MXD Residential Tower | 121 Broadway | Kendall Square

“Boston Properties is moving forward with a proposal to develop four properties in Kendall Square, including a 34-story residential tower that would be the tallest building in Cambridge, officials said.

The 350-foot building at 135 Broadway would contain 355 residential units, Tom Evans, executive director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA), said in an email. About 80 to 85 units -- 20 percent -- would be set aside for affordable housing, while 5 percent would be set aside for middle-income housing.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20181017/four-new-buildings-coming-to-kendall-including-tallest-in-cambridge%3ftemplate=ampart
 
The res tower is still a proposal? I thought it was approved and they were just finishing the office tower and then start the residential. Or am I reading this wrong?
 
Ghastly. I'd say that it looks institutional but with the higher quality designs coming from our hospitals and universities of late, that would be too kind of an assessment.
 
stick n move said:
... "About 80 to 85 units -- 20 percent -- would be set aside for affordable housing, while 5 percent would be set aside for middle-income housing...."
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Is this a first for the region? I do not recall a building explicitly setting aside units for 'middle-income housing.' [JohnAKeith, I suspect you know the answer]

I think this is wonderful.
 
The parking garage is extremely banal for 2020. I would say core Boston demands some more decoration/street activation. Also the tower is pretty banal. Not the worst, but combined with the parking garage and unimaginative street level, I'd say this needs to be sent back to the drawing board.
 
BarbaricManchurian said:
The parking garage is extremely banal for 2020. I would say core Boston demands some more decoration/street activation. Also the tower is pretty banal. Not the worst, but combined with the parking garage and unimaginative street level, I'd say this needs to be sent back to the drawing board.
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Just to be clear - the garage exists now. They're taking one end of it down to build the tower and leaving rest.

I mentioned this on the other thread, but if you look in the presentation you'll see that the cladding is pretty detailed and high-quality. It doesn't come through in the zoomed-out render, but something similar happened with MIT SOMA Building 4. We hated it in renders and started liking it when we were able to perceive the cladding texture.
 
I wish Cambridge would get over itself and encourage proper commercial street walls. I hate all these little tiny pocket parks around Kendall. Similar shit is happening with Volpe where all the massing models show towers amidst park greens.
 
meddlepal said:
I wish Cambridge would get over itself and encourage proper commercial street walls. I hate all these little tiny pocket parks around Kendall. Similar shit is happening with Volpe where all the massing models show towers amidst park greens.
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Agreed.
 
dshoost88 said:
Is this a first for the region? I do not recall a building explicitly setting aside units for 'middle-income housing.' [JohnAKeith, I suspect you know the answer]

I think this is wonderful.
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Boston's IDP targets middle-income. Most aff. units range in 'afforadiblity' with percentages of AMI, and this often goes up into 'middle-income'.
 
meddlepal said:
I wish Cambridge would get over itself and encourage proper commercial street walls. I hate all these little tiny pocket parks around Kendall. Similar shit is happening with Volpe where all the massing models show towers amidst park greens.
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Agreed, the renders for Volpe look cool from the air, but when you look close it starts to look more and more like an office park.
 
The Masterplan and rest of the renders

Volpe-Center-Parcel-Redevelopment-Kendall-Square-Cambridge-MIT-Elkus-Manfredi-Architects-Office-Residential-Retail-Educational-Laboratory-Entrepreneurship-Incubator.jpg


ne_mit_volpe_sketch1.png


PH-101709997.jpg










Screen+Shot+2019-01-28+at+3.18.40+PM.png


https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51f173a6e4b04fc573b07c0c/t/5828542315d5dbb85818c840/1479038005240/2016-1110-IDCP-RESPONSE+TO+COMMENTS-LR.pdf
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51f173a6e4b04fc573b07c0c/t/5cdd7395085229f244f7f21f/1558016929950/135+Broadway+CRA+Landscape+Review_2019-05-15_Low+Res.pdf
 
datadyne007 said:
Holy lord, this is unrecognizable as Kendall Sq! A completely new city.
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That renders even missing 325 main, truely amazing. Cambridge is going to be much more of its own separate entity with its own competing downtown vs just an area for spill over office space. Id love to see Cambridge explode and turn into our own twin cities. Boston is just too small to do it all on its own.
 
I'm not digging the tower in the park style here. Unless that is all roof gardens on a plinth, it seems like wasted urban space.
 
mdd said:
I'm not digging the tower in the park style here. Unless that is all roof gardens on a plinth, it seems like wasted urban space.
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Agreed. I believe it was mentioned by someone in this or another Kendall project thread, but there are already way too many "plazas" and "green spaces" scattered throughout the neighborhood. Neighborhood groups love them in proposals, but they do nothing for the cohesiveness and continuity of the urban environment.
 
meddlepal said:
I wish Cambridge would get over itself and encourage proper commercial street walls. I hate all these little tiny pocket parks around Kendall. Similar shit is happening with Volpe where all the massing models show towers amidst park greens.
Click to expand...

My initial reaction is to agree 100%. But then I caught myself and realized this area is not for bankers and mutual fund employees. Its for scientists/high techies who don't yearn for Wall Street type landscapes..

I love a good high canyon as much as the next, but wonder if that would disadvantage Cambridge over roomier Silicon Valley when it comes to attracting the recruits.

Those first two renders in Stick's post #14 above look like a nice balance between buttoned up urban canyon and pocket park filled tech area. Definitely an improvement over the years.
 
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