West Cambridge / Alewife Area Infill & Small Developments

Ron Newman said:
what about the option I suggested earlier, of narrowing all the lanes just enough to make room for adding one more (equally narrow) lane?
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That doesn't work when the building pinches the merge from Lake St. and pinches the rest of the turnout to Alewife. Any which way it forces a slowdown right in front of this building and additional sudden weaving adding one more cascading delay to the rotary. With that turnout seeing its most use during peak commute hours. The whole reason they re-striped this stretch in the early-00's to be an Alewife exit-only is that the last time there was a wide breakdown lane for turnouts it worked exceedingly poorly. Things got a lot better after that and the worst of the A.M. backups stopped stretching well beyond Lake St.

With loads exploding a whole order of magnitude since then with the exploding development around Alewife, reverting it back would easily push the daily traffic jams back to Route 60. Which in turn is going to lock Belmont Ctr. and Brighton St. even worse than today from all the people bailing early for a shortcut. It can't be understated how many problems erecting this thing so damn close to the highway both creates and prevents any resolution to.
 
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pixelsand8 said:
Behold the Atmark in it's full landscraper glory;
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Oppressive. Doubt there's anything other than residential along the entire street level. About as dull a lowest common denominator design as you can get.
 
That entire area is surface parking, at least the new use warehouses people in addition to cars.
Is there any observable progress on the Cambridgepark drive complexes?
 
Brad Plaid said:
Oppressive. Doubt there's anything other than residential along the entire street level. About as dull a lowest common denominator design as you can get.
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You know what other streets are all residential? Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue. Not that this development isn't problematic, but the fact that it's residential is not the issue. I'm sure the street could use a corner store here and there but it's the monotony of the architecture that is the real crime in this instance. There is nothing to engage the pedestrian. I haven't walked down this street yet but when I do I'm sure it will be a boring, dreary experience.
 
This thing is an anthill.

cca
 
At least something is happening with this horridly ugly building. I think that's good...

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Building on top of those parking lots would help more than this facelift. I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet considering all the development in the area.
 
davem said:
Building on top of those parking lots would help more than this facelift. I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet considering all the development in the area.
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It has something to do with the owners of the site. They don't care to improve it - they seem pretty happy to just sit and rake in leasing out to the likes of Whole Foods and I guess do minor face lifts like this. If anything significant happens here it might have to be via eminent domain (which seems to be all the rage in Somerville these days...).
 
The parking lots make sense here. This is, let's recall, a strip mall. Alewife station is far from here, and separated by unpleasant roads to cross. There is a limited population living within walking distance, with most of the shoppers driving in from elsewhere in Cambridge, Arlington, Watertown, Belmont and Medford. And while it's hip to say in a teenaged-Jacobin way "damn the suburbs," I can't imagine what sort of eminent domain abuses would need to be seize an always-full, needed parking lot in front of a strip mall.

Would abuse of the government's power to seize an individual's property make for a better urban area? If they turned it into a new-urban neighborhood, yes. If they replicated the Seaport or NorthPoint here (much more likely) ... I guess? But let's be realistic; filling a few construction-fan wet dreams is no justification for eminent domain.
 
The eminent domain thing was mostly a joke but that lot is not always full. The Whole Foods side is yes but the closer you get to the movie theater the more it thins out, to the point where it's almost completely empty - cars are always zipping across it diagonally to get to Terminal Road from New Street. Seems like this would be a good spot to build. Also, nobody is suggesting eliminating parking spots for this area, but just be more efficient in how the land is used - a parking garage in front of Whole Foods would make a lot of sense. Sure the area is a strip mall and it has uses but that doesn't mean it can't be improved while retaining those uses.
 
The only difference between a strip mall and the single story "taxpayers" around our legacy neighborhoods are whether there is a parking lot in front or a street. This is a three story building, with all the established retail it could be a decent streetwall.

If the lots were developed you would obviously need a decent sized parking garage. You can have parking without taking up acres of space and making the whole area feel gross.

You don't need to use eminent domain either. The tax structure could be amended to tax surface parking at a higher rate than any other use. You'd see a lot of lots going vertical if that happened.
 
A few shots from this evening. Hanover Cambridgepark is a monster.





 
A couple of shots of the Cambridgepark Drive developments from this evening. All of the former Pfizer buildings on CPD are under some form of construction, since they've moved to 610 Main.



 
88 CPD has gone from a beast to a slightly smaller beast:

http://newton.wickedlocal.com/article/20140822/NEWS/140829031

The proposal with additional renderings (large file warning):

http://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/...s/sp292/sp292_revised_materials_20140813.ashx

...and here's the building next door, which Arrowstreet includes in some of the perspective renders:

https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/ZoningDevel/SpecialPermits/sp279/sp279_plans.ashx

I'm not sure if I like the Legoland Discovery Center aesthetic, but they aren't bad looking. I just wish that Alewife had a mature plan and transportation network to direct and support all this investment.
 
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