Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital | Navy Yard | Charlestown

Then-again....Perhaps Not

Apparently the Windy Boondogle is already open for business:

Is it just a new warehouse? They tore down the old one to replace piles in the pier.

http://charlestown.patch.com/groups...-a-look-inside-the-new-wind-technology-center
Photos: A Look Inside the New Wind Technology Center
A $40 million wind technology testing center opened on Terminal Street this week, the first of its kind in the United States.

Posted by Kasey Hariman , May 19, 2011 at 08:28 PM
patch


A full roster of government officials were on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday to mark the opening of the Wind Technology Testing Center on Terminal Street. The center is the first in the country to offer testing for large wind turbine blades (up to 90 meters) in length — and the largest such facility in the world. It cost about $40 million to build, and funding came, in part from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
 
^^ WOW, that's really cool! And it's a Boston address, right? Great claim for the city to make: largest wind technology testing center in the world.
 
^^ WOW, that's really cool! And it's a Boston address, right? Great claim for the city to make: largest wind technology testing center in the world.

When it was first announced a lot of the folks who thought they knew what to expect were envisioning a giant wind tunnel or something of that nature

Reality is that they test the mechanical strength and such of individual blades

Its mostly a big warehouse with some sockets in a wall for blades and behind the wall are some shake, rattle and roll generators and accompanying data acquisition equipment connected to sensors on or in the blades
 
Then-again....Perhaps Not

Apparently the Windy Boondogle is already open for business:

This warehouse that I took pictures of directly across from Spaulding is not the wind turbine center. The wind place is further down the road, past the automobile port.

p4eDzcD.jpg
 
From yesterday:
13982366147_cbbec33ac3_h.jpg


The park was getting tons of use from both Spaulding people and neighborhood kids. They also had this cool graphic at the end of the pier:
13982364627_91cfd6fe5c_h.jpg
 
Massachusetts General Hospital files plans to turn former Spaulding site into offices

Massachusetts General Hospital this week filed formal plans to turn the former Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital at 125 Nashua Street into administrative offices.

MGH wrote in its application that specific uses for the 10-story building are likely to be: "a variety of administrative uses serving its medical and clinical operations. The renovation will result in a small decrease in the building's gross floor area to approximately 198,080 (square feet). These uses may include medical record storage facilities, physician and staff offices, accounting and financial offices, other administrative and support space and related accessory uses including but not limited to conference spaces, kitchens and eating areas, parking and loading."

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...tts-general-hospital-files-plans-to-turn.html
 
Too bad... Id like to see the site get a facelift at minimum.
 
That's too nice an address for medical record storage. Bummer, man.
 
I hope this is land banking. If they were building out new medical spaces or labs, I'd be worried, but I hope that once MGH finishes the current dev plan for their main campus, this thing will get the boot.
 
This has been in the works for literally a decade. AFAIK it's overflow office space. My guess is that the state will want this parcel eventually so that they can demolish the structure and hook up the rest of the North Station berths.
 
This has been in the works for literally a decade. AFAIK it's overflow office space. My guess is that the state will want this parcel eventually so that they can demolish the structure and hook up the rest of the North Station berths.

North Station needs Drawbridge #3 brought back before it needs the platform space. There's still 2 unused platforms there; it's the 4 tracks over the bridges that are the capacity limiter. Any which way, though, gets ex-Spaulding all blowed up.


NS platforms are fully fungible for air rights overbuilds on the Charles side of the Leverett ramps. I'm sure anyone looking at that building already full well knows this and knows it's eventually going to be displaced by something a whole lot grander on stilts. Therefore there's not much point planning usage more than 10 years out.
 
NS platforms are fully fungible for air rights overbuilds on the Charles side of the Leverett ramps. I'm sure anyone looking at that building already full well knows this and knows it's eventually going to be displaced by something a whole lot grander on stilts. Therefore there's not much point planning usage more than 10 years out.

Maybe so, but there's acres of parking lots to develop before getting into an air rights quagmire. This whole sliver needs a master plan now to think about a decent street grid - to prevent a whole bunch of roads named "____ Way or XXX Drive" wrapping around superblock buildings. That's why it would be nice if they got going on improving Martha, Lomasney and Nashua now, or making a plan to do so.

I hope that once MGH finishes the current dev plan for their main campus, this thing will get the boot.
There isnt anything big that Im aware of that MGH plans on embarking on soon. Partners is wrapped up in the acquisition deal and just built a museum and two massive buildings in the last decade. Medical records is currently somewhere up in Somerville, and I dont know why they need to move them closer into town, unless the site was getting redeveloped.
 
Maybe so, but there's acres of parking lots to develop before getting into an air rights quagmire. This whole sliver needs a master plan now to think about a decent street grid - to prevent a whole bunch of roads named "____ Way or XXX Drive" wrapping around superblock buildings. That's why it would be nice if they got going on improving Martha, Lomasney and Nashua now, or making a plan to do so.

Anybody who develops those parking lots is going to have to plan ahead for air rights for more platform space. I think that's going to scare away a lot of the developers who don't have some sort of BIG master plan in mind. I mean, you could if it's engineered properly do a bottom-level garage that could be gutted and claimed for train platforms later without disturbing the building above...but that's more complex than average engineering.

I also don't know if Jerry Jacobs owns the land under that lot of not. Given what sweet time he's taking filling in the giant hole in front of the Garden I wouldn't get my hopes up about this slab of asphalt springing magically to life anytime soon.
 
All I know is that it's a wasted opportunity...a really decent location going to waste.
 
Agreed Padre. This should have been the spot for a new high rise residence.
 

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