Proto | 88 Ames St | Kendall Square | Cambridge

Re: Ames Street Residence | 88 Ames Str. - Kendall Sq. | Cambridge

^ and btw, beautiful building (despite being a few floors too short).

- Breaks up the brown brick of Kendall very nicely
- Love the vertical lines; especially the texture of these lines at podium level
- Love the proportions - it manages to not look like a fatty from most angles

This one's a winner (across most, but not all, parameters)
 
Re: Ames Street Residence | 88 Ames Str. - Kendall Sq. | Cambridge

bigpicture7 said:
That's the Broad Institute (or, more specifically, it's more recent addition). The Broad is a world renown lab for genetics-related stuff, with affiliations to both Harvard and MIT. It operates, however, as an independent entity.

My guess is the two will be of very similar height once done. Pretty sure standard cambridge zoning is 250', and I don't recall the Ames St. project contesting that...

I agree a few more floors here would have been appropriate in housing-starved kendall. I have deferred such hopes to the Volpe site very close by...
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It will be 284' to the top. Slightly taller than the Broad Institute (see Figure 1.12).

http://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/...sp294_article19_update_20141117_pt1.pdf?la=en
 
Re: Ames Street Residence | 88 Ames Str. - Kendall Sq. | Cambridge

bigpicture7 said:
Gotcha - and thanks for making up for my laziness re: obtaining the real facts!

I knew it had to be 250' +/-, though...cambridge tradition!
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I could be wrong but I believe mech is allowed to add up to 20% on top of zoning, which is why all the 250' zoned towers go closer to 300'.
 
They should just star selling off naming rights to these new buildings. Who wouldnt want to live in the Quicken Loans Building or the Nationwide Insurance Luxury Residences?
 
Heres a great example of a tower thats not that tall but the verticality works very well. Its just thin enough to make the height work. The facade also isn't anything special but the way the pieces are being used its coming out very well. It has the Boston white precast panels but with the grey mixed in and the vertical lines are really working. I think a lot of developers could learn a great deal from this about how to make ordinary materials look amazing. The renders also show the facade breaking up towards the top where the white lines stop and leave just the grey panels and glass to change it up in the top corner. I really like this a lot. This tower looks great.
 
I mostly love this project, I actually think it's just the right height for its location, it's gonna do wonders for that street wall, and it has nice geometry.

My only complaint is the gray concrete cladding, which up-close has a grainy concrete texture which just doesn't mesh well with everything around it.
 
BostonDrew said:
Topping off ceremony happened today.
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I see the flag and tree on the webcam, but it still has a little more to go according to renders. They must be done pouring the concrete though.
 
stick n move said:
Heres a great example of a tower thats not that tall but the verticality works very well. Its just thin enough to make the height work. The facade also isn't anything special but the way the pieces are being used its coming out very well. It has the Boston white precast panels but with the grey mixed in and the vertical lines are really working. I think a lot of developers could learn a great deal from this about how to make ordinary materials look amazing. The renders also show the facade breaking up towards the top where the white lines stop and leave just the grey panels and glass to change it up in the top corner. I really like this a lot. This tower looks great.
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Agreed. The sharp corners makes this tower look taller than it is, something that architects in this area seem to struggle to understand. Hopefully we see more of this.
 
This is topped out right? The crown from looking at this render seems to be the height of 3 floors and one of the crown floors appears to have been poured already. Yes this pic was posted on the first page of the thread but it was tiny and Im using it to show the crown on this tower. Im not sure the height of each floor but I'd guess theres about 20 feet to go when they build the rest of the crown? Its already peeking above its neighbors and the crown should make it very noticeable from across the Charles which is great to see. Also the T shape of the tower gives it thin sides but still allows it to have a good amount of rentable floor space. Great design.

I like this tower a lot, its turned out great with average materials used the right way. To me thats what sets good architects apart. Whoever designed this used budget facade materials but with some imagination used them the right way to give the tower a great sense of verticality. The way the vertical lines slowly break away at the top is a nice effect and then they top it off with the roof/crown. I think the choice of colors all work very well together as well.

So what would you say 20ft left give or take?
 
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