West Cambridge / Alewife Area Infill & Small Developments

This is the exact density and street grid repair we should be seeing everywhere that is possible, but its really only happening in the low income areas like here, old colony in southie, charlestown etc.
 
This is the exact density and street grid repair we should be seeing everywhere that is possible, but its really only happening in the low income areas like here, old colony in southie, charlestown etc.
I agree about the density, but with one caveat: there should be a couple of playgrounds inserted into this new housing complex. I don't see any in the plans. There will be hundreds of kids here and they do need somewhere immediately close by to play in, not just in the streets,
 
I agree about the density, but with one caveat: there should be a couple of playgrounds inserted into this new housing complex. I don't see any in the plans. There will be hundreds of kids here and they do need somewhere immediately close by to play in, not just in the streets,
The solution is literally across the tracks: Danehy Park. As conjoined appendage to Russell Field and all the sexy new rec stuff they want to do around Jerry's Pit.

The problem is somebody in City gov't needs to @#$% or get off the pot on advancing a Fitchburg Line footbridge connecting the two giant-ass parks and knitting all this residential together. And the City runs screaming from its own shadow whenever that subject comes up.

We can fully have nice things here. Somebody just has to be willing for the first time ever to lift a finger on the integration.
 
Maybe the new city manager won’t be an active blocker on running a sensible, modern city (e.g. this bridge, municipal broadband, switching to MWRA)
 
The solution is literally across the tracks: Danehy Park. As conjoined appendage to Russell Field and all the sexy new rec stuff they want to do around Jerry's Pit.

The problem is somebody in City gov't needs to @#$% or get off the pot on advancing a Fitchburg Line footbridge connecting the two giant-ass parks and knitting all this residential together. And the City runs screaming from its own shadow whenever that subject comes up.

We can fully have nice things here. Somebody just has to be willing for the first time ever to lift a finger on the integration.
I literally grew up in this location where the new housing will go up. The old project's layout (the ones being removed for this development) is where I lived, and there was a good-sized playground right in the middle of the projects, about 200 feet from my apartment. Plus there was a play yard right outside our apartment window, These were a game-changer for all of us living there. My mother was able to yell out the window at me to come home, and the parents were able to keep an eye on the kids with a playground right in the complex and a play yard right next door to our building. Yes, Russell field was there also, but up the street a couple of blocks from where I lived in the SE corner of the projects. Yards and playgrounds aren't just for the elite, the single family suburban homes. They're for the poor people as well. Poor like I was, dirt poor actually. It does bother me that today the bureaucrats cram the poor like cattle into such density with no place for the kids to play near their apartments, not blocks away. Sorry, but I'm telling it like it is.
 
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The new lab building on Cambridgepark Drive is topped out.

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The brick work on the new Hanover apartment building has a very mid-century look to it.
 

(edit: Thank goodness, not life-threatening)

Now THAT'S a helluva topping off ceremony! :
 
Last edited:
(edit: Thank goodness, not life-threatening)

Now THAT'S a helluva topping off ceremony! :
Leave the jokes to moi 😉
 
(edit: Thank goodness, not life-threatening)

Now THAT'S a helluva topping off ceremony! :
That's my old neighborhood. Bunch of tough mofos.
 
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The lab building on Cambridgepark Drive has an odd set of facade treatments. I think I saw brick on the side facing the bike path. The unfinished front isn’t too bad.

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The sheer bulk of the Hanover apartments is really hard to capture in a photo.
 
IMG_0292 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0291 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0236 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0237 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0257 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0260 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0290 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0234 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0240 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0235 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0239 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0250 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0255 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0262 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0263 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
IMG_0266 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr
 
I'm not sure radioactive snot green is the exterior color winner that all of these developers think it is.
The fad of using for exterior panels these weird interior decoration colors from the 1970s, colors that everyone used to make fun of, is a bit strange. To me it's just a visual gimmick to try to liven up a boring building.
 

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