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

So it’s being reshaped for labs by dropping square footage, but increasing the height?
 
I’ll only be excited about this if they will keep the Audio Lab! Best hi-fi dealer, he’s been there since the 70s I think.
 
Charlie_mta said:
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.
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My guess is you are referring to Solvang, California. Ersatz, kitsch--insert whichever negative German term you wish to connote its garish artificiality. As the Wiki page notes, its Danish-themed architecture, although inspired by the town's genuine ethnocultural roots, is totally inauthentic:

"it has been pointed out by Scandinavians that fake thatched roofs and artificial timbering are largely a result of local interests in general rather than those of the Danish immigrants themselves. The older buildings have simply been restyled to look Danish even if there was nothing Danish about them originally."

This perspective here gives you a sense of how cringe-inducing it all is.

Notably, as horribly try-hard as Solvang's fakeness is, the town is just 55 miles or so away from the awesomely tacky, as in, the Best of Roadside Americana Bad, the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.

Everything that the Madonna Inn gets so very right, in terms of a glorious monument to bad taste, its sheer unbridled excess and exuberance, Solvang gets so very very wrong. Not sure what it all means for Harvard Square, but... you did bring it up*

*(admittedly, some months ago)
 
Charlie_mta said:
I remember a communist bookstore upstairs in the Garage some years ago that was interesting (not that I'm a communist; far from it).
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That was Revolution Books, and it was based at 1158 Mass. Ave until it closed in 2016. As cliched and (presumably) fundamentally harmless as the place was, it's important to remember that it served as an undisguised propaganda front for Mao-worshipper Bob Avakian, who, mercifully, stayed a very marginal and ultimately irrelevant figure in American politics during his prime, given that... you know, worship of a brutal genocidal totalitarian.

Take it away, Terrence Mann...
 
DBM said:
My guess is you are referring to Solvang, California. Ersatz, kitsch--insert whichever negative German term you wish to connote its garish artificiality. As the Wiki page notes, its Danish-themed architecture, although inspired by the town's genuine ethnocultural roots, is totally inauthentic:

"it has been pointed out by Scandinavians that fake thatched roofs and artificial timbering are largely a result of local interests in general rather than those of the Danish immigrants themselves. The older buildings have simply been restyled to look Danish even if there was nothing Danish about them originally."

This perspective here gives you a sense of how cringe-inducing it all is.
Click to expand...

That town reminds me of Leavenworth, WA.
 
DBM said:
My guess is you are referring to Solvang, California. Ersatz, kitsch--insert whichever negative German term you wish to connote its garish artificiality. As the Wiki page notes, its Danish-themed architecture, although inspired by the town's genuine ethnocultural roots, is totally inauthentic:

"it has been pointed out by Scandinavians that fake thatched roofs and artificial timbering are largely a result of local interests in general rather than those of the Danish immigrants themselves. The older buildings have simply been restyled to look Danish even if there was nothing Danish about them originally."

This perspective here gives you a sense of how cringe-inducing it all is.

Notably, as horribly try-hard as Solvang's fakeness is, the town is just 55 miles or so away from the awesomely tacky, as in, the Best of Roadside Americana Bad, the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.

Everything that the Madonna Inn gets so very right, in terms of a glorious monument to bad taste, its sheer unbridled excess and exuberance, Solvang gets so very very wrong. Not sure what it all means for Harvard Square, but... you did bring it up*

*(admittedly, some months ago)
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My point I was trying to make about Harvard Square, and the Garage development in particular, is that putting up new buildings to look like what people of today think the past looked like, is disingenuous and phony. "Disneyesque" is a term that I think describes it well. The "trolley car barn" part of the new Garage development is what I find most offensive in this regard.
 
Charlie_mta said:
My point I was trying to make about Harvard Square, and the Garage development in particular, is that putting up new buildings to look like what people of today think the past looked like, is disingenuous and phony. "Disneyesque" is a term that I think describes it well. The "trolley car barn" part of the new Garage development is what I find most offensive in this regard.
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Really? We disagree then, since I think it's a cool feature and I don't think it looks fake.
 
Equilibria said:
Really? We disagree then, since I think it's a cool feature and I don't think it looks fake.
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Actually I agree with you that it does look kind of cool. But the cumulative effect of the general trend around Harvard Square to be architecturally cautious about disturbing the "old" look of the area is what bothers me. In decades past, some exciting modern buildings were put up, but in the last decade or so the trend seems to be towards making the area look like a museum of buildings with a 19th century look.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Actually I agree with you that it does look kind of cool. But the cumulative effect of the general trend around Harvard Square to be architecturally cautious about disturbing the "old" look of the area is what bothers me. In decades past, some exciting modern buildings were put up, but in the last decade or so the trend seems to be towards making the area look like a museum of buildings with a 19th century look.
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Ikshnay on the Whoopskay, Charlie! ;)
 
Not all is lost in Harvard Square. (Btw - is there a general Harvard Sq infill thread?)


A9641188-60B6-4C1F-8618-776C083F1FFF.png
 
Looks like this Garage project is, for the most part, being viewed favorably by city officials.

Community Development statement (endorsing proposed FARs):

and, Historical Commission cert. of appropriateness:

I guess I'm a little surprised, but then again, what was there violated the historical significance pretty badly too
 
bigpicture7 said:
Special permit granted for this project.
(the decision is dated early May, but pretty sure it just posted to the public site)

www.cambridgema.gov

PB386

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

For reference, here's the latest design along with addendum for the historic commission
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I know it’s a little pastiche, but I kind of like how they’re keeping the historic gable roof and arches. Seems like an important story to keep telling. Otherwise it’s just another mixed use lab building that could be anywhere

F30B2243-0CEB-44DF-AFBA-40204401F9F1.jpeg

5D56FBA8-FA0B-4B50-8C30-D2386EA50024.jpeg
 
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