MIT Museum/Book Store | née Boeing | 314 Main St. | Kendall Square

Keep your noms in your back pocket for the next awards ;)
 
DSC_7265.JPG


As nice as this looks as you walk up to and around it, tonight there were warning cones marked "Caution Falling Ice Above" spread across the length of the building. They've also blocked off space for what is hopefully the beginning of the new headhouse construction, though I admittedly wasn't aware it was approved until re-checking this thread, and assumed it was simply for sidewalk reconstruction, so I didn't really pay much attention.
 
As nice as this looks as you walk up to and around it, tonight there were warning cones marked "Caution Falling Ice Above" spread across the length of the building
Click to expand...

If only Boston and Cambridge would learn how setbacks work!

Ugh, I hate this. It's also why I have zero faith in the Kenmore Sq. Hotel with it's thin-to-thick overhang design.
 
meddlepal said:
If only Boston and Cambridge would learn how setbacks work!

Ugh, I hate this. It's also why I have zero faith in the Kenmore Sq. Hotel with it's thin-to-thick overhang design.
Click to expand...
Setbacks work for architects.

They can work for developers in mixed use space, where the upper floors are residential (and make sense with reduced floor space). They do not work for developers in all commercial space where floor plate rules.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Setbacks work for architects.

They can work for developers in mixed use space, where the upper floors are residential (and make sense with reduced floor space). They do not work for developers in all commercial space where floor plate rules.
Click to expand...

Floor plate rules that govern profitability should not take precedence over public safety for 1/3 of the year.
 
JeffDowntown said:
They can work for developers in mixed use space, where the upper floors are residential (and make sense with reduced floor space). They do not work for developers in all commercial space where floor plate rules.
Click to expand...

I don't think the setback's need to be huge... ten feet? Buildings should have a pedestal of maybe 2-3 floors then setback then go as high as they want. Yea that's square footage so I guess we need to go slightly taller to make it up, oh but that's also not possible in Boston... because politics or whatever.

Such a frustrating place to live sometime.
 
meddlepal said:
I don't think the setback's need to be huge... ten feet? Buildings should have a pedestal of maybe 2-3 floors then setback then go as high as they want. Yea that's square footage so I guess we need to go slightly taller to make it up, oh but that's also not possible in Boston... because politics or whatever.

Such a frustrating place to live sometime.
Click to expand...
Aesthetically, I completely agree with you.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned (and I think this calls for a title change):

I walked by this building a few days ago. Inside, there were three names listed on a board, presumably as the current tenants. The name is different from the previously reported suspects:

IBM (the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab/IBM Research)
Capital One (Previously reported)
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (MIT spinout)

I was surprised, because I had thought Apple and Boeing/Aurora would be here. I googled around...I saw no updates from Apple, but it looks like Boeing will not be inhabiting the building:

www.bloombergquint.com

Boeing Prepares Deeper Cuts From Executive Ranks to Real Estate

Boeing Prepares Deeper Cuts From Executive Ranks to Real Estate
www.bloombergquint.com www.bloombergquint.com

So much for anchor tenant.
 
...But the company has tapped the brakes on the Autonomous Flight Research Center it had planned to open this year in MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the university’s campus. Boeing is trying to sublease about half of the 100,000 square-feet space it had secured, said Peter Conway, director of research for Boston-based Lincoln Property Co., which doesn’t represent Boeing. Aurora no longer plans to move its Cambridge-based team to the building, Boeing said.

Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/busi...eper-cuts-from-executive-ranks-to-real-estate
Copyright © BloombergQuint
Click to expand...
 
Renderings of the new MIT Press Bookstore, to be located in this building (314 Main St.), posted in the window of the current (Mass Ave) store:
Book1.png


Book2.png


Book3.png
 
bigpicture7 said:
Renderings of the new MIT Press Bookstore, to be located in this building (314 Main St.), posted in the window of the current (Mass Ave) store:
View attachment 9228
Click to expand...

I was wondering what kind of use that open hole on the first floor would have served - makes sense now. Seemed kind of odd to offer it as a "blank slate" to a leasee.
 
I'm confused. I thought 314 was going to have the museum and an auditorium, and the MIT Press Bookstore was moving back to site 4. Did I have that wrong? Will they be able to fit all three things in one building?
 
Gameguy326 said:
I'm confused. I thought 314 was going to have the museum and an auditorium, and the MIT Press Bookstore was moving back to site 4. Did I have that wrong? Will they be able to fit all three things in one building?
Click to expand...

The MIT Museum site has an FAQs page about their move to Kendall Sq:
https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/move-kendall-faqs. Based on the render shown atop that page, the bookstore entrance appears to be in the front left corner of 314 Main St. (when facing it from Main St.), and the Museum entrance appears to be along the side of the building that faces the Red Line head house:
Kendall%20Rendering_Webheader%20_0.jpg


If this description from The Tech from a couple of years ago is accurate, the museum will occupy (most/all? of) the 3-floor podium of this building (before the multifaceted "cube" part of the building starts).

Meanwhile, those renders I posted above suggests that the bookstore will extend down into the basement of the building (hence the circular floor cut-out and descending staircase).
 
Last edited:
Come some time late summer early autumn when the Google is fully glazed -- there is going to be a "Abu Simbel" like [narrow window of time each year] opportunity to catch the setting sun doing the multi-mirror [kaleidoscope] thing between the "Google" and the "whatever nickname sticks" [aka this building]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top