Porter Square Infill and Small Developments

^^ It's a hotel, and it's been UC for three-and-a-half years at this point (since fall of 2015). Given who the contractor is, this forum collectively called it.

October 2015:

Arlington said:
What is the project at the Porter Sq end of Somerville's Beacon St (a triangular parcel opposite Oxford St and backed up to the Fitchburg train tracks) a former gas station site.

I suspect is already has a thread, but am fuzzy on whether it is in Cambridge or Somerville,

They were pile driving this morning. I'd thought it was just construction staging for an Emerson project, but the pile driving obviously means the site is the project.
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JumboBuc said:
Looks like "Beacon Hotel", a 35-room hotel with a ground-floor restaurant and 29 underground parking spaces. It's the work of Young Construction Company, the same firm working on 315 Broadway in Somerville and the Porter Square Hotel (which is taking forever).

tS9NOWH.jpg
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May 2016:

Uncivil_Engineer said:
Some stuff from around the Porter/Union area, a few of these are a couple weeks old:

Beacon Hotel (intersection of Beacon & Oxford):
Qeq70nd.jpg
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RandomWalk said:
The Beacon Hotel is being done by the same folks behind the Porter Square Hotel (ex-Kaya) and the residential building at Upland & Mass Ave. Based on the construction pace at those sites, I expect the Beacon Hotel to open just in time for NYE 2100.
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The hotel has stalled out. Very little work being done on it.

cca
 
JumboBuc said:
^^ It's a hotel, and it's been UC for three-and-a-half years at this point (since fall of 2015). Given who the contractor is, this forum collectively called it.

October 2015:
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Dear Lord, that render!!!! It's the Homer Simpsonmobile!!!!!
 
JumboBuc said:
The Cambridge BZA is having a hearing tonight (7 pm at 806 Mass Ave in Central Square) on the 1791 Mass Ave project.

It's a great project: 40 units of 100% "affordable" (30% - 60% AMI) housing in heart of Porter Square with three handicap parking spaces. Units will be 1/3 1-bed, 1/3 2-bed, and 1/3 3-bed, located in a new 4-5 story building built between three existing 19th century homes (one on Mass Ave and two behind). The Mass Ave home has been vacant since 2010, and is currently in disrepair and surrounded by cracked asphalt. That building we be shifted forward to Mass Ave to better align with its neighbors, fully restored to its historic glory, and re-landscaped (greenery and pavers to replace asphalt). The 40-unit building will sit directly behind it.

Plans and Renders

I'll be there voicing my support; I encourage you all to as well!

Current:
02-Before-768x526.jpg


Proposed:
Frost-Terrace-Rendering-01052018-768x447.jpg
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Fencing up, about to begin.
 
Is that... PROGRESS on the Beacon Hotel? Granted it's not much... but it seems like that fireproofing is more comprehensive than it was in the Spring (and Winter, and Fall).
 
Both Porter square hotels that was built by Young Construction had/ have moved glacially slow. Do they have a reputation for dragging out the schedule?
 
They also built the mixed use building at Broadway and Temple St in Somerville at a glacial pace. It’s their thing.
 
34f34f said:
"‘Frost Terrace’ affordable housing OK’d, will bring 40 units to Porter Square area": Cambridge Day

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Walked by this today — got excited since I thought I would be able to post my own pics for the very first time on this site... but then the site won't let me because cell phone pics are too big, and there's no obvious way to have them shrunk.

Anyway, this is great density, but at the same time, I think keeping the mansard roof building is a big time mistake and the streetwall would look MUCH better if they just razed that house and build up to the street. I understand that these developments have to make so many ridiculous ass kissing gestures to addressing all the usual bitching of the neighborhood, and one biggie is often "oh, this is a historical building, you simply can't tear it down!" So now, here this house sits, jacked up, going to be moved twenty feet toward the street, at God knows what cost... all to preserve — what — a banal square building that's 100 years old? They did the same thing with the rectory in Hyde Square when they did the first phase of the Blessed Sacrament redevelopment, and wasted untold thousands moving the 19th century equivalent of a square turd back a hundred feet. It's a rhetorical question, but why can't people learn to discriminate between the historical buildings that are truly unique (and actually preserve those – I'm talking to you, Marty), rather than get fixated on run-of-the-mill Victorians that were never that great and really have no place in a major commercial node? How many more housing units could have been built instead of squandering that money on all the work this old pile is getting?

On a broader note, I just can't believe Mass Ave is so underzoned... the entire corridor should be rezoned and there really is no business for any wood structures (that aren't amazingly unique) between the Law School and Porter.
 
Huh? Everybody who posts pics hosts them. I use postimages.org since everything else hijacked my pictures n said I have to pay to get em back. There is code I think to auto resize but i dont know it, but upload pics to a hosting site, copy the link, n paste it here.
 
Anyway, this is great density, but at the same time, I think keeping the mansard roof building is a big time mistake and the streetwall would look MUCH better if they just razed that house and build up to the street.
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Totally agree. While it's great that church next to this was preserved and it fits nicely with the streetwall and Lesley building leaving this house creates just way too much uncertain space around...
 
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