PHASE 1 FOR A CITY WITHIN A CITY
SPRING START SET FOR NORTH POINT IN E. CAMBRIDGE

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff
The Boston Globe, September 25, 2004


Two modern residential buildings with moderately priced condominiums and an elongated 5-acre park will be built as the first phase of the large NorthPoint project in East Cambridge, the developers said yesterday.


   Construction is set to begin in the spring, with a fall 2006 completion date for 335 condominiums near Lechmere Station on the MBTA's Green Line.


        Spaulding & Slye Colliers, a large real estate services firm, and Guilford Transportation Industries Inc., which own the 45-acre former railroad yard, have plans and approvals to build what in a dozen years is expected to be virtually a new city within a city.


   Plans include 2,300 to 2,700 homes of varying types, more than 2 million square feet of office and lab space, and 75,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. A total of 5 million square feet in 20 buildings is expected to be constructed, with a $2 billion-plus price tag.


   "This is the biggest project in New England, maybe in the Northeast," said Dan O'Connell, principal of Spaulding & Slye, an equity holder and managing partner of the NorthPoint project.


   Master-planned by Toronto urban specialist Ken Greenberg and CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc. of Boston, NorthPoint is mostly in East Cambridge, with portions in Somerville and Charlestown. With its clustered housing and proximity to public transportation both Green and Orange lines on the MBTA it won approvals from the communities in only about two years, with lots of public input.


   "It's got all the buzz words of the current administration transit-oriented development, smart growth, creative use of an industrial site," said O'Donnell.


   The first two buildings will be:


   A 237-unit condo complex of 10 floors, with a 13-floor tower.


   An adjacent, 98-unit building of eight floors.


   Designed by two separate firms the larger by architectsAlliance of Toronto, the smaller by CBT the pair will have many similar modern features, including open floor plans, two-story living rooms, floor-to-ceiling glass, as well as marble, hardwood and stainless steel.


"It's a modern design, very much signature architecture in the shadow of MIT, where people are looking for what is current," said Lisa S. Serafin, vice president of Spaulding & Slye, and project director for NorthPoint, which is less than a mile from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


   A 5-acre park leading toward parkland on the north side of the Charles River will be constructed as part of the first phase, along with a small pond and a public pavilion. The 5,000-square-foot pavilion will serve in part as a marketing center for NorthPoint, as well as a community center.


   Michael van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. of New York and Cambridge, which is redesigning Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, is doing landscape design.


   O'Connell said the price range for most units will be $300,000 to $500,000, with a few running as high at $700,000. One- and two-bedroom units will run from 700 square feet up to 1,500, with the majority at about 900, he said. Developers often price the first phase of a project on the low side to lure buyers to an unproven location.


   "These will be available to first-time home buyers," O'Connell said.


   "The project is committed to quality architecture," Greenberg said this week. "I think it's going to provide some extraordinary living opportunities in a new location in a new style."


   The ground-floor units in both buildings will be townhouse-like, with doors on the perimeter.


   A 14-foot-wide trail will lead through the park for pedestrians and joggers and bikers will have access to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation bike trail system.


"It's really a neighborhood we're creating," Steve Steinberg, director of marketing for Spaulding & Slye, said, adding that the project is intended to fit in with existing Cambridge blocks nearby but show cutting-edge design. "It's a combination of grit and polish."


   When NorthPoint is about half completed, the developers will move Lechmere Station east, to the other side of Monsignor O'Brien Highway.


A hotel and more housing are planned for the existing station site.