Union Square Somerville Infill and Small Developments

The photo is not CLT. It’s just a few pieces of dimensional lumber.

I thought so at first too, but it can't quite be that. There are no nail holes holding the pieces together (suggesting it's instead glued); there is a QC stamp that spans multiple vertical pieces; at minimum, the lumber is a different grade than the rest because there are knots on all other studs, but not the pieces of this post. This post is engineered. Maybe not as exotic as CLT, but it's not just a bunch of low-grade 2x6's nail-gunned either.

My main point was just that there are different grades of wood framing and engineered wood products.
 
Is this Union Sq? I think before the T I would have said no. But now it is right?

Either way, good news - finally a tenant! A bakery going in. That being said, can I rail on the building for a bit?? Marketing a luxury condos…what a disaster of detailing and materials. Not to mention the ground floor height that is about 6ft too short? And the overall bldg height?? So many things this building got wrong. Hopefully the bakery makes up for it!

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Those permits were posted before the pandemic. Not holding my breath on it opening any time soon.

Oh man! I was so excited to see the permit, I didn’t even look at the date. That being said, I believe the papering over the windows is less than a year old. And the retail entry door was propped opened…as in workers going in and out…so maybe there’s some new momentum building up?
 
Tell me more about this building (I'm sure I've taken note of it before, but have forgotten its story)

~100 year old gas station that the developer wanted to remove:


And the historic preservation commission decided should be preserved:

 
Nice. From the founding era of Citco when it was called Cities Service Co.
[additional question] Did they tie it into the building at the back? Similar to the Rosebud Diner in Davis (which is a portal to a much larger restaurant), this seems like a *great* portal to a larger space or at least a funky-awesome space for a carryout-mostly restaurant with prep in the modern space behind it.

To my eyes, this is *exactly* the kind of rare glimpses into the past that preservation laws are designed to preserve. Well done, Somerville.
 
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