will go downtown to visit the galleries and studios. Those visitors (as well as the artists themselves) will patronize local businesses while they're downtown. When you have more artists, you have more visitors, and when you have more visitors you encourage more small business growth. When you have a growing number of small businesses, you make your downtown a more appealing place to live and draw in more residents. It's fairly simple and it's a model that many cities are following. Portland, Maine followed it to a degree in their "Arts District," New Bedford, MA is currently adopting a similar model, and Providence, RI's renaissance included an increased emphasis on the arts.

Arts CERTAINLY aren't the only catalyst for these revitalizations. In each case I mentioned above, the city had strong urban bones to begin with (as does Lowell... as good as, if not better than the three above examples). Location and growth in other areas are important too. Still, attracting artists to downtown does create a local identity and helps small businesses grow. Artists help people reconsider the downtown area.
 
Lrfox said:
Cities like Lowell suffered badly from "white flight" and the loss of industry. Lowell has had a bit of a renaissance, but it's still not complete. Artists are a natural magnet for drawing people back to the city center. Think about it. Artists have followers who will go downtown to visit the galleries and studios. Those visitors (as well as the artists themselves) will patronize local businesses while they're downtown. When you have more artists, you have more visitors, and when you have more visitors you encourage more small business growth. When you have a growing number of small businesses, you make your downtown a more appealing place to live and draw in more residents. It's fairly simple and it's a model that many cities are following. Portland, Maine followed it to a degree in their "Arts District," New Bedford, MA is currently adopting a similar model, and Providence, RI's renaissance included an increased emphasis on the arts.

Arts CERTAINLY aren't the only catalyst for these revitalizations. In each case I mentioned above, the city had strong urban bones to begin with (as does Lowell... as good as, if not better than the three above examples). Location and growth in other areas are important too. Still, attracting artists to downtown does create a local identity and helps small businesses grow. Artists help people reconsider the downtown area.
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I agree with many aspects, but white flight isn't exactly what happened in Lowell. As a MAJORITY of the population in Lowell is of Irish decent. At the moment Lowell's population is the largest it has ever been.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell,_Massachusetts
However - one point that I do agree with is that when Lowell lost it's industry to the Southern states, it lost the fabric of the community. Then Wang bottomed out - another blow to the city. But, now there is much going on besides artists, and the city isn't putting all of it's eggs in one basket like cycles past. It is certainly a renaissance, but it can also be considered a re-birth of a city with modern ameneties while preserving the past. I have to say, that the city of New Bedford really has nothing going for it. Lowell is far ahead of this city in many aspects. Much closer to Boston, 495/rt. 3, Commuter Rail into North Station - 45 minutes, a thriving downtown, preservation of the past, very powerful politicians, and a variety of other positive progression. New Bedford is very drab, and is under represented in Beacon Hill. No easy access to Boston - and a stagnant economy. What should of happened is the University of MA should have been built in downtown New Bedford - but that is a detail of the past...unfortunately I don't see that city as coming back.
 
Think about it. Artists have followers who will go downtown to visit the galleries and studios. Those visitors (as well as the artists themselves) will patronize local businesses while they're downtown. When you have more artists, you have more visitors, and when you have more visitors you encourage more small business growth. When you have a growing number of small businesses, you make your downtown a more appealing place to live and draw in more residents. It's fairly simple and it's a model that many cities are following.
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Couldn't you say the same thing about accountants, hair stylists, dry cleaners or virtually any other business that requires in person visits. Isn't the biggest difference really that artists LIVE where they work, so you don't end up with a 9-5 community.
 
New Bedford has plenty going for it, too. You do not need to put it down in order to promote Lowell. We have a whole separate thread about New Bedford.
 
It's still a big leap from artists to yuppies-with-strollers, but not insurmountable.

The challenge, I think, will be making sure downtown Lowell is more than just an island of boojie in an ocean of crumbling proletarian three-deckers. The entire city needs to be uplifted at the same time.

Seems like the city is on the right track; in the document I posted a couple pages back it shows plans to upzone the Fletcher Street corridor in the Acre neighborhood - a diverse and historic but somewhat shabby neighborhood just to the west of downtown.
 
Ron Newman said:
New Bedford has plenty going for it, too. You do not need to put it down in order to promote Lowell. We have a whole separate thread about New Bedford.
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I'm not putting it down...I lived in that city for quite some time, and trust me when I tell you that it is downtrodden. Very little downtown, no entertainment, very little pride, lack of political clout pushing beacon hill for funds, not significant infrastructure for progress, no access to Boston via public transportation, drab appeal, and a lack of identity. Of course some of these are opinions, but from what I experienced living there people in this city lean more to New York City than they do to Boston. They have this ideal that New Bedford is a HUGE city - when in fact it is a skeleton of what it once was as a thriving city during whaling times. If they played there cards right they would build up that water front, but trust me - it is not going to happen. It's not accessible as Lowell - and who drives down 195? Lowell is on the cusp of Rt. 3/495 - has a TON going for it. Sorry to say I just don't agrees.
 
Shepard said:
It's still a big leap from artists to yuppies-with-strollers, but not insurmountable.

The challenge, I think, will be making sure downtown Lowell is more than just an island of boojie in an ocean of crumbling proletarian three-deckers. The entire city needs to be uplifted at the same time.

Seems like the city is on the right track; in the document I posted a couple pages back it shows plans to upzone the Fletcher Street corridor in the Acre neighborhood - a diverse and historic but somewhat shabby neighborhood just to the west of downtown.
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Trust me when I say there are already yuppies with strollers in downtown Lowell. The Acre is being built up - but you can't get rid of the 10-15 blocks of post WW1 projects that are some of the oldest in the country. The Centralville section of the city (Bridge Street corridor) has been built up quite a bit in the past 5 years - tearing down drab tenemant buildings while incorporating new structures (new CVS - nice brick building, new Market Basket plaza - construction underway, and a variety of small infrastructure improvements). This city has alot going for it - just think - everyone is aware of Lowell's rebirth/rennaisance -whatever you may call it, when you talk about Lowell, that is more/less what alot of people are talking about.
 
Just curious when you lived in New Bedford, because my impression is that a lot has changed there in the past decade.
 
Ron Newman said:
Just curious when you lived in New Bedford, because my impression is that a lot has changed there in the past decade.
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In the late 90's-early 00's. The downtown just didn't have anything to it. No good restaurants, no inviting bar rooms/lounges/clubs...just real drab and really dead. I'd love to see that city - on the waterfront - become a place that it once was, but I really don't see that happening. Potential is limited down there. Courthouses/very small localized business can only go so far when the money coming in is only 9-5. There are a couple of really good restaurants/pubs - but when I say a "couple" that is literally only 2 or 3. Maybe it has changed alot in the past 10 years - but with it's location, and lack of public transit to a major hub - and the prospect of this being shot down every few years - how do they capitilize. You would think with all of the "stimulus" money that the T would of extended there tracks, or during a boom economy - but it hasn't happened.
 
bostononian1979 said:
In the late 90's-early 00's. The downtown just didn't have anything to it. No good restaurants, no inviting bar rooms/lounges/clubs...just real drab and really dead. I'd love to see that city - on the waterfront - become a place that it once was, but I really don't see that happening. Potential is limited down there. Courthouses/very small localized business can only go so far when the money coming in is only 9-5. There are a couple of really good restaurants/pubs - but when I say a "couple" that is literally only 2 or 3. Maybe it has changed alot in the past 10 years - but with it's location, and lack of public transit to a major hub - and the prospect of this being shot down every few years - how do they capitilize. You would think with all of the "stimulus" money that the T would of extended there tracks, or during a boom economy - but it hasn't happened.
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And to piggy back off of this post...take a look at this.
http://www.innovativecitiesconference.com/default.htm
The city of Lowell is hosting an Innovative Cities conference with cities as far away as Belfast, Northern Ireland. Just think about the opportunities something like this can bring. This is progression.
 
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