The new "One Davis Square"

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

Here's what the new One Davis Square building will look like in Fall 2007.

Comments

[inahandbasket]

eww, they're dropping a GYM in there?
That sucks.

Work it off

[prog.livejournal.com]

At least it's sorta the opposite of the default new Davis business, a restaurant...

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Whatever, I like BSC.

[skate97.livejournal.com]

um. why?

[ron_newman]

Thanks. Where did you find that photo?

(And to the first commenter -- what's wrong with a gym?)

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I emailed Rebekah, and she sent it to me. Supposedly, they're going to post this picture in front of the site soon.

I also don't understand what's wrong with a gym.

[inahandbasket]

t3h uglay.

[georgy.livejournal.com]

Haha, look closely and you can see that the Someday is "open" in this picture :-) Wishful thinking!

[ron_newman]

I just hope the developer follows through on his promise to bring the non-profits back into his office space. With a change of governors, maybe we can get the DTA office back as well.

[ron_newman]

One thing that makes it not 'suburban' is that it covers 100% of its lot and provides no parking. The developer had to get a zoning variance or special permit to allow this, but it was the right decision.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Who designed that thing, and in what year? Serious ugly.

[nomirena.livejournal.com]

It looks like BU.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That hits the nail on the head.

I'm fine with the two businesses going in, since they're both useful. All that glass, though... it's So Not Davis.

Not being an architect, though, I can't suggest an alternative, other than "it should be mismatched to any other building in Davis." Which, I guess, it actually is.

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

That's because of all the red banners.
Probably.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

It's going cause traffic hell when people double park 'just for a minute' to run in and pick up a prescrition, cigarettes, drop off someone at the gym, etc... I can't believe they got away without putting in any parking.

[ron_newman]

There are two other CVS's with plenty of parking, a short distance from this one. (Porter Square, and Mass. Ave. and Route 16 in Arlington)

[cook-ting.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty psyched for a gym and a CVS is just fine. Maybe Brooks won't be able to hack the competition, fold and we can get Trader Joe's into that slot. That would cover just about everything for me.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Word.

Parking

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I'm always surprised when people living in dense urban neighborhoods insist new developments need parking. It's pretty straightforward: you can not have a dense, walkable, vibrant neighborhood with lots of parking. I paid a freaking huge premium for a house near Davis because I like its density; if I wanted parking convenience, I'd have moved to Pheonix. Parking lots create huge deadspaces, and parking garages with small footprints are almost as bad because they pull in car traffic.

Final word on this: compare Porter to Davis. Porter sure has plenty of parking, and it sure sucks.

The design of this building is better than I would have expected. It meets the street well.

Re: Parking

[inq.livejournal.com]

totally second this. why base an urban area around cars? it makes no sense. walk, ride a bike, take the bus.

[philbot.livejournal.com]

Yay to a gym and a half-hearted yay to a CVS. I didn't mind walking to Brooks, and Store 24 is right by my house anyway.

I still want a bar with pool tables, but oh well.

The street

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

It's rather a shame that such a prominent street level set of windows will have no visual appeal: no window shopping or changing displays of any significance. The Porter CVS is basically dead on the street from the outside. ZZZZZBe nice if they did something "live" like Cambridge Trust in Harvard Sq.

Re: The street

[ron_newman]

My understanding is that some of the windows will be dedicated for use by the Somerville Arts Council or other local organizations. Cambridge Trust is a good model; you should suggest it to Rebekah Gewirtz.

FYI, BSC signed the lease in August

[ariwriter.livejournal.com]

Taken from an August story in the Boston Business Journal (http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/08/21/newscolumn3.html?page=2):

...BSC also recently signed a lease for a new 15,000 square-foot club to be located in a new 54,000 square-foot building at One Davis Square.

The health club will be on the second floor with a 14,000 square-foot CVS serving as the anchor tenant on the first floor. Mark Browne, of Browne Realty Advisors Inc. represented CVS and the developer in the lease.

[youandwhosearmy.livejournal.com]

There goes the last of the free and easy parking spaces in Davis Sq.

[cos]

I don't think that building is as ugly as people are saying it is. My reaction is kinda ho-hum, nothing special. I do think it's out of place for Davis, though. It looks like the sort of building that'd fit right into today's Porter Square :)

As someone who drives to Davis a couple of times a week, I'm also glad they filled the whole lot and didn't include parking. It does make my anger at excessive T fares go up a notch. But Davis should remain dense.

holy macanoli....

[sarah-katie.livejournal.com]

wow... i heart davis sq... but i'm not sure i heart the new "hipster" look. then again.... i suppose it's better than whole foods... and maybe there will be a pool.