Union Square D6 | Somerville

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Community meeting took place yesterday 9/28. Developer is proposing to combine the D6.1 and D6.2 parcels into a 4 story lab building with ground floor retail.
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More info in this twitter thread.
 
mdd said:
Union Square is really conflicting. There are so many varied scales adjacent to each other, it doesn't know what it wants to be.
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It's kind of meant to be the opposite of that, given that it has a single master developer and single zoning concept.

EDIT (from the twitter tread): This isn't US2, it's an interloper that assembled these parcels and doesn't want to work with them. My sense is that these owners don't have any idea what they're doing, nor any right to build this instead of US2.

Also, I'd tell them to come back with something that at least tries not to be a landscraper. This is pretty much the most important parcel in the whole project to define urban feel, and this looks like something you'd build on Binney Street.

I bet they're doing this to goose the sale price of the parcels to US2 when the time comes.
 
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This doesn't change too much, given that the current rendering makes D6.1 and D6.2 look like one single building anyway:

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Also, proposing 112 parking spaces literally across the street from a brand new T stop, a 271 space garage at 50 Prospect, and a 332 space garage for 10 Prospect is maddening.
 
Losing Ricky's Flower Market will be rough. I know it's an old gas station and rickety old brick building, but it's quirky. I'm a fan of adding density in Union Square, it needs it, and so many of the old crappy one story spaces on Somerville Ave need to be replaced, but I wish the new buildings were a bit more articulated and a few big boxes plopped down. Can't have it both ways I guess.
 
mdd said:
Losing Ricky's Flower Market will be rough. I know it's an old gas station and rickety old brick building, but it's quirky. I'm a fan of adding density in Union Square, it needs it, and so many of the old crappy one story spaces on Somerville Ave need to be replaced, but I wish the new buildings were a bit more articulated and a few big boxes plopped down. Can't have it both ways I guess.
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At one point I remember reading something about five Union Square businesses having been identified as landmarks and whose relocation within or near the redeveloped square would be facilitated by the developers. I know Ricky's was one of those businesses. Has that initiative been scrapped?
 
I really hope they break up the facade of that building along Somerville Ave. I know it might be a bit fake or Disneyfied, but a long low building running the length of the block will take a whole lot of character out of the square.
and putting 122 underground parking spaces in is just daft.
Also, moving Rickies as some sort of initiative is just daft. It's not what he sells that makes it unique, it's where he is.
I ate in El Poitro last night, was looking out the window wondering what would become of that block and hope it wouldn't be some massive sterile curtain wall of glass and grey paneling.
 
I don't think there's a garage at 9 Union Square. The building with Mandarin, Elegant Nails & Spa, and Buk Kyung has the addresses 7-9 Union Square. The rear is an auto body shop, which I guess could be a "garage"...

Given that they haven't even made a proposal on their project, demolition would be a bold move.
 
Equilibria said:
If I'm Ebi Sushi, I'm looking at spaces at 10-50 Prospect.
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That'd work, too. So long as they stay in the square and aren't closed for too long during whatever transition. Was curious if there was any mention of this development on their FB page or (less likely) site, but nothing (yet).
 
Some restaurant blog had a comment that they may move into the lab building ground floor when it is done so that they can remain in the square. Seems kind of wild since they just redid the interior of the restaurant.
 
as02143 said:
Some restaurant blog had a comment that they may move into the lab building ground floor when it is done so that they can remain in the square. Seems kind of wild since they just redid the interior of the restaurant.
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Given the planned demolition of the building, they'd have had to know that was short-term.
 
Equilibria said:
Given the planned demolition of the building, they'd have had to know that was short-term.
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Yea, not sure if there was any major structural change, just decorative. Furniture and fixtures.
I actually think they've done very well from all the construction activity in the square. Moving across prospect would be a great solution.
I think CHA might be opening an office there too seeing as they closed their Inman place.
 
This parcel extends all the way to Prospect, right? What's the timeline here for full demo? Really interested to know how long the main thoroughfares here are going to see closed sidewalks and construction, currently walking/biking down Prospect is kind of a mess with the 10 Prospect project in the works closing down the sidewalk
 
grand_junction said:
This parcel extends all the way to Prospect, right? What's the timeline here for full demo? Really interested to know how long the main thoroughfares here are going to see closed sidewalks and construction, currently walking/biking down Prospect is kind of a mess with the 10 Prospect project in the works closing down the sidewalk
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The answer to your question is: basically forever.
 
I just wish they'd be a bit more adventurous, how about a series of smaller buildings, maybe 4/5 story townhouses and offices with retail below, with a pedestrian path weaving through them from the corner of washington and Webster to the CrossFit and the new crosswalk on prospect to the T station.
If they broke it up in to manageable chunks they could build it in phases without years of mass dereliction/demolition/construction keeping the square as a building site and then the end result being a boring 4 story facade as far as the eye can see with bank of america as anchor ground floor tenants.
This is so uninspiring.

sorry, in a bad mood today!
 
Ruairi said:
I just wish they'd be a bit more adventurous, how about a series of smaller buildings, maybe 4/5 story townhouses and offices with retail below, with a pedestrian path weaving through them from the corner of washington and Webster to the CrossFit and the new crosswalk on prospect to the T station.
If they broke it up in to manageable chunks they could build it in phases without years of mass dereliction/demolition/construction keeping the square as a building site and then the end result being a boring 4 story facade as far as the eye can see with bank of america as anchor ground floor tenants.
This is so uninspiring.

sorry, in a bad mood today!
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No need to apologize - you're right!
 
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