Cambridge Crossing, a 4.5 million-square-foot (418,063.7 square meters) mixed-use space in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of this year’s recipients of the ULI Americas Awards for Excellence. As Kishore Varanasi—a principal at Boston-based architectural design firm CBT Architects who has been involved with the project for around 21 years—said Tuesday, “The site had a lot of potential, but nobody knew it.”
Varanasi was joined by Mark Roopenian, managing director at developer DivcoWest, and Iram Farooq, assistant manager for community development with the city of Cambridge, to discuss “Cambridge Crossing: Learning from the 20-Year Evolution of a Dense, Urban Development into a Thriving Mixed-Use, Life-Science Community” at the ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles.
The roughly 43-acre (17.4 hectares) project, built at the site of an abandoned railyard, has about 2.4 million square feet (223,027 square meters) of residential space, including about 2,700 residential units, according to Varanasi. The project had multiple master plans from different developers, dating as far back as 2003. DivcoWest purchased the property nine years ago.
“It was a huge effort, when we bought the project, to look at things through the eyes of the users,” Roopenian said. “It resulted in a whole bunch of changes, which were consistent with the original plan.”
The developer also removed any retail component from the project’s individual buildings to create what he refers to as a “beating heart.” Roopenian called that change successful, as the commercial area is right on the park, and retailers enjoy being around other retailers.
When they came to the project’s 100,000 square feet (9,290 square meters) of retail, Varanasi said that they “wanted to marry the open space system with retail.” This decision led to construction of The Shed, which is at the center of Cambridge Crossing. Comprised of two buildings connected by a glass canopy, The Shed was inspired by the site’s history of transportation, according to Varanasi.
There are also about 11 acres (4.4 hectares) of open space, including a pond.
“If you visit the site today, it just feels natural,” Roopenian said. He noted that the project had “great bones” from the start. It includes two Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority stops. The project’s location is also ideal, according to Roopenian.
Roopenian sees the project’s proximity to Harvard and MIT as advantageous. It provides, he said, “an established life-science ecosystem, from the idea of the chemistry student at MIT, all the way through to, now, big pharma [populating] it, so you have a fully developed ecosystem.”
Whereas life science was less well known at the beginning of the project, Varanasi pointed out, it now features prominently on the site. The life science tenants include Philips, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cerevel Therapeutics, and Astellas.
A sea wall, found while digging on the site, is also now part of the project and lends it character. Varanasi said that the wall brought “a level of earthiness” that has helped make all members of the community feel welcome.
Roopenian said that one of the measuring sticks when developing a project of this size is how well the project blends into the community. He stressed the importance of being genuine and “good to people,” adding that most of the neighbors in the community even have his mobile number.
“Our investment in the community has allowed us to execute … our plan, and that’s because we’re friends and neighbors, and we’ve integrated the project very well into the neighborhood,” Roopenian said.
They also created programming on site to bring in members of the community. In addition, streets and public spaces were named after prominent women of Cambridge and women of color.
“I think the project—and kudos to you guys—has done this incredible job of walking the talk and making that a real commitment, rather than just words on a piece of paper,” Farooq said of DivcoWest.
CBT Architects was the urban designer and master planner of the project. Ken Greenberg was the master plan consultant, and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. served as the landscape architect.
