Park 151 | 151 N First Street | Cambridge Crossing | East Cambridge

ryblogs said:
I don't understand why everyone is against some open space sprinkled in
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Sometimes I agree with your sentiment, and sometimes I don't. As a resident of *here*, I do, simply because I lived in a number of places in Northern Virginia where this type of sprinkling worked very well. If this turns out half as good as a few of the places I lived, I'll be very pleased.

I'm a little concerned about retail activation. We need the people, I know, and JK and EF should help with that. But Avalon Lofts, AVA, Zinc, and Lot N (Twenty|20) didn't bring about *one* retail option in Twenty|20's podium, which remains 100% empty years after opening. Argh.
 
ivyhedge said:
Sometimes I agree with your sentiment, and sometimes I don't. As a resident of *here*, I do, simply because I lived in a number of places in Northern Virginia where this type of sprinkling worked very well. If this turns out half as good as a few of the places I lived, I'll be very pleased.

I'm a little concerned about retail activation. We need the people, I know, and JK and EF should help with that. But Avalon Lofts, AVA, Zinc, and Lot N (Twenty|20) didn't bring about *one* retail option in Twenty|20's podium, which remains 100% empty years after opening. Argh.
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IF you think about Kendall Square, there needed to be a tipping point of density before the retailers flooded in. Now they compete on price for space there. It will happen in Northpoint as well. It will take time though. I am going to guess MUCH less time than Kendall because of its strong housing focus.

cca
 
dshoost88 said:
Does anyone know the history of the 'multi-use shared path' through this property and the apparent bike lanes on the street immediately adjacent to it? I'm a huge proponent for safe bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in more places; however, it seems like a wasteful redundancy. Why not just narrow the street, widen the multi-use path, and/or enable more development?
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It’s very unfortunate. Original plan I had thought, long ago, was to have a real bike trail connecting to the linear path in Somerville. Would’ve been the missing link between Charles and minuteman. They definitely blew it. Now we have bike lanes next to parked cars instead of, as you suggest, less open space and a true bike route. And they should’ve reconfigured the central open space to maximize that one park and eliminate other wasteful green space (maybe preserving small squares for outdoor retail etc).

Re: these new buildings - whoa, 21st century taxpayers!
 
Hmm so some slight changes here. This is what it used to be proposed as. Both look pretty good... as long as they don't shrink it and change the facade to white alucobond its cool with me.


old
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CambridgeCrossing_Park_Parcel_I.jpg



vs new
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This retail looks really nice imo..











Especially right here:

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Looks like larger floor plates. I hope it doesn’t get the good side/ugly side dichotomy of 660 Washington St.
 
The added balconies and terrace are just so they can charge more for the same crap.
 
If this is happening, that makes 5 buildings U/C at North Point (J/K, E/F, G, H, I) for approximately 1.5msf of office and 500 units of residential. Not bad for a single master developer.
 
FitchburgLine said:
If this is happening, that makes 5 buildings U/C at North Point (J/K, E/F, G, H, I) for approximately 1.5msf of office and 500 units of residential. Not bad for a single master developer.
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According to DivCo, it is not yet under construction, but that doesn't mean that it won't be soon. A lot of the dirt that is being shuffled around came from W, which is about half framed.
 
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Honest question from the unwashed.... how long to they spend designing the exteriors? There is increasing quality in some of the Waterfront projects, but this Cambridge Crossing stuff is really dull and looks like everything else.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
Honest question from the unwashed.... how long to they spend designing the exteriors? There is increasing quality in some of the Waterfront projects, but this Cambridge Crossing stuff is really dull and looks like everything else.
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That's really dependent on how much the client is concerned about how their building looks and how much money they're willing to spend, I'd say. The architects are held back by other people's money.
 
stick n move said:
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Ugh, I know I'm Toshing on you all, but this Parcel I could be a signature "tallest-in-Cambridge" building instead of the squat blended-in thing that it turned out to be. For all the transit connections they really are missing the boat on the potential residential component here.
 
They cleared out the north section of the parcel (it will eventually be the open space, nee amphitheater) last week Thursday. It had previously served as a storage area for equipment and palettes, and as a lot for some workers.
 
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