Kendall Common ( née Volpe Redevelopment) | Kendall Sq | Cambridge

Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

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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GLX, also http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/theurbanring/.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

BussesAin'tTrains said:
GLX doesn't help Red's crush loads at Kendall unless it's brought from Union to Porter. The Urban Ring is dormant. If Boston-metro is choking on its own success, then Kendall Square is getting crushed.
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We are talking 15 years out for full Volpe redevelopment and the Urban Ring won't stay dormant much longer since it is relatively inexpensive as a BRT project done in segments. Basically just need to pave next to the existing tracks on the Grand Junction and MIT and Kendall businesses would probably help pay for some stations. The Grand Junction segment could happen sooner than GLX and much less expensively with the right pull. Grand Junction would essentially tie together Red (with a short walk), Green and Orange lines and possibly a new West Station.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

I actually see grand junction as light rail as more likely especially with the GLX moving along. And it would be higher capacity by a lot. I doubt after watching the silverline debacle that Cambridge would be very supportive of Grand Junction BRT.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Moved GJ;UR discussion here.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

cbrett said:
... 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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EZ Ride also offers connections to Leechmere and North Station. Many Kendall Sq businesses subsidize the fare for employees. With GLX I would expect to see this service grow substantially. I'm not at all sure why EZ Ride exists. Normal MBTA bus service should be filling this demand.

http://www.charlesrivertma.org/charles-river-tma-ez-ride-rout/
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

fattony said:
EZ Ride also offers connections to Leechmere and North Station. Many Kendall Sq businesses subsidize the fare for employees. With GLX I would expect to see this service grow substantially. I'm not at all sure why EZ Ride exists. Normal MBTA bus service should be filling this demand.

http://www.charlesrivertma.org/charles-river-tma-ez-ride-rout/
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EZ Ride really exists for North Station (rather than Lechmere). It give single seat ride from North Station to the broad Kendall area for north of Boston commuter rail passengers. MBTA bus connections out of Lechmere are much less convenient for these passengers. (Adding the Green Line connetion adds a lot of time).
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Nothing to see here folks. This is just the same information being regurgitated over and over about how a single city councilor wants a 1000 FT icon.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

meddlepal said:
Nothing to see here folks. This is just the same information being regurgitated over and over about how a single city councilor wants a 1000 FT icon.
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850 then.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

I'm doubtful about this purported transit capacity apocalypse in Kendall Square. With full build of the developments at Lechmere and additional housing by MIT and other property owners at Kendall proper, you'll inevitably get people who move closer or within walking distance of work either in the square or in neighbourhoods adjacent (Charles Circle, MIT, etc). This is the point of mixed use/zoning, right?
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

DigitalSciGuy said:
I'm doubtful about this purported transit capacity apocalypse in Kendall Square. With full build of the developments at Lechmere and additional housing by MIT and other property owners at Kendall proper, you'll inevitably get people who move closer or within walking distance of work either in the square or in neighbourhoods adjacent (Charles Circle, MIT, etc). This is the point of mixed use/zoning, right?
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Yeah but unless Cambridge upzones the shit out of Kendall not everyone can or even will chose to live there. Also with demand so high if there is a dearth of new apartments built around Kendall they are going to be of the luxury kind and out of reach for many of the lower level-lower paid workers. I was just saying based on people wanting a 1000' tower and denser development that Kendall will hit a critical mass at some point. If the planners are smart they will limit the density just enough so this won't happen for a while. Though with how hot Kendall Sq is who knows what will happen.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

The 1.5 million sq ft of commercial space proposed for the site. is more likely to be used for lab space than office space. The square foot per employee for lab space is about twice that for an office space employee. Assuming 200 sq ft per employee for office space, well, you can do the math for how many additional employees there would be with 1.5 million square feet of office space.

For a developer, rents per square foot in East Cambridge for office space and lab space are about the same. Or so GSA says.

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/mediaId/198107/fileName/Industry_Day_Slide_Presentation.action

Finally, I would not discount the possibility of MIT being involved in the development of this property in some manner.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

stellarfun said:
The 1.5 million sq ft of commercial space proposed for the site. is more likely to be used for lab space than office space. The square foot per employee for lab space is about twice that for an office space employee. Assuming 200 sq ft per employee for office space, well, you can do the math for how many additional employees there would be with 1.5 million square feet of office space.

For a developer, rents per square foot in East Cambridge for office space and lab space are about the same. Or so GSA says.

http://www.gsa.gov/portal/mediaId/198107/fileName/Industry_Day_Slide_Presentation.action

Finally, I would not discount the possibility of MIT being involved in the development of this property in some manner.
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If the City of Cambridge wants a 500' or 850' or 1000' tower, they can zone for that and exert pressure on GSA to select a bid that has a compatible use. If lab space doesn't work well in buildings over 200', I don't think it has to be lab space. Remember that Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. all have Kendall offices - there's plenty of demand for office space, as illustrated by the rents.

I think MIT has plenty on its plate development-wise right now. They ended up with their Kendall land before it was expensive as they tried to develop the square. I'm doubtful that they'd want to start another billion-dollar project right before KSI kicks into gear.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Are tall buildings really about square footage?
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

tangent said:
Are tall buildings really about square footage?
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The proposed zoning would be for nearly three million square feet of commercial, residential, and retail (that does not include 400,000 square feet for new Volpe building, and does not include parking for Volpe employees.) The available land area for the nerarly three million square feet of non-Volpe space is about 330,000 sq ft.

Very crudely, if one assumes a 1000' office tower with 75 floors, and a 20,000 sq ft footprint, that's 1.5 million square feet. And which is why its most unlikely there'll be a 1,000 foot tower, or even two 500' office towers with a combined footprint of 40,000 sq ft.
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Pretending to be a developer.

Four commercial/lab buildings (13 feet vertical between floors)
25 floors at 20,000 sq ft floorplate 500,000 gsf
15 floors at 30,000 sq ft 450,000 gsf
8 floors at 40,000 sq ft 320,000 gsf
6 floors at 40,000 sq ft 240,000 gsf

130,000 sq ft of available ground space used for 1.5 million of zoned commercial GSF.

Three residential buildings (11 feet vertical between floors)
30 floors at 20,000 sq ft 600,000 gsf
20 floors at 20,000 sq ft 400,000 gsf
15 floors at 20,000 sq ft 300,000 gsf

60,000 sq ft of available ground space used for 1.3 million of zoned residential GSF

Which leaves 140,000 sq ft of ground space for the 128,000 GSF of zoned retail.
 
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Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

Globe article on the zoning meeting today.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...-skyscraper/VIf2WH9kgy6Ktf4pCimcJJ/story.html

A 1,000 tower seems to fading, not that it was ever much more than a pipedream. To get to even 500 feet, that might come if even more open space was provided. Reading between the lines, it looks more like 300 to 400 feet would be allowed.

Don't know what GSA would think of Alan Fein, Executive Director of the Kendall Square Association, calling Volpe a 'blighted area'.
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

stellarfun said:
Don't know what GSA would think of Alan Fein, Executive Director of the Kendall Square Association, calling Volpe a 'blighted area'.
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Is Kendall Square still under Urban Renewal authority from the Comonwealth? "Blighted Area" are the trigger words for exercising urban renewal powers (overriding most zoning...)
 
Re: Volpe Transportation Center Development Cambridge

JeffDowntown said:
Is Kendall Square still under Urban Renewal authority from the Comonwealth? "Blighted Area" are the trigger words for exercising urban renewal powers (overriding most zoning...)
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I was under the impression that because the Volpe is federal land they aren't subject to zoning anyway, and that the GSA is complying with Cambridge's zoning as a courtesy, not because they are legally required to.
 
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