Image courtesy of Jacobs
Two months after Boston developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes pitched a six-building, 1 million-square-foot multifamily and lab complex in Cambridge’s Alewife Quadrangle neighborhood, another developer is joining the effort to revamp the industrial area on its border with Belmont.
The Davis Cos., developers of much of Cambridgepark Drive to the north, have filed plans with the Cambridge Planning Board to build a 142,000-square-foot, 3-story lab/office building at 109 Smith Place, on a 113,246-square-foot site that currently hosts a pair of 1-story warehouse buildings. The building, designed by Boston architecture firm Jacobs, will be build over a 1-story, 115-space underground garage, and will also contain 50 bicycle racks in an indoor garage with showers for workers at the facility. The proposed building is a short distance away from a bicycle-pedestrian bridge over the commuter rail tracks proposed as part of the Cabot, Cabot & Forbes project.
The project is being built in accordance with proposed rezoning for the area which envisions transforming it into a mixed-use, commercially- and industrially-focused neighborhood that feeds off of its connection to the MBTA’s Alewife Red Line station.Part of that zoning includes requirements to prepare sites for climate change-caused flooding, which projections say could inundate most of the Quadrangle neighborhood during heavy storms or coastal flooding by 2070.
To harden the site against flooding, the first floor of The Davis Cos.’ building will be raised above the flood level predicted to be caused by a 100-year storm in 2070, and critical site equipment will be located above this level, largely on the roof. The building has also been located further back from the sidewalk than zoning requires, to allow Smith Place to be widened and a raised sidewalk and bike lanes to be constructed. The building is also designed so that 29 percent of the lot will be covered by permeable surfaces, helping stormwater sink into the ground instead of pooling in the street or overwhelming storm drains.
The Alewife Quad is seen as one of the next major growth areas for the region’s life science economy, in part thanks to its transit connections to Kendall Square.
