MIT Expansion Plans | MIT/Kendall Square | Cambridge

[stellarfun]

From Sept 7:

Sloan

Looking east

Sloan, looking northeast from Memorial Drive

Sloan, from Memorial Drive

Media Lab

Atrium?

West facade

NW Graduate Housing

Move-in day (West facade)

East facade (the grill on that gate is formidable.

Inner court, northeast. (The second inner court is to the southwest, and behind the formidable grill gate)

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

This has to be one of the most depressing cityscapes I can imagine.

 

[stellarfun]

I'll post several pics of the rehabbing of One Broadway in the existing development thread later today. They are completely re-doing the base; don't know whether they will replace the skin on the concrete tower.

 

[kz1000ps]

Sloan makes its debut On Broadway:

(I was driving, so excuse the crappy pics)

from the north:

And the Media Lab addition:

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Those are some very Kendall looking buildings.

 

[ablarc]

I work in Kendall Square and it is so freaking boring. It's been said before in this thread and I?m sure most of you already realize it. There is literally nothing here and no street life at all. It?s basically an urban office park adjacent to a major university and bio-tech labs with a Starbucks and a Cosi. It seriously needs something interesting, intriguing, a destination, something to make me forget about work for the hour that I have off for lunch.

Lately it?s been so bad that I?ve been taking the T over to Charles and going to Charles Street/the park for my lunch hour. Adding the residences is a good first step, but unfortunately is such a bland, boring area, I don?t think I would want to live here.

With all our supposed planning expertise, how are we regularly able to come up with places like this?

 

[czsz]

Because most of the places worth being in owe little of their attractiveness to planning.

 

[nm88]

So true. It seems there's an inverse equation -- time spent as to quality of result. Shouldn't the amount of time spent on planning mean better results?

 

[kz1000ps]

Sloan School of Management, today:

From the Mass Ave. bridge:

And the Media Lab addition:

 

[briv]

Sloan School, coming along, amidst the depressingly ho-hum Kendal 'skyline':

 

[ablarc]

No matter how many buildings they throw up at Kendall/MIT, it remains a barren wasteland. Nothing to do but start all over again. Compare Rotterdam.

My God ... they bombed the wrong city!

 

[bdurden]

No matter how many buildings they throw up at Kendall/MIT, it remains a barren wasteland. Nothing to do but start all over again. Compare Rotterdam.

My God ... they bombed the wrong city!

Are you in praise of the rebuilding efforts in Rotterdam? I would assume not.

 

[kz1000ps]

Sloan School, 8/16:

 

[kz1000ps]

And the Media Lab addition, from several different days:

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

The glass on the Sloan building looks interesting. Where is the Media Lab again?

 

[kz1000ps]

The Media Lab's in the middle, with Koch at left and Sloan at right

The Media Lab has that insubstantial Renzo Piano vibe to it save for the dark grey color, which IMO anchors that corner well and helps it to sympathize with its many 90-year-old neighbors.

 

[kennedy]

That's sort of how I imagine the FBI building looking.

 

[crash575]

That's sort of how I imagine the FBI building looking.

...but don't forget a higher/permanent fence, bollards and jersey barriers.

 

[ablarc]

Doesn't seem to matter how much they work on this part of Cambridge, it never gets better.

 

[czsz]

Ugh, what is with this horrific trend of putting up screens or bars over otherwise decent glass buildings? It seems to have spread like wildfire since the completion of the NYT Building.