Market Central (née Mass + Main) | 415 Mass Av | Cambridge

Not too crazy about the tower. The offset windows look like a slipshod mistake, and the white plastic cladding looks cheap. I do like the height, and am happy that a building this tall made it through the city approval process. I hope this bodes well for future additional tall buildings along Mass Ave in Cambridge.
 
BronsonShore said:
It has one of the best street levels of any tower its size in the city. that's far more important than the dumb windows.
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Totally agree. Some of it is still papered-over (with fit-out building permits affixed) but it has recently become clear that this ground level, with its several, varied small businesses, is a huge win. Further, the design forgoes large frontage-consuming residential entrances and grand lobbies along the Mass/Main sidewalks, and puts those things somewhat more out of the way - which makes sense!, if you live there, you have no choice but to make your way into the building regardless of how much prime frontage the entry consumes, so why prioritize that? Here, the small businesses are showcased on high-viz, high foot traffic stretch. Nicely done.
 
I didn't really process the misaligned windows until you guys pointed it out, and now I can't unsee it.
 
Hmmm I normally am against misaligned windows but these are subtle in a way that give it a warping/warbling effect that is kind of cool...I like :p
 
DAVE said:
Hmmm I normally am against misaligned windows but these are subtle in a way that give it a warping/warbling effect that is kind of cool...I like :p
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I agree. It makes the white plastic cladding look more alive visually. If the windows were perfectly aligned, the combination of that and the white plastic cladding would look like a hospital.
 
Just taking a moment to celebrate the street-level of this one again (10/17).

mc-sl-1.jpg
 
Cheapo paper thin discount materials and disastrous misaligned windows.
 
I'm confused why folks are calling the white cladding "plastic" or "discount materials". The white cladding is Alpolic Cladding which is Aluminum Composite Metal (ACM). This is high quality products that are used extensively on new builds (and is most certainly NOT cheap). And at least there is a pattern to the windows of every 3 floors there is a shift. There is a consistency in the design so that it doesn't feel random.

Fantastic project overall.
 
CBCArch61 said:
I'm confused why folks are calling the white cladding "plastic" or "discount materials". The white cladding is Alpolic Cladding which is Aluminum Composite Metal (ACM). This is high quality products that are used extensively on new builds (and is most certainly NOT cheap). And at least there is a pattern to the windows of every 3 floors there is a shift. There is a consistency in the design so that it doesn't feel random.

Fantastic project overall.
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Aluminum composite panels are the single cheapest way to enclose a highrise while meeting fireproofing requirements.
 
king_vibe said:
Aluminum composite panels are the single cheapest way to enclose a highrise while meeting fireproofing requirements.
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Also the "brick" on this mess looks like it was pasted on and the misaligned windows don't get unmisaligned just because it follows a pattern.
 
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bigpicture7 said:
Just taking a moment to celebrate the street-level of this one again (10/17).

View attachment 43715
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My thumbs up was not enough. I'll be redundant here and reiterate how great the street level of this is. I moved to around Central a year ago and it's been great watching the store fronts get filled in. It's busy, and the liveliness is spilling over into the adjacent park (Lafayette?). I always remember that park being pretty dead, but it's been a while, so who knows.

Can anyone explain why this turned out so good? I feel like I've seen some Cambridge zoning rules requiring ~30ft storefronts in certain districts like Central Square, but I can't find my source on that. And is there some reason developers don't do this anyways? There are so many new or planned developments around Boston that devote almost their whole floor space to empty lobbies. Is there some economic or regulatory reason behind that?
 
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