This Is Harvard

Tata Hall Meeting on Wed at 6pm

You are invited to a

Public Meeting
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
6:00 PM
Honan Allston Library

(meeting will be held in rear of library)

Harvard Construction Mitigation and Harvard Business School
will be presenting the Tata Hall Construction Management
plan, including trucking, traffic details, construction schedule,
and other project details. This meeting will take place at the
Honan Allston Library at 6:00 P.M.

If you cannot make the meeting, information on the project
will be posted on the construction mitigation website
www.construction.harvard.edu and will be updated on a
weekly basis. You can also reach out to the Mitigation Team
directly at 617-496-0857

Harvard opens up i-lab in WGBH Space

Finally, it has happened, the old WGBH building has seen some interior renovations and the opening of Harvad’s first real entry into entrepreneurship. The Harvard Innovation Lab opened its doors today!

More info in this Globe article: http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/11/18/harvard-makes-foray-into-start-scene-with-lab/RUzKF02RM27W84JshJKHtO/story.html

I am very happy to see that space put to use! But I am also curious about the mission. The quoted mission statement is:

The Harvard innovation lab is a new and innovative initiative fostering team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepening interactions among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community.

I haven’t really seen how this will directly benefit anyone in the Allston or Boston community, so it seems to me that i-lab is a strictly Harvard only initiative. Will local (non-Harvard) entrepreneurs be invited to work in the space? For now, it seems the answer is no.

I have previously run my business from MIT’s One Broadway C3 coworking space / incubator, which has been incredibly friendly and open to the entire boston-based entrepreneurship community. If Harvard would open its doors to Boston, and especially Allston, entrepreneurs, I think it would see a lot of benefits. But, it remains to be seen if Harvard will do this. There is certainly no information on how to do that on their website. Or more likely, in a typical Harvard-esque maneuver, the  community will be completely shut out from any newly developed resources. I guess time will tell, but I’m hoping they decide to actually fulfill their mission statement, and offer space to Allston startups…

Check out the Harvard i-lab directly here: http://i-lab.harvard.edu/

Oh, and if you can find a “contact us” button on the i-lab webpage somewhere let me know. I couldn’t

Advisory Group Working Session #2 – Thursday, September 15, 2011 – 6:30pm to 8:30pm – Brighton Marine Health Center – Brighton

From the BRA:

Dear Advisory Group members for the Brighton / Guest Street Planning Study:

The Boston Redevelopment Authority, together with its Sasaki consultant team, will be holding the second Advisory Group working session for the Brighton / Guest Street Area Planning Study in order to discuss development scenarios, criteria and economic impacts for the study area, and obtain feedback from the Advisory Group and the community.  The public is welcome to attend all Advisory Group working sessions, and all working sessions will be posted on the BRA’s meeting calendar webpage.

Advisory Group Working Session #2 will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Brighton Marine Health Center in conference room #1 at 77 Warren Street (between Commonwealth Avenue and Cambridge Street) in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston.  Parking is free and the building is wheelchair accessible.  Our offices are easily accessible by MBTA trains and buses. By subway, take the Green “B” Line train to the Warren Street stop. We are located a half block west of the stop.  You may also take the #57 bus (Kenmore Square/Watertown Limited) to the corner of Cambridge and Warren Streets. We are located a half block east of the bus stop.

The purpose of the Brighton Planning Study is to examine development scenarios and their economic and physical impacts, and ultimately make recommendations for appropriate mix of uses, urban design massing, and public realm improvements, traffic mitigation measures, and economic development opportunities.

Please feel free to call or email us should you have any questions at:

• Mary Knasas, Senior Planner III – 617.918.4489 – mary.knasas.bra@cityofboston.gov; or

• Carlos J. Montañez, Senior Planner II – 617.918.4442 –carlos.montanez.bra@cityofboston.gov

Gratefully,

Carlos

_________________________________________________

Carlos J. Montañez, Senior Planner

-  Neighborhood Planner for Allston-Brighton & East Boston

-  Rutherford Ave/Sullivan Sq Planning

-  Harrison-Albany Corridor Strategic Planning

-  Brighton Guest Street Planning

Boston Redevelopment Authority

One City Hall Square   |  Boston, MA 02201-1007

617.918.4442 |  carlos.montanez.bra@cityofboston.gov

MassHousing OKs $106.2M loan for Charlesview project

from the Boston Herald

MassHousing has closed a $106.2 million loan for the redevelopment of the controversial Charlesview Apartments project in Brighton.

The transaction…will result in 240 new apartments for low-income residents.

…Harvard is committing $72 million to the project…The redevelopment will also include new street patterns, a park, community center, 14,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for 242 vehicles.

How do we advance Harvard’s timetable?

From the Boston Globe as reported by ABCB:

[Harvard] doesn’t operate on the same timetable as the rest of the city. It banks land to ensure that it has room to grow in the coming century. But Harvard’s own long-term interests don’t square with its neighbors’ more immediate concerns. Allston residents have watched in recent years as spots like Kenmore Square and Brigham Circle have received drastic makeovers, thanks to ambitious private development. In Allston, all development is tied to Harvard, and Harvard is in no hurry to build. The school says it has plans to remake the neighborhood, but it’s not really in the neighborhood-building business. Which is why every time Harvard rolls out a new plan for reshaping Allston, the refrain is: We’ll believe it when we see it.

25 and 50 year plans are all fine and good, but we NEED a REAL 5 year plan that addresses ALL the Allston properties.

More commuter rail traffic through Allston/Brighton?

Although the plans are sketching from what was reported in the Globe it appears that the push is on to run some Worcester/Framingham trains through North Station instead of South Station.  Its implied that more trains would be added as opposed to rerouting existing trains.  There are other competing plans for the space though.

If its “relatively inexpensive ” to add a stop at MIT then it should still be relatively inexpensive to add an Allston/Brighton stop.

A Brighton Landing to North Station train could get an Allston/Brighton resident to the parade tomorrow in no time!

I should also add that this is the first I’ve heard that the Urban Ring is dead.  Hopefully this will be reanimated in the future as it could be great for mass transit access in Allston.

Boston Skate rink land swap

Wow!  Go away on vacation for a bit and lots happens.  Harvard agreed to a land swap with Boston Skate now located between Western and Soldier’s Field Road.

Harry did a great job covering this over a number of posts:

Not sticking to plan

Good questions

Sprawl design

The empty building on Lincoln St was a property that we had long complained about.  I want say that in an earlier meeting it was named as a possible office building for Harvard (citation needed).  I liked it for a Kendall Square style incubator or Cumming Center-like small business center.  All those thoughts are now moot.

Now the question is what happens to the Boston Skate land?  The last Charlesview plan called for a mixed income condo tower on the same side of the street.  Could this turn the river side of Western Ave into a row of high rises?  Although not totally desirable if attention is paid to permeability, shadows on the existing parks and ground floor public uses/retail this could work out.

I should also add that I’m somewhat relived that the Lincoln St property has now been dealt with.  It was a huge eyesore for anyone viewing Allston from the Pike.  I was also concerned that it might be used for affordable housing as a token give back to the community due to its undesirable location for Harvard as its not contiguous with its lots slated for academic use.  Mounting evidence shows that children should not live near highways, so a commercial use for this property is an acceptable outcome.

Harvard’s new plan for Allston?

The recommendations…include developing an enterprise research campus on a 36-acre swath of Harvard-owned land near the Massachusetts Turnpike. University leaders described that venture as a new Kendall Square, where academic research and business, science and venture capital could thrive in close proximity.

An analysis found demand for a conference center and hotel with 180 rooms. The team also urged the university to create stores, restaurants, day care, and housing for faculty and graduate students near Barry’s Corner, a forlorn crossroads imagined years ago as an anchor for the neighborhood’s long-awaited renaissance.

as reported by the Boston Globe

and another Boston Globe article.

These recommendations sound good, but they are not a plan.  One should also note that it will take years for CSX to vacate the rail yards where this new Kendall Square would go.  We need a meaningful short term plan that Harvard will follow through on.

The article I quoted above does a great job of summing up the situation including why Allston residents are so distrustful of even the most stellar proposals.

If Harvard signs up private investors I think it will be a good thing — Unlike the current situation they will have a meaningful third party partner with a financial incentive for them to follow through on their plans.  Currently they can pay consultants for plans, make presentatons, talk about a bright future, then do nothing.  The BRA and Allston residents have no real power to make them move forward.  A developer with a large stake in Allston will.

Edit:

Good summary by Harry

Harvard’s Ownership of North Allston and Brighton

To illustrate the amount of land owned by Harvard in North Allston and Brighton I queried the City of Boston Assessment web site for all owners with the name HARVARD or ALLSTON INC and removed the one’s that were clearly private owners (in xls) then mapped all the addresses using BatchGeo/Google Maps:

Ignoring the locations that have historically been the Harvard campus North of Western Ave one can see just how many properties are controlled by Harvard in our neighbghood.  The colored BRA maps show the acreage that Harvard controls, but this map serves to illustrate every storefront, building or multiple buildings that are under their sway.

Every one of these points in an oppurtunity for a store, shop, resturant, office, classroom or reaserach lab.  Its in Harvard’s best interests and our best interests to fill every one.

Where is Harvard marketing its empty properties?

Not on LoopNet (image).

I hope this doesn’t mean that all the “available” properties have been leased in their latest round of successful leases and internal uses.