One Kenmore Square | 560 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

[whighlander]

Yes, speculation, but why else would the developer not build on thier own property.

BostonObserver -- as stated in their filing and the BPDA actions the motivation is to move the building to the east a bit to best accommodate the change in the traffic pattern for Kenmore Square
with the Related Beal NPC [lab for office space] for the buildings under the Citgo sign -- Kenmore Square is trying to do a mini KSq

 

[shmessy]

BostonObserver -- as stated in their filing and the BPDA actions the motivation is to move the building to the east a bit to best accommodate the change in the traffic pattern for Kenmore Square
with the Related Beal NPC [lab for office space] for the buildings under the Citgo sign -- Kenmore Square is trying to do a mini KSq

'Yadda, yadda, everyone is trying to be Kendall Square.....Times Square is trying to be Kendall Square.........Tianamen Square is trying to be Kendall Square....yadda, yadda.......'

Kenmore Square has lost enough liveliness and human dynamism over the past 4 decades not to want to accelerate the march towards Kendall Square-ism. It's one of the worst places to aim to become a mini-Kendall Square. This may come as a shock to you, but there are plenty of areas/neighborhoods that do not look at Kendall Square as an aspiration. You might as well try Newbury Street or Quincy Market for similarly bad analogies. Kendall Square is fine where it is. And the Seaport is not comparing itself to Kendall Square. It is forging its own less academic, but more airport accessible/corporate identity.

 

[BostonObserver]

BostonObserver -- as stated in their filing and the BPDA actions the motivation is to move the building to the east a bit to best accommodate the change in the traffic pattern for Kenmore Square
with the Related Beal NPC [lab for office space] for the buildings under the Citgo sign -- Kenmore Square is trying to do a mini KSq

Whiggy since when do we blindly trust developers! Again if it’s such a great idea test it out before you put a building that can never be removed if or makes traffic worse. Better yet build on the property you own and makes the pedestrian changes. Com Ave is one the the great things about Boston. Now you want the view from the sidewalk heading east to be the back of a building.

 

[bdurden]

Whiggy since when do we blindly trust developers! Again if it’s such a great idea test it out before you put a building that can never be removed if or makes traffic worse. Better yet build on the property you own and makes the pedestrian changes. Com Ave is one the the great things about Boston. Now you want the view from the sidewalk heading east to be the back of a building.

There is nothing exceptional about the view going into Kenmore heading east. If you are referring to the Pru, the better view is on the north side of Comm Ave which will be unobstructed.
And as a reminder - this is the “back” of the building.

 

[whighlander]

'Yadda, yadda, everyone is trying to be Kendall Square.....Times Square is trying to be Kendall Square.........Tianamen Square is trying to be Kendall Square....yadda, yadda.......'

Kenmore Square has lost enough liveliness and human dynamism over the past 4 decades not to want to accelerate the march towards Kendall Square-ism. It's one of the worst places to aim to become a mini-Kendall Square. This may come as a shock to you, but there are plenty of areas/neighborhoods that do not look at Kendall Square as an aspiration. You might as well try Newbury Street or Quincy Market for similarly bad analogies. Kendall Square is fine where it is. And the Seaport is not comparing itself to Kendall Square. It is making its own identity.

Shmessy -- You are wrong on this one ---- Everyone wants to be KSq the New KSq or a KSq knock-off or overflow place

its the late-early 21st C version of: "Silicon-Alley," "Silicon Prairie," even "Silicon Sandbar" [aka Cape Cod] -- all of those were real names of districts and regions trying to glom onto Silicon Valley -- the were many others and most failed miserably*1

The notable exceptions:
Silicon Prairie -- Dallas, TX [several other places tried and mostly failed to be a Silicon Prairie] -- DFW attracted many existing companies to invest
Silicon Desert -- Chandler. AZ -- huge investment by Intel [right after the huge investment in Hudson MA aged-out], perhaps more B$s soon
Silicon Hills -- Austin, TX -- huge investments by Motorola, Samsung maybe soon $17B fab by Samsung
Silicon Wadi -- Israel
Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan -- TSMC -- the world's semi fab

Why did they succeed -- because they decided not to just be a knock-off -- and real investment was involved -- typically in semiconductor manufacturing facilities

There is a lesson to be learned -- labs are important -- but getting someone to be manufacturing in a place means there is a real commitment which has to be made by a company and which in turn spawns more investment by others


*1
from the Wikipedia article List of technology centers
a sample of Silicon -- whatever names [there are many many more]:
Americas:

Philicon Valley (aka"Silicon Valley Forge"): near Philadelphia, PA​

Silicon Desert: Chandler, AZ​

Silicotton Valley: Huntsville, AL​

Silicon Valley of the North: Ontario Highway 401 between Toronto and Waterloo, Canada​

Silicon Paradise: Southern Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica​

Silicon Border: Mexicali, Mexico​

Silicon Hills: Austin, TX​

Chilecon Valley: Santiago, Chile​

Africa:

Silicon Lagoon: Lagos, Nigeria​

Silicon Savannah: Nairobi, Kenya​

Silicon Cape: Cape Town, South Africa​

Middle East:

Dubai Silicon Oasis: Dubai, UAE​

Silicon Wadi: The coastal plain from Haifa to Tel Aviv Israel​

Far East & Oceana

Silicon Welly: Wellington, New Zealand​

Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan​

Europe:

Silicon Fen: Cambridge, England​

SiliconFjord: Oslofjord, Norway​

 

[Bananarama]

Shmessy -- You are wrong on this one ---- Everyone wants to be KSq the New KSq or a KSq knock-off or overflow place

its the late-early 21st C version of: "Silicon-Alley," "Silicon Prairie," even "Silicon Sandbar" [aka Cape Cod] -- all of those were real names of districts and regions trying to glom onto Silicon Valley -- the were many others and most failed miserably*1

The notable exceptions:
Silicon Prairie -- Dallas, TX [several other places tried and mostly failed to be a Silicon Prairie] -- DFW attracted many existing companies to invest
Silicon Desert -- Chandler. AZ -- huge investment by Intel [right after the huge investment in Hudson MA aged-out], perhaps more B$s soon
Silicon Hills -- Austin, TX -- huge investments by Motorola, Samsung maybe soon $17B fab by Samsung
Silicon Wadi -- Israel
Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan -- TSMC -- the world's semi fab

Why did they succeed -- because they decided not to just be a knock-off -- and real investment was involved -- typically in semiconductor manufacturing facilities

There is a lesson to be learned -- labs are important -- but getting someone to be manufacturing in a place means there is a real commitment which has to be made by a company and which in turn spawns more investment by others


*1
from the Wikipedia article List of technology centers
a sample of Silicon -- whatever names [there are many many more]:
Americas:

Philicon Valley (aka"Silicon Valley Forge"): near Philadelphia, PA​

Silicon Desert: Chandler, AZ​

Silicotton Valley: Huntsville, AL​

Silicon Valley of the North: Ontario Highway 401 between Toronto and Waterloo, Canada​

Silicon Paradise: Southern Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica​

Silicon Border: Mexicali, Mexico​

Silicon Hills: Austin, TX​

Chilecon Valley: Santiago, Chile​

Africa:

Silicon Lagoon: Lagos, Nigeria​

Silicon Savannah: Nairobi, Kenya​

Silicon Cape: Cape Town, South Africa​

Middle East:

Dubai Silicon Oasis: Dubai, UAE​

Silicon Wadi: The coastal plain from Haifa to Tel Aviv Israel​

Far East & Oceana

Silicon Welly: Wellington, New Zealand​

Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan​

Europe:

Silicon Fen: Cambridge, England​

SiliconFjord: Oslofjord, Norway​

I don't think listing a bunch of city centers with Silcon in the name has much to do with the demand for Kendall... or that it proves that's what "everyone wants" Kenmore to be.
At the very least, this project gets rid of one of key corners as a crappy CITIZENS BANK. Because we all know how much banks liven up public squares...

 

[stick n move]

There is nothing exceptional about the view going into Kenmore heading east. If you are referring to the Pru, the better view is on the north side of Comm Ave which will be unobstructed.
And as a reminder - this is the “back” of the building.

It looks like a melting candle, I think its pretty cool.

 

[bdurden]

It looks like a melting candle, I think its pretty cool.

I’ve walked and driven that

Shmessy -- You are wrong on this one ---- Everyone wants to be KSq the New KSq or a KSq knock-off or overflow place

its the late-early 21st C version of: "Silicon-Alley," "Silicon Prairie," even "Silicon Sandbar" [aka Cape Cod] -- all of those were real names of districts and regions trying to glom onto Silicon Valley -- the were many others and most failed miserably*1

The notable exceptions:
Silicon Prairie -- Dallas, TX [several other places tried and mostly failed to be a Silicon Prairie] -- DFW attracted many existing companies to invest
Silicon Desert -- Chandler. AZ -- huge investment by Intel [right after the huge investment in Hudson MA aged-out], perhaps more B$s soon
Silicon Hills -- Austin, TX -- huge investments by Motorola, Samsung maybe soon $17B fab by Samsung
Silicon Wadi -- Israel
Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan -- TSMC -- the world's semi fab

Why did they succeed -- because they decided not to just be a knock-off -- and real investment was involved -- typically in semiconductor manufacturing facilities

There is a lesson to be learned -- labs are important -- but getting someone to be manufacturing in a place means there is a real commitment which has to be made by a company and which in turn spawns more investment by others


*1
from the Wikipedia article List of technology centers
a sample of Silicon -- whatever names [there are many many more]:
Americas:

Philicon Valley (aka"Silicon Valley Forge"): near Philadelphia, PA​

Silicon Desert: Chandler, AZ​

Silicotton Valley: Huntsville, AL​

Silicon Valley of the North: Ontario Highway 401 between Toronto and Waterloo, Canada​

Silicon Paradise: Southern Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica​

Silicon Border: Mexicali, Mexico​

Silicon Hills: Austin, TX​

Chilecon Valley: Santiago, Chile​

Africa:

Silicon Lagoon: Lagos, Nigeria​

Silicon Savannah: Nairobi, Kenya​

Silicon Cape: Cape Town, South Africa​

Middle East:

Dubai Silicon Oasis: Dubai, UAE​

Silicon Wadi: The coastal plain from Haifa to Tel Aviv Israel​

Far East & Oceana

Silicon Welly: Wellington, New Zealand​

Silicon Valley of Taiwan: Hsinchu, Taiwan​

Europe:

Silicon Fen: Cambridge, England​

SiliconFjord: Oslofjord, Norway​

Kenmore wants to be Kendall how exactly? I just can’t wrap my head around it.

 

[bdurden]

Kenmore has an identity crisis — it doesn’t have a Silicon Valley crisis ala Kendall.

 

[stick n move]

Forgot Shenzhen “silicon valley of china”

 

[Rover]

Kenmore has an identity crisis — it doesn’t have a Silicon Valley crisis ala Kendall.

I agree and blame my alma mater to some extent. BU pivoted away from Kenmore to develop west campus and became indifferent to what got built and how it meshed with everything else. The result is a disjointed look and feel. Is it corporate? Is it academic? Is it bohemian? Is it residential? It's all of the them and none of them at the same time.

 

[chrisbrat]

BU ruined kenmore square in the first place. Hotel Commonwealth, alone, destroyed a block with far more interesting aesthetics and a number of vibrant shops, restaurants, clubs.

 

[Rover]

BU ruined kenmore square in the first place. Hotel Commonwealth, alone, destroyed a block with far more interesting aesthetics and a number of vibrant shops, restaurants, clubs.

I agree up to a point. I'm not lamenting the loss of The Rat or Captain Nemo's. However that building did start the trend of destroying the architectural fit of the neighborhood. That's not the end of the world as often one different looking building can work. But that hotel has no relation to the suburban office building going up across the street, or the melting candle building being proposed nearby. Taking individually I'm sure they all have their benefits but collectively it's a mishmash.

Harvard square isn't perfect and has had some bad choices (Holyoke Center) but for the most part it hangs together even with newer buildings like the School of Govt and the park behind it. BU could have done much better IMHO since they owned the parcels on 3 of the 5 corners. Instead there's a generic office building, the hotel, and a parking lot with a repurposed old gas station.

 

[chrisbrat]

if you're not lamenting the loss of the rat you're congenitally insane or irretrievably stupid.

 

[Rover]

if you're not lamenting the loss of the rat you're congenitally insane or irretrievably stupid.

It was a dump that smelled like piss. If you get off on that, to each his own is all I have to say!

 

[bigpicture7]

if you're not lamenting the loss of the rat you're congenitally insane or irretrievably stupid.

It was a dump that smelled like piss. If you get off on that, to each his own is all I have to say!

Yes and yes. Kenmore's downfall is the death of the diversity of its urban offerings. No, I was not in the mood for The Rat every night (or most nights for that matter); that doesn't make its death less tragic. It's the sterile homogenization of Kenmore that's the issue. To love cities is to appreciate that the stuff you personally don't patronize has a place alongside the stuff you do.

 

[whighlander]

I don't think listing a bunch of city centers with Silcon in the name has much to do with the demand for Kendall... or that it proves that's what "everyone wants" Kenmore to be.
At the very least, this project gets rid of one of key corners as a crappy CITIZENS BANK. Because we all know how much banks liven up public squares...

Bananarama -- You're missing the point -- its all about having a unique identity or else you are just trying to copy something to fool who???

We started it all here with Rt-128 aka America's Technology Highway [later region] with Raytheon, DEC, Analog Devices -- all built factories
Silicon Valley and Research Triangle developed their own identities -- they didn't copy us and perhaps that's why they succeeded
Austin went from a backwater to the forefront of tech when Motorola invested big time -- I was there when it happened
Portland Oregon area and Chandler Arizona were buoyed upon Intel investment
Seatle area went from just Boeing to boom on the basis of Microsoft and then later Amazon
East Fishkill NY and Essex Junction VT were created by IBM investment
South Portland ME -- was National Semiconductor and Fairchild
Minnesota had a nucleus because of Control Data and Cray
there were a few technopowers in the late 20th C and early 21st C

the rest were mostly pale imitations wanna-be's [not just the Silicon this and that -- but a number of Triangle's as well]
even KSq -- before the coming of Novartis was a pretender as it dubbed itself AI Alley with the likes of Thinking Machines
However -- once Novartis and Genzyme joined Biogen -- it had an unique identity which stuck -- Bio/pharma Big & startup scale all in MIT's backyard

MIT realized the phenomenon and decided to essentially re-align its Front door from 77 Mass Ave [still the official Address] to Main Street and KSq where the orientation for new students will begin, the MIT Press and the MIT Museum

Now everyone in Greater Boston is trying to copy the KSq model -- including Harvard in Alston
But the copying KSq including by name association has even spread overseas [not yet nearly as broadly as the Silicon.....'s]
for example KIT -- a development in Karlsruhe Germany centered on the KIT [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology] directly modeled on KSq behind MIT and also in Singapore
or they are a bit more realistic and just see themselves as the re-run of the Seaport and other places which have gotten some rub-off / overflow of KSq

Ultimately -- there will be a shake-out of the excess as there always is -- some new places will succeed and others will just have to try again when the next wave of technological or other euphoria hits*1

*1 the Lincoln Street development
it tried first to be a DotCom / Telecom hosting site for a now defunct outfit called Global Crossing GigaPoP
the next incarnation was just a plain bio/pharma space
now a whole new attempt to do the up-to-date blend of lab/office and residences

 

[Bananarama]

Bananarama -- You're missing the point -- its all about having a unique identity or else you are just trying to copy something to fool who???

We started it all here with Rt-128 aka America's Technology Highway [later region] with Raytheon, DEC, Analog Devices -- all built factories
Silicon Valley and Research Triangle developed their own identities -- they didn't copy us and perhaps that's why they succeeded
Austin went from a backwater to the forefront of tech when Motorola invested big time -- I was there when it happened
Portland Oregon area and Chandler Arizona were buoyed upon Intel investment
Seatle area went from just Boeing to boom on the basis of Microsoft and then later Amazon
East Fishkill NY and Essex Junction VT were created by IBM investment
South Portland ME -- was National Semiconductor and Fairchild
Minnesota had a nucleus because of Control Data and Cray
there were a few technopowers in the late 20th C and early 21st C

the rest were mostly pale imitations wanna-be's [not just the Silicon this and that -- but a number of Triangle's as well]
even KSq -- before the coming of Novartis was a pretender as it dubbed itself AI Alley with the likes of Thinking Machines
However -- once Novartis and Genzyme joined Biogen -- it had an unique identity which stuck -- Bio/pharma Big & startup scale all in MIT's backyard

MIT realized the phenomenon and decided to essentially re-align its Front door from 77 Mass Ave [still the official Address] to Main Street and KSq where the orientation for new students will begin, the MIT Press and the MIT Museum

Now everyone in Greater Boston is trying to copy the KSq model -- including Harvard in Alston
But the copying KSq including by name association has even spread overseas [not yet nearly as broadly as the Silicon.....'s]
for example KIT -- a development in Karlsruhe Germany centered on the KIT [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology] directly modeled on KSq behind MIT and also in Singapore
or they are a bit more realistic and just see themselves as the re-run of the Seaport and other places which have gotten some rub-off / overflow of KSq

Ultimately -- there will be a shake-out of the excess as there always is -- some new places will succeed and others will just have to try again when the next wave of technological or other euphoria hits*1

*1 the Lincoln Street development
it tried first to be a DotCom / Telecom hosting site for a now defunct outfit called Global Crossing GigaPoP
the next incarnation was just a plain bio/pharma space
now a whole new attempt to do the up-to-date blend of lab/office and residences

Don't mean to be rude, but was more trying to point out that the reply is quite rambling...
And again I don't understand the correlation here. Including lab space means they're using the Kendall template? Are you trying to make a point about Kenmore fitting into the Bio/Tech lab identity and development trajectory of Boston?

No offense, but I think you might give more credit to Kendall and your alma matter than what the reality is. I'm curious what you can point to in Kendall that is particularly noteworthy in terms of urban planning or architecture beyond just clustering a bunch of lab companies together in proximity to a university.

 

[Rover]

I don't remember the "old" Kendall square of....what 20? 30? years ago but it is pretty generic. However if it replaced a bunch of old warehouses and axle repair shops then I suppose it's better than before.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Quick aside:

The new "Trolling" warning label is a brilliant add, mods.