Volpe Transportation Center Development | Kendall Sq | Cambridge

Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

It looks like indeed part of Kendall Square does fall in the 1000' zone:

BOS_COMPOSITE_Ver1pt0X_jan09.jpg
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Equilibria said:
You know, I don't hear much "never happening" talk in that CambridgeDay article. I think it would be supported with the right design (and enough affordable housing).

650' seems to be the sweet spot. 500' looks a bit stubby, while 1,000, as you say, looks absurd. The building makes an enormous impact from a lot of places even at 650, though. It would be visible all the way out the Turnpike the way the Hancock and Pru are now (and Four Seasons will be).
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That's very much how I read it too. They all seemed to be open to the idea that this could be Cambridge's Pru or Hancock, and particularly from a "seems like we might have one, and if we're ever going to have one, the Volpe site seems ideal to be the one we'd have"

No NIMBYs, good transit, and building a real nexus, and declaring that Cambridge can have a CBD just like Arlington VA does at Rosslyn (vs DC) and Jersey City (vs NYC) do.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Reading the article, 'height' and 'world class' are tied to more affordable housing.

The cite better get its ass in gear because this sort of project has been a priority of the Obama Administration, and if its not a done deal by the end of 2016, the next Administration may have a change of heart, like Baker has had with the state DOT building.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

stellarfun said:
The cite better get its ass in gear because this sort of project has been a priority of the Obama Administration, and if its not a done deal by the end of 2016, the next Administration may have a change of heart, like Baker has had with the state DOT building.
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I'm not so worried about that. Remember, it's the GSA pushing redevelopment, not the DOT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_United_States_government
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Could Kendall Square soon be home to the tallest building in New England?
Jun 19, 2015, 2:32pm EDT
Catherine Carlock
Boston Business Journal

The Cambridge City Council’s ordinance committee and the Cambridge planning board will jointly meet later this month to discuss rezoning the John A. Volpe Transportation Center site in the heart of Kendall Square — and the discussions will include an idea to build what could be the tallest structure in New England.

---
Tops among the proposed changes to the Volpe site is a proposal to build a towering skyscraper. The planning board has discussed a 500-foot tower, while limiting other development at the site to 350 feet. But Cambridge City Councillor Leland Cheung has proposed rezoning to allow for a 1,000-foot tower. Comparatively, the 60-story John Hancock Tower — currently the tallest building in New England — tops out at just under 800 feet.

“We’re in a very real sense talking about making plans for what will happen,” Cheung said. "If we're going to build something, let's build something taller than the John Hancock."
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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...ndall-square-soon-be-home-to-the-tallest.html
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

From the rest of the article

The U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation last year put out a request for ideas [sic] about the site’s redevelopment from the real estate community. It’s likely that the partnership [sic] will submit [sic] a request for qualifications — the next step in the development process — by this summer in order to have a list of qualified developers by fall, said Iram Farooq, Cambridge’s acting assistant city manager for community development.

That would be followed by a request for proposals for the site by spring of next year, with the GSA likely choosing the winning development proposal before the federal Congressional administration [sic] change at the end of 2016, Farooq said.
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It's not a "partnership".
It's not submitting anything.
Request for information (there were several score responses).
Congress doesn't administer anything.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

A thousand feet over there is going to look so out of place, but nothing Cambridge does ever makes sense to me.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

This location can't be much farther from the main cluster of skyscrapers than the Hancock is. It would look a little out of place though for one building shooting 1,000 ft up there. Is there enough space there to build two or three towers with varying heights?
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

I totally support a 1000 foot building here. Kendall Square and North Point are both allowed that height by the FAA, so why not utilize it? For a time, the building might look lonesome but eventually more buildings will rise to match them as the area develops in the future.

At some point the Prudential and the John Hancock looked like odd ducks but right now there are plenty of buildings coming up that provide them with company.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

hockey92 said:
This location can't be much farther from the main cluster of skyscrapers than the Hancock is. It would look a little out of place though for one building shooting 1,000 ft up there. Is there enough space there to build two or three towers with varying heights?
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The site is 14 acres, the Federal government says that it needs four acres, either on the site, or nearby (proximate to MIT).

Cambridge wants to set aside 2.5 acres as open space.

That leaves 7.5 acres on which to build.

123014i-Volpe-parcel.jpg


^^^^ Binney at the top, Broadway at the bottom.

There are potential bidders/developers that have zero interest in a 1,000 foot tower. And nobody, after spending $200-250 million for a new Volpe building, is building a 1,000 foor tower on spec.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Yea right...they think the old courthouse is too tall but volpe going 1,000ft...ludicrous
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

617 said:
Yea right...they think the old courthouse is too tall but volpe going 1,000ft...ludicrous
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The people fighting the old courthouse seem to be deriding it for its height not simply because it's 'tall', but because it's right in their backyards. This site is at least 200m/2.5 blocks up 3rd St away from where the homes start in that neighbourhood and is right in the heart of Kendall Square.

If there's any reasonable discourse (reasonable amidst small-scale-urbanism Cantabrigians), it'll be easier to argue for height here than at the old courthouse site.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

The following is excerpted from the RFP for the exchange of FBI Headquarters (building and land) in downtown DC for a new HQ out in 'burbs. One can note how GSA limited who, prospectively, could submit bids. While the FBI HQ is a significantly bigger building than Volpe, the gross sq of the potential buildings that could be built on the Volpe site is greater than the size of the FBI building.

Nothing precludes an offeror for Volpe from offering the government money above what it costs the offeror to build a new Volpe and demolish the old site. And its likely that the government is not going to accept a 10 year buildout of the site. The practical financial realities are that no offeror is going to spend $250-300 million to then sit on 7.5 acres of land in Kendall for a dozen years, unless it is a university.

Given the site, the likelihood is that the new DOT building will be built along Binney, on the northwest part of the site. Once DOT moves, then the existing building(s) gets torn down, and the rest of the development proceeds.

This Phase I Request for Proposals (“RFP”) consists of five sections:
Section A: Overview
Section B: Offer Evaluation and Selection Procedures
Section C: Submission Requirements
Section D: Consolidated Headquarters Program Components
Section E: General Provisions, Statement of Limitations

In Phase II, award will consider price and other factors. Offerors must have an understanding of the selection criteria and process that will be used in Phase II in order to decide if they want to participate in this procurement. For that reason, the selection criteria and process for Phase II are set forth here in some detail.

Phase II Offerors will be provided with the following information:
1. Copies of assignable option agreements (including the option price for each site)
2. Model exchange agreement
3. Required mitigation for each site, consistent with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“DEIS”)
4. Completed due diligence on JEH (environmental, demolition cost estimates, etc.) and all shortlisted sites
5. Performance-based specifications for the consolidated FBI headquarters base building and related facilities, including security/blast, structure, and MEP requirements
6. FBI program of requirements

In Phase II, Offerors will submit detailed cost proposals for the consolidated FBI headquarters on one or more of the short-listed sites. For each site proposed, Phase II offers will include:
> Design approach
> Comprehensive project cost budget (including the value assigned to JEH)
> Description of the blast/security approach
> Delivery and risk management approach

Phase II offers will be reviewed for cost realism to confirm the following:
> The offeror can develop, design, construct, and deliver the proposed project for the proposed budget
> The proposed project comprehensively satisfies the performance specifications and the program of requirements
........................................

The Developer shall be the Offeror and will be contractually obligated for this Project. The Developer must have completed a minimum of three office projects of at least 500,000 gross square feet each in the past five years. The project team utilized by the Developer must, at a minimum, include a Principal-in-Charge and a Senior Project Manager, both of whom shall have actively and personally managed at least three significant projects (of at least 500,000 square feet each, all of which have been completed). These projects may be different from the corporate experience provided by the Developer.

Each Offeror must include, as a component of its project team, a local or national architectural/engineering firm (an "A/E Firm") which will be contractually responsible for the Project design and for production of construction contract documents. The A/E Firm can be a partnership, corporation, association, joint venture or other United States legal entity organized to practice architecture. The A/E Firm must be authorized as a business to practice architecture in all jurisdictions in which the Offeror is contemplating offering on a site and will be contractually obligated to the Developer regarding the performance of this Project. The A/E Firm must have completed a minimum of three office projects of at least 500,000 gross square feet each within the past ten years.

Each Offeror must include, as a component of its project team, a local or national general contractor or construction manager (a "Construction Firm") which will be contractually responsible for the construction of the Project. The General Contractor / Construction Manager must have completed three large office projects in the past five years. Of the three projects, one must be of at least 1,000,000 gross square feet, and two other must each be at least 500,000 gross square feet. If a joint venture is proposed, then the proposed managing member must be identified, and each firm in the joint venture must meet the minimum experience requirements. The Construction Firm (single firm or joint venture) must possess the ability to provide payment and performance bonding to the Government in excess of $1 billion for a single project.
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Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Here is the most recent proposed zoning, which will be coming up for discussion before the City Council and Planning Board next week:

http://www2.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/Volpe zngamend_pudks_petition.pdf

And what it proposes:

30gPlsj.jpg


That rendering of 650 ft looks really good to me. The corner of Broadway and Third St is the perfect place for this tower.

Keep in mind that Cambridge seems generally to be planning for the daylighting of the Broad Canal as part of its open space plan for Kendall Square, so that will also play a factor in the ultimate site design.

The office park planning of the site sucks, but I happen to like the architecture of the Volpe tower itself and think it would look especially impressive from a kayak on the any future-daylighted sections of the canal (especially if they replaced the gold Volpe seal with something really cool), so I hope it isn't demolished. Cambridge has plenty of poorly conceived '60s-era concrete buildings that I would love to tear down, but I think this one's actually pretty good.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

500' is more than enough. Even with that the transit in the area is going to be strained. The Back Bay is perfect for high rise development because so many trains run through. Kendall just has the one Red Line station and that is probably already pretty packed these days.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Not to be overlooked is that government is calling for an unspecified number of parking spaces, sufficient for 1,300 employees. The present number of spaces is a little under 600, for, IIRC, about 1,100 employees. Parking is not included in the proposed square footage of the replacement building.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

GDX163 said:
That rendering of 650 ft looks really good to me. The corner of Broadway and Third St is the perfect place for this tower.

Keep in mind that Cambridge seems generally to be planning for the daylighting of the Broad Canal as part of its open space plan for Kendall Square, so that will also play a factor in the ultimate site design.
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I'd be pretty surprised if that happened. It's a great idea, but this is some of the most valuable land in the country. You don't flood it when you can monetize it.

vanshnookenraggen said:
500' is more than enough. Even with that the transit in the area is going to be strained. The Back Bay is perfect for high rise development because so many trains run through. Kendall just has the one Red Line station and that is probably already pretty packed these days.
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How many trains, exactly? There's really only two lines serving Back Bay. Granted that's twice as many as Kendall has, but it's not Millennium Tower. In any case, cities with no transit at all are building 700' towers.

500' is better than the status quo, and I'm glad they're thinking in that way. I'd prefer 700'.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

the B, C, D, and E serve back bay and while they run mostly together the E does split off and they are used by different groups of people so the load is spread some. as well as the orange line. Another thing to keep in mind is the green line headway in that section is about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Which is less than half that of the red line.

However I absolutely do not think this means that a 1000 foot tower is no feasible.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

I also meant CR and Amtrak. That has more sway with the suburban commuters who work in the Back Bay then subway riders. Kendall has the GJ which could be upgraded and a development of this size might make it economically feasible.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

It's crazy how disconnected the current facility feels from the rest of the really dense and growing neighborhood, glad to see they're taking advantage of the space. Also, my mom works right next door and a surprising chunk of the students and employees get there by walking from Lechmere, so GLX might help bear some of that load as well.
 
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