MIT’s lovely promises for “renovation” of historical building translate as sugar coated DESTRUCTION, AS USUAL.

1. Introduction

2. MIT’s “Explanation.

3. Cambridge’s Most Recent “Explanation” Compared to Reality.

1. Introduction

MIT’s lovely promises for “renovation” of historical building translate as sugar coated DESTRUCTION, AS USUAL.

I have done two posts on this outrage.  It is highly relevant to the Charles River White Geese because this outrage WITHOUT THE DESTRUCTION is perhaps the emblem of a bike path which is the front for and which is part of the ongoing efforts to destroy on the Charles River.

And this DESTRUCTIVE REALITY IS TOO MUCH THE REALITY WITH SO MUCH OF THE USUAL LOVELY CLAIMS FROM WHOMEVER CONCERNING THE CHARLES, ITS WATER, ITS VEGETATION AND ITS ANIMALS.

My first report is posted at:  https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mit-destroying-historical-storage.html.  

My “preliminary” follow up with damning photos is at https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mits-renovation-of-historical-warehouse.html.

The problem is that the “preliminary” follow up does a pretty good job of reporting the outrage.  I could go further, but going further would be massive work in processing a LOT OF PHOTOS, and could also evolve into ongoing reports, and that definitely is not the purpose of this blog.

2. MIT’s “Explanation.

I have promised to provide MIT’s “explanation.”  So here it is, first with a screen shot, then with the gory details.  Note the image credits at the end apply as well to the MIT photos in the “preliminary” report.  My credit has been to MIT.  MIT's credit is more accurate.  Both photos are provided, fair use like this report, in my “preliminary” report.

* * * *

Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, Building 

W41

MIT is renovating the Metropolitan Warehouse to create a vibrant interdisciplinary hub for design and education and to house the School of Architecture and Planning, a new makerspace for Project Manus, and the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

STATUS

In constructionr

COMPLETION DATE

2025

THEMES AND PRIORITIES

Innovation and collaboration

Renovation and renewal

Enhancement of life and learning

Designed by Frederic Pope (first section) and Peabody & Stearns (subsequent additions), the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse — one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood — was originally constructed in 1895. The building is listed on the State Register of Historic Places and has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. With its square brick tower and crenellated corbelled cornice, it resembles a medieval castle on a city street corner.

MIT’s adaptive reuse of the Metropolitan Warehouse building will redevelop it as a center of interdisciplinary design research and education, providing a new home for the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). The building will also house the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design, which aims to foster collaboration and innovation on campus, encouraging design work to grow across disciplines. In addition, the building's flagship Project Manus makerspace will serve as a substantial addition to the MIT Makersystem and will expand the design and fabrication facilities available to the campus. As a whole, the reimagined Met Warehouse will include new classrooms, design studio space that will significantly increase MIT’s capacity for arts and design programming, new faculty offices, and areas for meetings and collaborative activities.

The adaptive reuse of the structure will endeavor to preserve the building’s historic character while leveraging and valorizing its existing spaces and infrastructure to serve the needs of current and future programming. A critical design element is the introduction of new floor “platforms” to provide necessary high-bay program space and to allow natural light to penetrate core building areas. The strategic integration of old and new will enhance interdisciplinary interactions between SA+P and other schools at MIT while providing space for an auditorium and other possible ground-floor amenities.

“The renovation of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is intended to generate new opportunities for research, teaching, and innovation at the Institute,” says Provost Martin A. Schmidt. “I look forward to seeing faculty and students, across many disciplines, use the new space to push their fields into the future.”

IMAGE CREDITS

Melody Craven and Monica Lee

3. Cambridge’s Most Recent “Explanation” Compared to Reality.

The original publication of this post was October 22, 2023, a week ago.

In working on the condensed version of this report for publication on Face book and Email Publication, I have obtained the Cambridge Development Department PROMISE of what is being done to this building in relation to the lovely “Grand Junction Path” promises.

Here is the presentation at their June 22, 2022 meeting, taken from the Cambridge, MA on line presentation.

Cropped to the "protected" historical building.

In this picture, the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese is, for all practical purposes, straight ahead.

Here is our photo from a week ago.

As usual in Cambridge, a dramatic difference between what was promised and this reality a week ago.

WITH MORE TO COME.

MIT’s “renovation” of Historical Warehouse

This is a preliminary report.

The collection of photos I created yesterday, October 15, 2023, is massive.  It will take quite a bit of time to process them.  However, as I have started this project, it is clear that some major issues are blatant.  So here goes.

Years ago, as part of its empire building, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology purchased a historical warehouse on the South Side of Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, between Vassar Street and the Grand Junction Railroad.  We have reported on a “multi-use” path going by it.  The warehouse has featured prominently in the publicity for this nonsensical highway.

MIT has constantly promised to preserve this historical building.  We have made copies of those promises from MIT’s website.  Those details will be provided when I can process the massive number of photos I took.

MIT has started bringing reality to the warehouse and to the “usual types” who run around Cambridge bragging about reality being somewhere close to the nonsense commonly splattered about development in Cambridge.

Here are the ONLY photos on the website which we have found.  The description of MIT will be provided verbatim in our coming report.

Here is the Vassar Street side:

Here is the Massachusetts Avenue Side:

This photo is taken from my October 15, 2023 photos.  This is the Grand Junction side viewed from Mass. Ave.

Not at all surprising when you are dealing the fraud in the communication of development in the City of Cambridge, MIT keeps secret its side facing the Grand Junction.  Because of the DELIBERATE secrecy, we are forced to improvise.  The Grand Junction side was close to identical to the Vassar Street side.

Here is ONE of our many photographs of the Grand Junction side on Sunday, October 15, 2023:

Note the PARTIAL MESSAGE SHOWING.  The full message remains on the Vassar Street side, above.

MIT claims to be renovating.

This photo was taken from Massachusetts Avenue on the Grand Junction side of the building.

Running from the left, first is shown a partial view of the REMAINING Mass. Ave. Frontage.  Then you have the undestroyed portion of the Grand Junction frontage.  The next “building” facing the Grand Junction railroad has the remnant of the sign which is still whole on the Vassar Street side.  

Look to the left of the frontage.  There you will see an interior wall of this created subbuilding.  Look a little bit to the left and you will see THE INNER PART OF A FALSE FRONT remaining facing Vassar Street.  The other side of the false front fits MIT’s rendition of the Building it is “saving.”

Here is a view of Mass. Ave. front taken from the opposite side of Mass. Ave. on October 15, 2023:

NOTE THE HOLE AT THE TOP OF THE FRONTAGE.  That is the destruction facing Mass. Ave. as of October 15, 2023.  On the right, you can see the Grand Junction and the Grand Junction frontage.

Here are one true gem in Harvard Square of which Cambridge environmentally reprehensible City Council voted to encourage destruction.  The Cambridge City Council has a 200 page guidebook to the politically correct way to destroy Harvard Square.  Any and all planned destruction will be decided by a body selected with major input by the bureaucrats.  This is the same bureaucracy which from 1991 or 1992 to 2012, AT MINIMUM LIED that an alternate route to putting the “Inner Belt” subway through the Wild Area and up the Grand Junction next to this building DID NOT EXIST.

The kind of people who get appointed by that bureaucracy tend to look at this excellence, SNIFF and say “next case.”

A key part of the LIE that Kenmore Crossing did not exist in “inner belt” plans was the need to move  Landsdowne Station on the Commuter Rail line from near Fenway Park to one block from the core of the Boston University campus, at Mountfort and St. Mary’s.  The core part of Boston University is on the opposite end of the BU Bridge from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese.

Landsdowne Station survives as part of a four building complex across from Fenway Park (2 up, 2 approved).  The developer was decidedly shocked when I told the developer of Cambridge’s plans.  Very quickly, as these things go, the state rebuilt Landsdowne Station to full station standard.  Now it is under this massive new building which is very visible from Fenway Park.  Lies are normal in Cambridge, MA.  Boston University has major holdings beyond the Beacon Street Bridge, in the distance.  The station is under the building to the left.  This station is not going anywhere.

But Cambridge, MA, has a terrible City Council which is doing all it can to create outrages.

MIT Destroying historical storage building which it promised to save.

Report from Robert J. La Trémouille

IN PROCESS NOW.

The historical WAREHOUSE storage building now owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and located on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge between Vassar Street and the Grand Junction Railroad Tracts WHICH HAS BEEN PROMISED TO BE SAVED BY MIT is in the process of demolition.

This was observed by me about 1:30 pm, October 12, 2023 from the #1 bus traveling toward Boston.

Demolition is ongoing on the top floors facing the Grand Junction railroad.

SUPPLEMENT:   This post is getting a lot of hits.  The follow up post with photos is getting less.  Please see https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/mits-renovation-of-historical-warehouse.html for gory details.  I have a lot of photos, but it is also a lot of work.  This may wind up as the DEFINITIVE post.

Charles River White Geese: Fire next door to the Destroyed Nesting Area

 Charles River White Geese:  Fire next door to the Destroyed Nesting Area

Here is a photo taken from the website of WBZ TV Boston.  WBZ TV was reporting a fire on the opposite side of the BU Bridge from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.

The report is that of a fire reported to be in a homeless encampment.  The situation, obviously, is yet another result of the extreme lack of fitness of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to be charged with the maintenance of properties on the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge.

The view is from a point a little bit north of the Cambridge city line on the BU Bridge.

The building at the right is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology building which is separated from the Destroyed Nesting Area of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese by Memorial Drive and the on ramp to Memorial Drive from the BU Bridge.  The DNA is approximately to the right of the car which is visible.

The thick smoke is obviously from a landscaped strip managed by the DCR located between the BU Bridge and the sensitively designed pollution control plant of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.  The row of trees on the left abut the plant.

I walked around this area on Thursday. The area I saw, consistent with the belligerent incompetence of the DCR, was a mess.  A fire is not at all surprising.  Not that long ago, a contractor working for the DCR created a public health emergency in the Charles River by rerouting poisons dumped on Magazine Beach by the DCR and Cambridge into the Charles River, creating an algae infestation.  The DCR has inflicted decades of heartless abuse of the 42 year resident Charles River White Geese.  The DCR with Cambridge assistance has destroyed more than 150 commonly excellent trees between the BU Bridge and Longfellow Bridge on the Charles River.  The DCR  and Cambridge are in the middle of destroying another 60 commonly excellent  trees at Magazine Beach.

The DCR is belligerently unfit to be charged with state properties on the Charles River.  I have recently gone into detail of its record (including a predecessor entity).  That analysis may be seen in Cambridge, MA records at:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713.  It can be difficult to wander through the Cambridge records.  At the request of Governor Healey’s Assistant Secretary for the Environment, I have recently provided the off line masters for this document to an official at the DCR.  I would be pleased to provide the off line files to people so requesting at boblat@yahoo.com.  There are an extremely large number of graphics in this report.  I have subdivided the files into workable size.  It is feasible to transmit them at your request.

The Charles River White Geese should be safe from this outrage.  The unfit DCR, however, keeps on creating outrages.

My solution of the DCR problem is to replace the DCR on the Charles River with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation which also is responsible on the Charles River but has different responsibilities.  MassDOT is not perfect, but on shared responsibilities, MassDOT looks like the adult in the room with the DCR and Cambridge.

I encourage anybody who is concerned with the environment to communicate to Governor Healey.  It is a waste of time to attempt to deal with the belligerently destructive Cambridge City Council.  However nominal communications could be of value.  The Cambridge City Manager is relatively new and could be of help.  City Council candidates other than two with records on the Charles River are also possible people to communicate with.  Among other problems, one of the new candidates did the poisoning of the Charles as documented in our DCR report.

More destruction DECEPTIVELY proposed for the Charles River.

 More destruction DECEPTIVELY proposed for the Charles River.

1. General.

2. Plans.

A, General.

B. Governing plans.

C. DCR regeneration.

D. MIT Lecturer.

3. Reality.

1. General.

Another fake protective group has reared it misleading head.

An entity which claimed to be the “BU Bridge Safety Alliance” held a presentation on Thursday, October 5, 2023, announcing ideas which would be “better for all.”

It turned out to be an Massachusetts Institute of Technology lecturer indulging in a teaching session with his class with glorification galore, and minimal understanding of local history and lack of concern about environmental impacts.

I saw one student express concern about harm to existing trees.  He was sloughed off.  At another point, I raised plans IN THE IMPLEMENTATION STAGE  to make the situation worse from what passes for planners in Cambridge.  The instructor was uninterested.

Included in the group was a Cambridge City Council staffer who has conveyed the City Council’s destructive ideas to the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation.  The City Council ideas communicated distress that the DCR had apparently backed off from the most irresponsible plans of the DCR.  The City Council’s destructive ideas comported with one truly irresponsible idea of the MIT lecturer.  The City Council  euphemism is “sidewalk improvements” although the lecturer hid this destructive part of his proposal as much as possible while claiming to be communicating it.  

The staffer is running for City Council.  A more destructive “activist” is among his opposition among City Council candidates.  She created an algae blight which poisoned the Charles River AS PAID CONTRACTOR FOR THE DCR.  That does not make either one of them less of a problem than the City Council and its bureaucrats.

2. Plans.

A, General.

Below is the DCR’s plans for the most irresponsible part of the MIT lecturer’s ideas.  Of importance, MIT supported the January 2016 destruction.  From MIT’s point of view, it “benefitted” from that outrage.  

This part of the plans was not implemented in the 2016 outrage.  In the 2016 outrage the DCR with Cambridge assistance destroyed more than 150 trees near the Charles River between the BU and Longfellow Bridges, including too many truly excellent trees.  Our video on that package may be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.  

The instructor’s ideas, obscured as much as possible, and shared by Cambridge’s environmentally destructive City Council, were rejected in 2016.  They resurfaced through fraud in the latest round of plans, and apparently were given up on in favor of less destructive ideas.  BUT THE CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL IS TRYING.

From Cambridge records, here is my recent summary of the continuing outrages most visibly by the DCR, with have included Cambridge bureaucracy and City Council support, with Cambridge’s usual fake protective groups assisting:  https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3903&Inline=True, pages 2654 to 2713.  This analysis goes back more than twenty years, although the Charles River White Geese have had their habitat on the Charles River in this area for more than 42 years.  

I, at the direction of the governor’s people, have passed master computer files for that document to an office of the DCR.  I would be pleased to pass these master files on to you as well.  Please contact me at boblat@yahoo.com.  I had to split files without deletion of component parts to make the file size of the master files accepted by the state’s computer.

B. Governing plans.

Here are the plans apparently being resurrected by the MIT lecturer which the DCR gave up on in January 2016 and which the Cambridge City Council seems to be trying to revive, along with this MIT lecturer.  The key part of the plans are difficult to read.  I have tried to make them less hidden through lighting modifications.  It is extremely difficult to use the plans.

The actual plans were drawn by a predecessor organization which the legislature tried to destroy to protect the world from its destructiveness.  The “planners” moved to the DCR and have proceeded with the outrages.  I will not waste people’s times by making what, in reality, HAS BEEN MADE a silly distinction between the two entities.

Memorial Drive, the boulevard on the Cambridge side of the Charles River runs right to left starting at the upper left and curving to the upper right.

Below it is the area in very destructive play, the on ramp from the BU Bridge to Memorial Drive.  Running at a slight angle from bottom to top in the middle of the plan is the Grand Junction Railroad.  To its left below the ramp is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  To the right is the Wild Area, the last remaining animal populated woods in this part of the Charles River.  

The DCR demonstrates the vileness of the entire batch of plans by the circle numbered “535” toward the lower right.  This is the ONE tree the batch of destroyers do not seem to be fighting to destroy.  To the left of the Grand Junction are other trees targeted.  The blackened one, marked “541" is the gem of the BU Bridge Rotary in this area, and the gem of this part of the Destroyed Nesting Area.  It would be casually destroyed AS SECRETLY AS POSSIBLE 

The latest round of attacks was delayed by the COVID nightmare.  The DCR lied that its plans ended at the BU Bridge.  

C. DCR regeneration.

Here is one of several essentially duplicate slides from the DCR presentation of the earliest version of its current proposal.

The key lie at that time was that the DCR said its plans eastern boundary was the BU Bridge.  Crossing this plan is Memorial Drive.  Running below Memorial Drive is the BU Bridge, the supposed eastern end.  The lie is demonstrated by the fact that the plans go beyond the BU Bridge to the right.  The area to the right is the area that the DCR did not destroy in January 2016, and which the Cambridge City Council through that staffer, and this MIT lecturer are currently attacking.

The DCR has backed off on this part of their plans, ending the current offensive at the next bridge to the west, the River Street Bridge.  The Cambridge City Council, through that staffer has implored the DCR to do “sidewalk improvements” east of the BU Bridge.  The “sidewalk improvements” are the stuff shown in the above plan, with the MIT lecturer including as misleadingly as possible in his presentation.

D. MIT Lecturer.

The MIT Lecturer had two handouts in his show and tell, one for the Cambridge Side of the BU Bridge, the other (mismarked “Cambridge”) for the Boston Side.

Here is a blow up of the relevant part of the MIT lecturer’s plans.  Dominating the photo from bottom to top, is the BU Bridge.  To the right is the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  

At the top is Memorial Drive, below it on the right is the on ramp from the BU Bridge to Memorial Drive, the northern edge of the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  The edge to the right IS NOT EDITED BY ME.  THIS IS AS FAR AS HE WENT TO THE RIGHT.  

The number 3 gives the impression that it indicates the totality of his plans.  His comments extended the plans, if you listened close enough, to the outrage continually showing up from the DCR and the Cambridge City Council in spite of lovely and, in that key DCR announcement, FRAUDULENT comments to the contrary.

3. Reality.

Here is the wild area which would be destroyed.  To its left is the Grand Junction Railroad, and a tiny part of the DNA.  The building to the right is a boathouse owned by Boston University.

DCR work projects commonly have  harm to the Charles River White Geese.  The DCR has explained its continuing outrages by saying it only has a duty to refrain from harming animals on a Federal protected list.

And here is tree 541, NEVER MENTIONED, BUT ALWAYS TARGETED along with a lot of other destruction in the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese.  Photo was taken from the DNA.

It is now much larger.  In the background is Memorial Drive and a building currently owned by MIT, the employer of the lecturer who is the creator of these latest plans.