The Alcott (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Just talked to one of the guys setting up lighting. He said largescale demo should be starting in a couple of weeks. Big machines! Also said, no surprise, that although the completion date is listed at 2021 it’ll probably actually finish in 2022.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Yea Im interested as well in seeing how getting rid of this massive bunker will change the feel and flow of the area. Before you were pretty much walled off from getting into that crappy little suburban neighborhood but now you can stroll right through to get to something else. I hope this is the catalyst that gets this area cleaned up and fixed, theres parking lots that can be developed and roads that could have more connections. Hopefully they will want to slowly fix the damage that was done as best they can for the circumstances and get this pretty big piece of downtown connected to the rest of the city. Its so weird having this huge area in downtown that you cant really get into and even when you do theres really no reason to stay or want to be there anyways.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

TallIsGood said:
I’ve been to two Bruins games since they closed the garden garage (last two Saturday nights). Parked at Longfellow Place once and the big garage over Congress the other time. It was bad traffic getting out of both places. Worse than I recall from previous games. Will likely park further downtown (75 State or P.O. Square) next time.
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Or you could take the T!
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

One thing that I have never heard anybody mention on here, that is a very significant barrier to the natural, fluid, and free movement of foot traffic, is fencing - most of the West End apartment complex lots are walled off on most sides by fences. This might not be readily apparent to people that don’t spend a lot of time here, but as someone who has to walk through this area all the time, it’s actually incredibly frustrating and limiting. People focus on the absence of roads, but even as a pedestrian, there are very few ways to get in, out, and through, other than a few footpaths. What the west end needs most to become more city-like is more foot traffic and more commerce/retail. Without improving the former it’s hard to see how the latter will happen.

As for development, the commercial building with Pace and the dry cleaner is probably the most likely to get demolished and sized up... the other areas - the parking lots by Lowell, and by Hawthorne, are close enough to other buildings that any development is going to be hard fought.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

FK4 said:
One thing that I have never heard anybody mention on here, that is a very significant barrier to the natural, fluid, and free movement of foot traffic, is fencing - most of the West End apartment complex lots are walled off on most sides by fences. This might not be readily apparent to people that don’t spend a lot of time here, but as someone who has to walk through this area all the time, it’s actually incredibly frustrating and limiting. People focus on the absence of roads, but even as a pedestrian, there are very few ways to get in, out, and through, other than a few footpaths. What the west end needs most to become more city-like is more foot traffic and more commerce/retail. Without improving the former it’s hard to see how the latter will happen.
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This. I tried to navigate through the West End once and got horribly lost and frustrated trying to find my way around the "neighborhood" on foot. It's designed to drive in and drive out. Truly a bizarre urban experience feeling like you're trapped in the middle of a city.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

TomOfBoston said:
Or you could take the T!
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Actually, I can’t. Last commuter rail leaves south station at 10:40pm. Plus I wouldn’t not convenient enough on way in and out. Runs every two hours on weekends.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

TallIsGood said:
Actually, I can’t. Last commuter rail leaves south station at 10:40pm. Plus I wouldn’t not convenient enough on way in and out. Runs every two hours on weekends.
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If you live to the north you could park at one of the orange line stations and take that in. That's usually what I do.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

tysmith95 said:
If you live to the north you could park at one of the orange line stations and take that in. That's usually what I do.
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West. Framingham/Worcester line. Would have to drive to Green.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

TallIsGood said:
West. Framingham/Worcester line. Would have to drive to Green.
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Yah that's more difficult cause the green line is painfully slow.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

datadyne007 said:
This. I tried to navigate through the West End once and got horribly lost and frustrated trying to find my way around the "neighborhood" on foot. It's designed to drive in and drive out. Truly a bizarre urban experience feeling like you're trapped in the middle of a city.
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It's hard to conceive of a more anti-urban design than that that was conceived for the West End redevelopment. All of the towers are huddled around the Thoreau Path, walling it off from exposure to the regular street grid. It egregiously compounds the preexisting fortress-like sprawl of the MGH complex in the worst possible way.

Time for a thoughtful, humane, and skillful urban renewal of the abortion that was so-called original West End "urban renewal."

P.S. Technically, as best I can deduce, the most direct walking route from Charles MGH to TD Garden through this ghastly sterile mortuary is, without having to trespass/hop a fence:

--uphill on Cambridge St.
--left on N. Grove St.
--right on Parkman St.
--left on Blossom St.
--right on William O'Connell Way
--left on Thoreau Path
--right onto the other arm of Thoreau Path

this spills you out onto the corner of Merrimac & Staniford

The worst part is, it's actually LONGER than walking uphill on Cambridge St. and then downhill on Staniford, it's so convoluted.

Plus, again, the sterile ghastly mortuary aspect.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

It was bad traffic getting out of both places.
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As a resident of 4 Longfellow that parks in that garage, I've greatly enjoyed the addition of game traffic to the garage. When the game is over and people are leaving, it's almost impossible to get into the lower level of the garage, mostly due to the fact that the garage appears to have added several spaces along the wall that force traffic into a channel barely wider than two cars.

On the plus side, the garage has never been cleaner since they have to power wash the floors after every game due to the amount of booze and urine that makes its way there.

Replacing that garage is the right way to go, but the side effects are annoying. My 10 year old, in particular, is hard hit by the closure of both the basketball courts and tennis courts. Not the end of the world and hopefully in the name of bettering the area.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Why do you keep harping on 65 Martha? The building is fully occupied and no plans past present or future have surfaced about anything redevelopment wise. Probably more likely to see the MGH parking lot get developed.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Technically, as best I can deduce, the most direct walking route from Charles MGH to TD Garden
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I lived above the market on Charles Circle and commuted to Waltham via the Commuter rail for about a year and my preferred route was:

  1. Cambridge St. to North Grove Street
  2. Cut through the hospital and turn right onto Blossom St.
  3. Left on to Blossom Court
  4. Follow that through the end and connect to the Thoreau Path
  5. Right onto Thoreau Path
  6. Left onto the branch of the path that goes between Garage and Amy Lowell Apts.

If I do the same walk now, I go from Charles/MGH and enter the Yawkey building and connect to the hospital that way.

Cutting through the hospital has lots of advantages, such as bathrooms and a surprisingly good and cheap cafeteria.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Demo on the top level is quite active now. Lots of concrete coming down.
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Semass said:
Demo on the top level is quite active now. Lots of concrete coming down.
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DdZbbfzV4AA9Tng.jpg


from https://twitter.com/ConciergeBoston/status/997084955762135040 h/t UHub
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Well, the sign is not a problem anymore:

28472667428_beaa226ab9_h.jpg
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

Would the Garage have to be destroyed before you declare official groundbreaking?
 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

 
Re: Longfellow Place (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End

odurandina said:
Would the Garage have to be destroyed before you declare official groundbreaking?
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Usually yea because demo =/= construction. See: Filenes.
 
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