This post is the second half of my walkabout from yesterday.

Part 3: Lechmere and Kendall Sq

I took the T from North Station to Lechmere to see some of the new construction that has gone on over the last two years, notably Northpoint and Archstone-Smith. Archstone-Smith is gorgeous and towers over the neighborhood, but because it is set back behind the highway and T line it doesn’t overpower the small residential streets of Lechmere. I would describe it as post-modern art deco. The top reminded me of the tower of the Landmark Center in the Fenway, only made out of colored glass. I think the image on the website has been shrunk down or Photoshoped to make the building appear less tall. In reality it is massive, almost like the giant housing complexes you find in Hong Kong.

The story of Northpoint is a sad one. The area in question is prime real estate if there ever was. Located next to two T stations, a highway (set back enough not to hurt property values), abutting new parks built along the Charles River, and a stones throw to North Station, Northpoint should have been Boston’s answer to Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan. The land used to be train yards and lay abandoned for decades. About 10 years ago developers started putting together a proposal to build a mini city there, complete with housing, office space, lab space, and a new T station that would be built to allow for the Green Line extension to West Medford (whenever the state gets around to that). The land was cleared and a couple of buildings started to go up when the developers got pissed off at one another and started suing. They finished two of the residential units and they are now open, which if you like living in a sand pit is great.

What is most depressing is what has been built is seriously nice. The quality of the design and the materials used are top notch and the townhouse design is ultra modern. The buildings are not overwhelming and have these great elevated front yards that you walk up to. They are even installing a playground in the front yard area. It will be a real shame if all that is ever built of this project are these two buildings.

Next I moved into Lechmere proper. I’m not sure most Bostonians have ever actually been to Lechmere. Sure they have been to Cambridgeside or have seen it on the T map, but I’m sure most people have never taken the time to walk around this quiet working class neighborhood. Stepping off the T you come to OneFirst, a huge residential complex recently finished that combines old industrial warehouses with new construction. I have to say this has proved to me that you can be modern and still not need to build huge extroverted boxes that impose themselves on a neighborhood. Instead of building one giant building, the developers built a number of different looking buildings that all relate to the streets they are on. The buildings on Cambridge St are 6 stories and have retail on the first floor, while the buildings on quiet side street off Cambridge step down to the lower scale and change design to fit in with the rowhouses along the 2nd St. So perfectly did they do this that I didn’t realized what I was looking at was new construction until I took a closer look. I could go on about this complex but it would just be more of the same flattery.

I had worked a temp job at one point in Lechmere the summer before I moved to New York and I happened upon the offices on this walk. I initially didn’t recognize the place because across the street were a series of townhouses that I had never seen before and were so perfect at recreating the colonial period that you find in the older parts of Cambridge that I wasn’t sure they were even modern until I saw the garages in the back. They say make no small plans but these infill developments have inspired me more than the new 1,000 ft tower the mayor wants to build, or Harvard’s total renewal of Allston.

Kendall Sq is changing fast as well. Before I moved, Genzime had just put up their award winning headquarters and there was talk of building some condos in the area. The area just north of Kendall Sq is a sandbox; the condos are going up looking classy and modern, a number of new lab facilities have gone up and are going up, and I stumbled upon a new police station that blew me away. It had these great metal (probably aluminum) details, but used brinck and granite for the faciade. The brick work was interesting and distinctive and the windows were tall with quality frames. I’ve seen so many cheap ugly condos going up in Manhattan and Brooklyn that I forgot what good construction looked like.

I headed off to Harvard Sq where I usually seem to end up anytime I’m in Boston. Some of the stores have changed but most of the square hasn’t. I went into the Harvard Coop and ran into a few people I had worked with 3 years ago; I’m sure that made them feel fantastic for lasting that long (I worked there a year). I picked up a copy of Italio Calvino’s Invisible Cities which I first read down in the break room there. Outside while waiting for Ian I ran into a young woman who I had worked with the day before at the AAG conference. She was from China which made the encounter interesting because we were standing right next to a group of pro-Tibet protesters in the Pit.

That night I went back to Arlington for the first time since I had moved. A few things have changed but not much (the town is no longer dry). Ian and I drove around and he pointed out little things that had changed and we talked about old times. It never hit me how suburban the town is. I always considered it more urban than most suburbs but now after living in New York the place seems like a grave yard. It was only 8:30 but there was no one out, the place was a ghost town. I guess I never noticed it before.