Ragon Institute | 624 Main Street | Kendall Square

Equilibria

Equilibria

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Credit to Stellarfun for spotting this, and it deserves its own thread.

https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/chcmeetingfiles/D1556_plans.pdf

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Thanks equilibria. Ragon currently occupies about 75,000 sq ft in 400 Technology Square, so this will triple their space, assuming they move from that location.

This brings to five the number of medical research institute buildings on Main St.
Ragon, initially funded to develop a vaccine for AIDS. (MIT, Harvard, MGH) 624 Main
McGovern, brain research (MIT) Main between Albany and Vassar
Broad, genome research (MIT and Harvard) 415 Main
Whitehead, biomedical research (MIT) 455 Main
Koch, integrative cancer research (MIT) 500 Main
 
This building, and pedestrian plaza is going to be a huge benefit to the area. What a step up from the current! The pedestrian experience is so bleak there now - - the liveliness will now be encouraged. Even the non-plaza side sidewalks look far wider and more inviting than what is there now. This is not just "front door inviting". This is transformative for that entire block..
 
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I expect the plaza under the deck will be a lot darker than it appears in the renders.
 
SPLASH!!!!!!

The area has good bones, but the surrounding buildings have done zilch re: the human/urban/pedestrian experience *yes, I'm looking right at YOU, McGovern Institute for Brain Research - - shame on you and your ground level fortress misanthropitecture.

Ragon is truly going to breath life into a moribound area. Like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when Doothy opens the door of her crashed house bedroom and the entire screen goes from black and white to technicolor. I love how it welcomes humans at the street/plaza/garden level. This will bring a dynamic feel to the area.
 
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shmessy said:
SPLASH!!!!!!

The area has good bones, but the surrounding buildings have done zilch re: the human/urban/pedestrian experience *yes, I'm looking right at YOU, McGovern Institute for Brain Research - - shame on you and your ground level fortress misanthropitecture.

Ragon is truly going to breath life into a moribound area. Like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when Doothy opens the door of her crashed house bedroom and the entire screen goes from black and white to technicolor. I love how it welcomes humans at the street/plaza/garden level. This will bring a dynamic feel to the area.
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It's certainly prettier than McGovern, but it's not a streetwall. This is a nice piece of sculpture that doesn't do much on the sidewalk., and it will be across the street from an urban streetwall with 7-Eleven, FedEx, Catalyst, etc.

And people didn't like this facade treatment much when SOM used it for Volpe...
 
Equilibria said:
It's certainly prettier than McGovern, but it's not a streetwall. This is a nice piece of sculpture that doesn't do much on the sidewalk., and it will be across the street from an urban streetwall with 7-Eleven, FedEx, Catalyst, etc.

And people didn't like this facade treatment much when SOM used it for Volpe...
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It's a very nice piece of sculpture that also has a functional purpose for its client. They did well with the odd-shaped lot. We don't need it to be urban streetwall in this case; as you mention, there's the 7-Elev/FedEx/Al's sandwiches across the street, then on the adjacent block on the same side is the relatively new stretch of storefronts with Sulmona/Cafe Luna/hair salon. This beautifully plugs what was a longstanding forlorn gap.

Gunner02 said:
Sooo we actually like this, right?;)
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Yes
 
Equilibria said:
It's certainly prettier than McGovern, but it's not a streetwall. This is a nice piece of sculpture that doesn't do much on the sidewalk., and it will be across the street from an urban streetwall with 7-Eleven, FedEx, Catalyst, etc.

And people didn't like this facade treatment much when SOM used it for Volpe...
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Who said anything about a "streetwall"?

Streetwall is a completely different concept from what I was referring to.

I was referring to human ACTIVITY at street level. McGovern, whle a very impressive and solid "wall", is a Neuton Bomb for human being traffic/dynamic urban life. Just take a walk around that perimeter someday and try to look in all the interesting shop and restaraunt windows.........or gathering places.........

And to the point about Volpe, this is a different location/context than Volpe which is in high rise Kendall Square.
 
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shmessy said:
Who said anything about a "streetwall"?

Streetwall is a completely different concept from what I was referring to.

I was referring to human ACTIVITY at street level. McGovern, whle a very impressive and solid "wall", is a Neuton Bomb for human being traffic/dynamic urban life. Just take a walk around that perimeter someday and try to look in all the interesting shop and restaraunt windows.........or gathering places.........

And to the point about Volpe, this is a different location/context than Volpe which is in high rise Kendall Square.
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"Streetwall" doesn't mean "flat vertical surface along the sidewalk"...

This project is nice looking. Also, it continues a trend of "X Institute" building a citadel in Kendall where it can hide from humanity. Volpe certainly contributes to that (and still will, thanks to security requirements), as do Draper and Novartis, though the latter at least knocked some storefronts into its outer parapets. Mitimco, Pfizer, Takeda, etc. did a much better job. Akamai is a mixed bag.

I'm not enamored enough of this design statement that I can't recognize the downside of Kendall becoming La Defense or the National Mall for humanity-saving research labs, full of buildings designed for galaxy brains and not people.
 
Equilibria said:
...it continues a trend of "X Institute" building a citadel in Kendall where it can hide from humanity...
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I admire the poetry of that statement and don't disagree with the critique. However, how extensively have you worked with PhD/PhD-pursuant researchers? Their deeply engrained behavior is to put up walls so they can be left alone, and architecture itself is a force they can reckon with. Frank Gehry tried to design the Stata center so that researchers (above ground floor level) would commingle with each other. Partitions (when they were even used) were all-glass, and the different spaces jut into each other. Yet, the researchers papered-over the glass and found ways to build walls (literal and figurative). They wanted to be left alone. Instead of beautiful glass dividers, you had ugly cardstock taped up all over the place.

Don't get me wrong, your critique is a fair one because these buildings impinge on the public realm. I just want to put it in perspective: the worst offender in Kendall (IMO) is the Whitehead. It's set way back and has an elevated patio surrounded by walls. Literally no one else goes up there (even though it is entirely open to the public). When you look up there, all you see are a few people eating sandwiches by themselves with Whitehead badges.

Here, at least the front is kept at sidewalk level and it looks like there are some nice places to sit that seem inviting. I'm OK with the gap in retail since there are 8 retail slots either across the street or at the next block. Cities need nice things to look at and places to sit too, not just stores.
 
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Equilibria said:
"Streetwall" doesn't mean "flat vertical surface along the sidewalk"...

This project is nice looking. Also, it continues a trend of "X Institute" building a citadel in Kendall where it can hide from humanity. Volpe certainly contributes to that (and still will, thanks to security requirements), as do Draper and Novartis, though the latter at least knocked some storefronts into its outer parapets. Mitimco, Pfizer, Takeda, etc. did a much better job. Akamai is a mixed bag.

I'm not enamored enough of this design statement that I can't recognize the downside of Kendall becoming La Defense or the National Mall for humanity-saving research labs, full of buildings designed for galaxy brains and not people.
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The render below speaks for itself regarding its context in THIS particular location.

As seen here, The Ragon is fulfilling as an important "relief valve" from the (bottom left) walled fortresss side of the McGovern to the pedestrian humanoids.

As a humanoid who loves to walk cities, I'm very grateful for that aspect.

While Main Street (extending from bottom center to top right) is fine because of the ground floor retail/restaurants and park on the other side of the street, the area of the the diagonal Albany Street (extending straight up from near the center of the render) is simply grim to walk. This will be a very welcome characteristic of this project.

Great cities swarm with people.

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I feel like its an attractive modernist sculpture, and would look awesome . . . in like Miami or LA . . .
 
Hydrobus said:
I feel like its an attractive modernist sculpture, and would look awesome . . . in like Miami or LA . . .
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I hear ya, but let's just keep in perspective that this particular area is competing to attract the most accomplished, creative young minds on the planet.

It's not trying to attract the former Durgin Park customers.
 
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Hydrobus said:
I feel like its an attractive modernist sculpture, and would look awesome . . . in like Miami or LA . . .
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So which one do we want? Bland boxes that blend in are all glass/ fake brick/ hard to differentiate from each other, or something bold to aid in place making? Depending on the thread, we seem to contradict ourselves depending upon what's proposed....
 
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