MIT East Campus - Kendall Square Gateway | Cambridge

Equilibria said:
Harvard has very little to do with redevelopment or starving of local business in Harvard Square, as they don't own much of it...
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Oh come now, Equilibria, don’t be naive. Harvard dominates decision making in Cambridge. They also DO own much of Harvard Square, just not the putative office park parts. Either way, if they wanted to preserve Harvard Square in some shape or form, they could throw their weight behind such an imitative and overnight, all the city council’s bad permitting decisions could be undone.
 
FK4 said:
Oh come now, Equilibria, don’t be naive. Harvard dominates decision making in Cambridge. They also DO own much of Harvard Square, just not the putative office park parts. Either way, if they wanted to preserve Harvard Square in some shape or form, they could throw their weight behind such an imitative and overnight, all the city council’s bad permitting decisions could be undone.
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FK -- Given that MIT owns the much more valuable real estate in Cambridge [e.g. Kendall Sq. and a lot of near Mass Ave below Central Sq.] -- i.e. that which has the possibility of being sold [or ground leased] and redeveloped [obviously no-one is going to suggest touching the actual campi of either of the Grand U's] -- I would think that MIT's views on things Cambridge are fairly important in the decision making process
 
whighlander said:
FK -- Given that MIT owns the much more valuable real estate in Cambridge [e.g. Kendall Sq. and a lot of near Mass Ave below Central Sq.] -- i.e. that which has the possibility of being sold [or ground leased] and redeveloped [obviously no-one is going to suggest touching the actual campi of either of the Grand U's] -- I would think that MIT's views on things Cambridge are fairly important in the decision making process
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They are, too. Harvard holds more sway overall but the point is that it’s foolish to just assume that just because global corporations like Harvard don’t own a parcel of land in question, they have no say or influence in what’s going on (or not going on) behind the scenes. Whether or not it’s Harvard‘s job to step in and lobby for preserving the culture of Harvard Square is a separate question (I happen to think it definitely is), but there’s just no debate as to whether or not they COULD.. or, that they DO do things very similar, all the time. Huge corporations and institutions wield immense power, right or wrong.
 
FK4 said:
They are, too. Harvard holds more sway overall but the point is that it’s foolish to just assume that just because global corporations like Harvard don’t own a parcel of land in question, they have no say or influence in what’s going on (or not going on) behind the scenes. Whether or not it’s Harvard‘s job to step in and lobby for preserving the culture of Harvard Square is a separate question (I happen to think it definitely is), but there’s just no debate as to whether or not they COULD.. or, that they DO do things very similar, all the time. Huge corporations and institutions wield immense power, right or wrong.
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IFK -- I think you are absolutely right about Harvard Sq. -- but from Central to the River -- its MIT's Baliwick all the way

Harvard chose to invest in Boston while MIT continued to collect old industrial sites in the Central - Kendall -- along Mass Ave and Main St Triangle with extensions into the area on the other side of Mass Ave [old Simplex property] and along the Vassar St -- Albany St strip -- and of course recently the Volpe property

The Volpe property as has been discussed is worth probably $2B when its fully developed and it also has the potential to rewrite the Cambridge Skyline with the tallest building in the city
 
FK4 said:
Oh come now, Equilibria, don’t be naive. Harvard dominates decision making in Cambridge. They also DO own much of Harvard Square, just not the putative office park parts. Either way, if they wanted to preserve Harvard Square in some shape or form, they could throw their weight behind such an imitative and overnight, all the city council’s bad permitting decisions could be undone.
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Gerald Chan is 1000x the villain for Harvard Square that the University is. He's been joined by whatever out-of-state property bank bought the Brattle Street shops and forced the tenants out. None of that has an iota to do with Harvard.

Are you proposing that Harvard put the screws on locally-owned miscellany shops to replace them with banks? How is that possibly in their interest?

Also, this has very little to do with "bad permitting decisions" (the only permits of note in Harvard Square recently are the Abbot Building and the Galleria expansion), it has to do with landlords landbanking and jacking up rents. The only thing the City Council can do there is what they've threatened on the Cinema: eminent domain.

And we have multiple threads where we can discuss Harvard Square that aren't this one, so I'll stop there.
 
IZRR8MG.jpg


The street wall is shaping up nicely.
 
Wow.
That's the most impressive street wall image i've ever seen in Cambridge.
The Pemberton Sq/Downtown buildings really make that!
 
The proposed Art Deco tower on the Charles station would have been a nice vanishing point for the image.
 
odurandina said:
Wow.
That's the most impressive street wall image i've ever seen in Cambridge.
The Pemberton Sq/Downtown buildings really make that!
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Odurandina -- we need to see the same view after Google is completed -- the hole where the Coop was is still jarring
 
I wonder if they could have done a gradient on the window tint as well so that the lights would change color on the way up...
 
if you stand near the MIT dorm tower and move your head up and down--
within a few seconds, you get vertigo and fall over.
This tower is a health hazard.
 
odurandina said:
if you stand near the MIT dorm tower and move your head up and down--
within a few seconds, you get vertigo and fall over.
This tower is a health hazard.
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Odurandina -- apparently you were the last to know

The tower is an ongoing experiment arranged by the folks down on Vassar St at the McGovern Brain Institute

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Brain - MIT McGovern Institute

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is a community of MIT neuroscientists committed to meeting two of the greatest challenges of modern science: understanding how the brain works and discovering new ways to prevent or treat brain disorders.
mcgovern.mit.edu mcgovern.mit.edu
Our Mission
Our mission is to understand the brain and to apply that knowledge to help people with brain disorders. To accomplish these goals, we study the brain at many levels – from molecular genetics to functional brain imaging - and we collaborate with academic, clinical, and industry partners around the world to challenge and probe the unknown. By exploring the origins of disease, our research also lays the foundation for improved treatments for those suffering from brain disorders.
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mcgovern.mit.edu

Ask the Brain - MIT McGovern Institute

mcgovern.mit.edu mcgovern.mit.edu
😜🤣🙃
 
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