Tufts Development Projects

Tufts may, but the property manager I spoke to (he was taking a progress photo of the LED parking lot lights that ring the cleared dirt triangle) said "Tufts may have talked to the MBTA but I know I didn't" his scoffing tone and general attitude was that I was crazy for even thinking that anyone would factor a 10+ year horizon hypothetical into a "short money" plan. If there was a GLX consciousness in the Tufts Endowment/Admin-Cummings organization, it didn't reach the front line guys.

They have laid the rebar in a deep, bollard protected pad that looks like it'd take a big cryo-tank or HVAC unit connected by utility trench to the white building. (I forget if that is 200 or 196 Boston Ave)
 
Science and Engineering Complex:

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Central Energy Plant:

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Construction of the "Joyce Cummings Center" at the new Tufts GLX stop has begun, and updated renders are out:

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It's been VE'd to the max and there's no more footbridge across Boston Ave up to the hill.
 
I don't even know if you can call that VE-ing. What a step down from the original.
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stefal said:
I don't even know if you can call that VE-ing. What a step down from the original.
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Yeah, I also heard that “the community” objected to the original bold design, and the GLX design changes messed things up things too. What we’re getting is probably the result of a combination of NIMBY pushback, T complications, and major cost cutting.
 
JumboBuc said:
Yeah, I also heard that “the community” objected to the original bold design, and the GLX design changes messed things up things too. What we’re getting is probably the result of a combination of NIMBY pushback, T complications, and major cost cutting.
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I'm disappointed they aren't going over the tracks, but I'm not sure the original design was notably bolder. Fundamentally, it was just your typical institutional box with some sort of processed facade on three sides and a curtain wall on one. The new design is actually more attractive.

What made the original bold was the form factor with the pedestrian bridge and decking over the tracks. GLX removing the enclosed stations killed that idea (though Tufts could have chosen to fund one for themselves and chose not to, to the detriment of their own people). The building itself is nice enough.
 
I think both the building and the GLX are better off for having decoupled construction of the building and construction of the station.
 
There's a lot of retaining and noise wall work for the GLX @ Tufts, but in their midst, what appears to be the concrete foundation of the new Tufts building had already been poured (and stands a story tall) immediately north of the College Ave station site.
 
Arlington said:
I think both the building and the GLX are better off for having decoupled construction of the building and construction of the station.
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Agreed. Also if you ignore the old proposal, and just focus on the new one for what it is, I think it looks good. I bet if only the new proposal had come out, and no one had ever saw the old one, people would be universally in favor of this design.
 
The building dominates The view as you come up Boston Ave from Mystic Valley Parkway--the way that the moon looks huge framed by trees on the horizon-- but I couldn't get a picture that captured it.

Here, instead, are views which show a structure that looks to me to have been topped out.

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Arlington said:
The building dominates The view as you come up Boston Ave from Mystic Valley Parkway--the way that the moon looks huge framed by trees on the horizon-- but I couldn't get a picture that captured it.

Here, instead, are views which show a structure that looks to me to have been topped out.

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Are there any plans for this northern stretch of Boston Ave from Nick's Pizza to College Ave, other than the station itself and its emergency access ramps? There used to at least be trees in the space between the road and tracks (even though they always filled up with trash), but now they've all been clear cut for the GLX.

Decking over the tracks here with small-scale brownstone/row house development would be fantastic, but if it was ever going to happen the time to put in footings would have been when the new retaining walls / sound barriers for the GLX were put up. That didn't happen, as far as I know. Maybe the next best alternative would be to widen the sidewalk back towards the tracks as much as possible and create something of a plaza with public art? I'm afraid this stretch will just remain an awkward ugly trench for decades to come.
 
I think the GLX tracks are coming surprisingly close to the existing Boston Ave (as counterpart to the surprisingly-generous space being left between the neighborhood-side and the CR tracks). I think the dirt-space you'd have wanted for putting things along Boston Ave is being left (created) on the opposite side of the CR/GL right of way.

They've left themselves surprisingly-little space for street stuff in the stretch between College Ave and the Tufts Garage.

For example, they're going to have very pinched street-level amenities despite it being natural bus-connection, bike-parking, and kiss-and-ride point for as long as it remains the "Phase 1" Terminus (until the Phase 2 terminus gets built @ MVP where they do have a lot more space to play with for things like a lockable bike shelter and more than 1 bus stopped at at time.

Tufts was right, I think, to invest more on the College Ave (Alumni Fields) face of the station, including adding substantial width to College Ave's bridge over the tracks.
(the wedge-shaped pedestrianway on the "outbound" side of the big water pipe that can't be moved)
 

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The new Tufts Building has the kind of slot in the skyline of "moon rising between trees" (where the moon is no bigger but looks psychologically like it dominates the skyine.

It looms (but a photo doesn't capture it) on the horizon from the West Medford Train Station (a long, straight shot of about 2 miles) or viewed up Boston Ave from MVP (a straight shot of about 1.5 miles)
 
For the record:
1) The view from Tufts' hilltop is a really great view / fresh perspective on Boston
2) The Central Energy Plant has been done for a long time and worth a drive-by
3) The new Cummings building seems to be topped out (not sure if construction continues; it is on the Medford side of the hill)
 
Wow, very creative use of the Beatles! They must be a true fan. (pg15)
 
Cummings Center update: you can see all 3 layers of future cladding structural, weather, and what I'd call "panelized roman brick"
(phone failed to retain photos I took :-(
I'd say they've done a good job of timing the building's future completion to the GLX's future opening.
 
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