SUPERCEDED MXD | Kendall Square

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sidewalks said:
What needed to happen (at minimum) was a commitment to increase the number of red line trains significantly.
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This commitment has been made. The trains are being constructed as we type.
 
FK4 said:
No. What people are saying upthread is that it would have been much better to plan ahead, and barring that, to recognize that the transportation infrastructure is completely overwhelmed in this area, to a degree that is 1) new, 2) NOT inevitable, and 3) in need of being addressed.

1. Time and again on this forum, I see posters ignoring the fact that for a good contingent of people, biking is just not realistic. It doesn’t work for the old, infirm, and it sure as hell doesn’t work for almost everyone between November and April, unless you’re a diehard. I’ve been that diehard, but I have zero expectation of winter biking as a principle viable solution to major congestion. Save your Denmark conparisons for another thread if you disagree.
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I think I'll save my Denmark comparisons for this thread. More people bike in Copenhagen than drive and they get cold weather too. America is full of excuses. Denmark is full of solutions.

In terms of infrastructure and traffic: drivers get what they pay for. Our gas tax is pathetically low. The T fares go up every other year while drivers pay less in gas tax every year. If you insist on being cheap and driving in a city then you have no standing to complain about the traffic because you are the problem. I've lived in Kendall without a car. It was easy.
 
Kinopio said:
In terms of infrastructure and traffic: drivers get what they pay for. Our gas tax is pathetically low. The T fares go up every other year while drivers pay less in gas tax every year. If you insist on being cheap and driving in a city then you have no standing to complain about the traffic because you are the problem. I've lived in Kendall without a car. It was easy.
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I get worked up about the "rights of drivers" and come off very anti-car because oftentimes it is a fear of congestion from improved bike and transit projects that end up killing those projects and no one ends up benefiting, even the drivers. Someone wants to park their car in front of their house so therefore bus lanes cannot fit.

Some people walk to work, some take the train, some choose to bike, some have to drive. For whatever reason, there seems to be this idea that if someone has to drive to work because of where they decided to live and work, everyone else must bend over backwards to make sure they can do it as easily as possible. I don't get this mentality. Sure, housing is cheaper outside the city and it's raining out so biking doesn't make sense, but when someone can't ride their bike down the street to the market or has to wait 3 minutes to cross a 6 lane highway to get to school because *cars*, you have to just take a step back and ask yourself, is this what we really want in our neighborhoods?
 
Kinopio said:
I think I'll save my Denmark comparisons for this thread. More people bike in Copenhagen than drive and they get cold weather too. America is full of excuses. Denmark is full of solutions.

In terms of infrastructure and traffic: drivers get what they pay for. Our gas tax is pathetically low. The T fares go up every other year while drivers pay less in gas tax every year. If you insist on being cheap and driving in a city then you have no standing to complain about the traffic because you are the problem. I've lived in Kendall without a car. It was easy.
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Good luck convincing others to bike in the snow. I did it for two years, it sucks, and it’s NOT reasonable to EXPECT people to do that when we live in an era of technology. Maybe you’d like to trade in your refrigerator for the much smaller sized one that most Danes have in their home. Etc etc.

As for taxation, I 100% agree. But- A very important thing that is almost never talked about here is that all the countries that have higher taxes and good infrastructure don’t exclusively use it for public transit... they also have continued to expand, by eminent domain if necessary, driving infrastructure. There’s a big difference between advocating for a low gas tax and fully auto centric solution and being able to recognize that the road system here in many cases simply isn’t feasible. Again, I’m 100% behind very visionary and expensive transit projects because Boston as it is will die without them. But they aren’t going to be the only solution. There are unfortunately far too many areas around here that just aren’t dense enough to support transit, too far for bike, and yet the road infrastructure is severely inadequate. The politics of this debate get so tiring since you’re branded one thing or another just by advocating for something or by your chosen mode of transit. Similarly, the vindictive schadenfreude about drivers being horrible people, “cheap”, “part of the problem” etc gets just as tiring. Most people drive, that’s the culture, yes it needs to change, no you can’t just expect people to voluntarily do it, no, they can’t simply be blamed and shunned as much as you might like to do so. Policy needs to change, but people never will on their own. And guess what: I used to take the Orange line to work, and it was packed every single morning. It was fucking horrible. You better believe I wished more of those people (who were “part of the problem“) drove or biked instead.
 
Stumpy lil cluster there. Luckily the tallest is coming next which should cap it off nicely.
 
Such a lazy trope this jenga-shifty-boxy-thing. Straight out of sim-city (or city skylines if you are a nerd)

cca
 
The building looks worse than the render.

Perhaps its slimmer/ taller companion will serve to buffer the full jenga/ sim-city factor.
 
cca said:
Such a lazy trope this jenga-shifty-boxy-thing. Straight out of sim-city (or city skylines if you are a nerd)

cca
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Maybe if you stare at pictures of buildings all day then perhaps this could seem dated, but I would counter argue that:

A) This is quite the shake-up for Kendall, Cambridge, and Greater Boston. We aren't peppered with such "lazy tropes." We have primarily bland boxes, most with no street engagement (some actively hostile to the street), and given no design effort beyond maximizing the number of cubicles. I think the typical person on the street is going to spend vastly more time looking at this than at anything else in the vicinity. You can't deny that this building actually gives you something to look at.

B) The outdoor terraces are big enough be really functional. I think the people working in this building are going to have outdoor access on a scale that is rare for high rise office buildings and they are going to really enjoy it. I would have thought you would take more time to appreciate the client's perspective. Personally, I like to see architectural elements that serve a purpose.
 
i just wish the 381' (MIT Bldg 4), the 395' (residential here) & Volpe arrived before all the 160~250' boxes.

Buzzcutchusetts.
 
fattony said:
Maybe if you stare at pictures of buildings all day then perhaps this could seem dated, but I would counter argue that:

A) This is quite the shake-up for Kendall, Cambridge, and Greater Boston. We aren't peppered with such "lazy tropes." We have primarily bland boxes, most with no street engagement (some actively hostile to the street), and given no design effort beyond maximizing the number of cubicles. I think the typical person on the street is going to spend vastly more time looking at this than at anything else in the vicinity. You can't deny that this building actually gives you something to look at.

B) The outdoor terraces are big enough be really functional. I think the people working in this building are going to have outdoor access on a scale that is rare for high rise office buildings and they are going to really enjoy it. I would have thought you would take more time to appreciate the client's perspective. Personally, I like to see architectural elements that serve a purpose.
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None of what you said I would disagree with. Better than bad is not good. Its just less bad. This fits that description. I am glad they are trying to raise the bar ... but it is still too low.
 
Building 1 at MIT is underway as well, and that's 295'.
Even better than those heights is, all 3 of them are infill projects. Adding to the urban build vs. the tear down rebuild at the Akamai site. I prefer they got rid of the old for this, but it doesn't do much for the area. The addedd residential blocking the garage and adding to the streetscape will do much more to help fix the area.

Patience is needed of course. It wasn't long ago 1MP was the only thing over at Fan Pier, and man did it get hated on. But, now that the area is built out around it, it became the background building it was intended to be. As Kendall fills in, many that currently stand out, will begin to blend more.
 
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