"The Garage" | 36 JFK Street | Harvard Square | Cambridge

I think Zakka is definitely from a different "lineage" - that being said. Without a doubt I'm there looking at v. kawaii (cute) figurines and then over to Newbury each time I visit Harvard Square. Used to be a once a month thing. Only went 2 times since the beginning of the pandemic. Hope to visit soon.
 
Equilibria said:
I can't speak for the tattoo parlors or the anime shop, but the Newbury Comics is absolutely one of the saddest stores I've been in (before Covid).
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Non-chain shops are in decline everywhere, and even the big chains are being impacted by online shopping. Not that that is a bad thing. My only real complaint about the Garage proposal is the mundane Disney approach and the continuing embalmment of Harvard Square into a kind of 19th century/neocolonial museum, A few modern buildings here and there would be a nice interjection of reality and diversity into the fakey tourist trap approach currently being taken.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Non-chain shops are in decline everywhere, and even the big chains are being impacted by online shopping. Not that that is a bad thing. My only real complaint about the Garage proposal is the mundane Disney approach and the continuing embalmment of Harvard Square into a kind of 19th century/neocolonial museum, A few modern buildings here and there would be a nice interjection of reality and diversity into the fakey tourist trap approach currently being taken.
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The proposal looks pretty modern to me. Brick itself doesn’t inherently make a building look like it’s from the 1800s. Would you rather see the Garage replaced with a minimalist glass box?
 
Blackbird said:
The proposal looks pretty modern to me. Brick itself doesn’t inherently make a building look like it’s from the 1800s. Would you rather see the Garage replaced with a minimalist glass box?
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The side facing JFK Street looks okay. I was referring to the "historical" reproduction of the old trolley car barn proposed on the Mt. Auburn Street side. That portion of the remodel could have been a modern glass or contemporary cladding (other than brick) to make a contrast with all the brick in the area, and transition into Holyoke Center. The new developments in the Harvard Square area for awhile now have been these nondescript brick buildings that timidly blend in but don't make any kind of statement. It's too bad because in decades past there had been some really notable and exciting modern buildings put up. Harvard Square is being developed into a kind of place my family and I once stayed at on the Pacific coast. It was a fake village of all new houses and shops, but all made to look like someone's idea of an old Maine village. I said to my daughter it would be nice to throw in a modern looking building here and there just to make it look real. The way it was done looked like a Hollywood movie set, really false looking. I see Harvard Square going that way.
 
So many memories in that building. I totally get that it needs a face lift but this feels super soulless.

Besides all the days looking at clothes in Hootenanny and cds in Newbury Comics, my biggest connection to this building was going to see Actors Shakespeare Project's Titus Andronicus in the basement way back in 2007. It was my first piece of site specific theater I ever saw and almost single handedly sent me down the path of being a set designer. The way the space just enveloped the audience and the story gets me even today. I owe so much to this building and it's kind of sad that the needed update is stripping the intresting parts out of it.

If you didnt see this production this article sums it up nicely.
 
found5dollar said:
So many memories in that building. I totally get that it needs a face lift but this feels super soulless.
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I remember a communist bookstore upstairs in the Garage some years ago that was interesting (not that I'm a communist; far from it). Oh well. that's the trend for Harvard Square: a corporate sterility housed in made-up cutesy replicas of old buildings. That's okay, there are other parts of Cambridge that are exciting. MIT has, and continues to, put up some really adventurous buildings. Looks like the nerds at MIT have it right.
 
I spent one year as a kid living in Cambridge, about 1985. Twelve years old with not much to do but skateboard around (I was a little too young to hang in the Pit) and flip through albums at Newbury Comics and Strawberry's. The Garage was one of my favorite spots to hang out--so many slices at Cafe A, Formaggio's for killer sandwiches when I had money from my mom, the original Rosie's Bakery, and Coffee Connection (though I didn't drink coffee then). Pretty sure there was a club in the basement (or maybe it was next door) where I caught Pat Metheny one night. Newbury Comics at that time was great, especially if you were a wanna-be punk rocker who needed pins and patches for your jacket. Harvard Square in the 80s was one of the best places in the world.
 
HenryAlan said:
That's really when Harvard Square died in my opinion.
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Sorry to everyone here for all my riffing about Harvard Square's "woulda shoulda couldas". I hung out there a lot in the 1960s while I was going to Cambridge High and Latin, so the changes now are pretty painful to see. But everything has its season and things change. I'm just thankful I got to experience it back when it was great and original.
 
chumbolly said:
I spent one year as a kid living in Cambridge, about 1985. Twelve years old with not much to do but skateboard around (I was a little too young to hang in the Pit) and flip through albums at Newbury Comics and Strawberry's. The Garage was one of my favorite spots to hang out--so many slices at Cafe A, Formaggio's for killer sandwiches when I had money from my mom, the original Rosie's Bakery, and Coffee Connection (though I didn't drink coffee then). Pretty sure there was a club in the basement (or maybe it was next door) where I caught Pat Metheny one night. Newbury Comics at that time was great, especially if you were a wanna-be punk rocker who needed pins and patches for your jacket. Harvard Square in the 80s was one of the best places in the world.
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you just described my exact (minus pat metheny) harvard square experience in 1985ish -- and at the exact same age -- except that i lived in da bridge for more than just the one year.
 
Texasian said:
Not sure if theres a direct lineage, I think Tokyo Kid evolved from Man from Atlantis, but I'm not sure if the current store (Anime Zakka) has a direct line from Tokyo Kid.
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Well... that just shows you how long its been since I have been in there - I thought it was still Tokyo Kid.
 
I agree, @Charlie_mta

My dad was a Cantabridgian, and I used to hear all about the lament of the Hayes Bickford and Howard Johnson cafeterias being replaced and this is gone and that is not there...it just isn't the same, etc., etc.. This was in the 80's, long before a lot of the stores people are fussing about here even opened.
Things change, businesses come and go, sadly the price for all the development we have and all the shiny buildings along with the absolutely booming local economy is that we lose some special things.

Try to cherish the memories that you have, be happy that you had the experience and then go build some new memories.

Charlie_mta said:
Sorry to everyone here for all my riffing about Harvard Square's "woulda shoulda couldas". I hung out there a lot in the 1960s while I was going to Cambridge High and Latin, so the changes now are pretty painful to see. But everything has its season and things change. I'm just thankful I got to experience it back when it was great and original.
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Special permit application materials posted (12/20):

www.cambridgema.gov

PB386

special permit application
www.cambridgema.gov www.cambridgema.gov

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Also, the materials descriptions (pages 33 - 35 in the graphics file here) are worth looking at.
 
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I'm genuinely curious how much of the old trolley shed is actually embedded in the present-day structure, versus how much of it would need to be recreated. If there's much of the latter, it makes these design choices even more confusing.
 
bigpicture7 said:
I'm genuinely curious how much of the old trolley shed is actually embedded in the present-day structure, versus how much of it would need to be recreated. If there's much of the latter, it makes these design choices even more confusing.
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There isn't much to the existing trolley shed. The sloped roof on the render is all added on, and the "trolley shed
will be extended. Here's the existing structure:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.372...DRVdjee9Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&authuser=0
 
Charlie_mta said:
There isn't much to the existing trolley shed. The sloped roof on the render is all added on, and the "trolley shed
will be extended. Here's the existing structure:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.372...DRVdjee9Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&authuser=0
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Interesting that the old sidewalls appear to be more or less intact on both the Mt. Auburn St. and Dunster St. sides. But to your point, the sloped roof and gable end is completely gone. I'd be concerned the new brickwork could look quite fake against the old unless careful effort is made to source patina'd old brick, etc.
 
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