Planning Board Meeting

Welcome to the May 12th, 2026 meeting of the Cambridge Planning Board. My name is Tom Sieniewicz and I am the Chair. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court and approved by the Governor, The city is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge Planning Board. All board members, applicants, and members of the public will state their name before speaking and all votes will be taken by roll call. Members of the public will be kept on mute until it is time for public comment. And I will give instructions for public comment at that time. And you can also find instructions on the city's webpage for remote planning board meetings. This meeting is being video and audio recorded and is being streamed live on the City of Cambridge's online meeting portal and on cable television channel 22 within Cambridge.

There will also be a transcript made of these proceedings. I'll start by asking staff to take board member attendance and to verify that all members are audible.

H. Theodore Cohen, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you? Ted is absent. Mary Flynn, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

I'm present and it is visible and audible.

Thank you. Mary Lydecker, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you. Diego Macias, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you? Present, visible, and audible. Thank you, Diego. Ashley Tan, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you. Carolyn Zern, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you. Going to the associate members, Dan Anderson, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

I have and yes to all the above.

Thank you. And Joy Jackson, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you. And finally, the Chair, Tom Sieniewicz, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you? Present, visible, and audible. Okay, we have six regular members present and two associate members present.

Thank you. The first item is an update from the Community Development Department. If you would please also introduce any staff members that are present at the meeting this evening, Evan. Thank you.

Thank you, yes. Evan Spatrini, I'm the Senior Manager for Zoning and Development. With me also from Zoning and Development, Swathi Joseph is here, Jeff Roberts also here. and also from CDD in our community planning and design division, Eric Thorkelson, one of our urban designers. And I believe that is it for city staff. Tonight, we have one general business item. This is a planning board advisory consultation. This is the I'll give a more detailed intro later, but this is the second of two advisory consultations for this project. This is the first and only meeting that the planning board will have in May, so a light month. This month, but June will be a bit busier.

We've got on June 2nd, public hearings on two zoning petitions. regarding active uses on Cambridge Street and Mass Ave. This is a sort of continued conversation from the conversation that we had. orders that couldn't be done in those petitions so so now we have a subsequent set of petitions to look at so that'll be on June 2nd. June 16th, this isn't confirmed yet, but we'll likely have a special permit case to review. So stay tuned for that one.

and then on June 30th, we have the annual utility reports. So that's what's coming up in the next month and a half or so, but I'll stop there and pass it back to the chair.

Thank you, Evan. Are there any questions for Evan or other staff members from board members at this time? No one indicates such. So the next item is an approval of board minutes, of meeting minutes. The board has received certified transcripts for the meetings held on March 31st, 2026. If there are any questions for board members, please state your name and raise your hand. Nobody indicates such. I am looking then for a motion to accept the transcripts as the meeting minutes. Please remember to say your name when you make the motion.

This is Mary Flynn, so moved.

Thank you, Mary. Looking for a second.

This is Diego, second.

Thank you, Diego.

Evan, a roll call vote. Ted Cohen is absent. Mary Flynn?

Yes.

Mary Lydecker?

Yes.

Diego Macias? Yes. Ashley Tan? Yes. Carolyn Zern.

Yes.

And Tom Sieniewicz. Yes.

Great. Thank you. Okay. On to our agenda item. Agenda item number one. 1A. The next item on the agenda is an advisory consultation of case number PBAC-2 at 1740 Massachusetts Avenue, a mixed-use project proposed by Old North Development Company to construct a six-story building to create 71 residential units, 75 long-term and 13 short-term bicycle parking spaces in as well as commercial space in the basement and first floor with a gross floor area of 64,330 square feet. We will begin with staff explaining why this is before us. Then we'll have a presentation from the developer. followed by public comment and then the board will ask questions and finally we'll discuss the proposed design and make recommendations. Evan, turn it over to you.

Thank you. So as I said earlier, this is the second of two required advisory consultation sessions for this project. The board may remember this is the first non-AHO project to go through this planning board advisory consultation process. That's a process that now applies to all residential projects between 50 and 75,000 square feet. and just as a reminder, the purpose of this design review is not for the planning board to grant or deny a permit. but to provide advisory comments on the design and its overall conformance with the city's urban design objectives and guidelines which are summarized in the CDD memos provided The Planning Board reviewed this proposal on February 10th of this year and issued a preliminary report on March 4th.

that was sent to the developer. The developer submitted a set of updated plans and CDD zoning and urban design teams have provided reports to the board and staff members are present to answer any questions. Tonight the board will review the updated proposal and decide what comments to include in a final report.

Great, thank you very much Evan. So the presenter tonight I'm told is Adam Siegel. You'll have up to 30 minutes for your presentation, though we hope you can keep it as concise as possible. I would also encourage you to focus on what's changed since we last saw the proposal in February. I think that's the fastest way and the most efficient way to move the discussion forward. Before you start, if you could introduce any project team members and begin and good evening.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Adam Siegel from Old North Development. I'm here tonight with my partner, Brennan Siever. Our project team is here as well. Peter Quinn from Peter Quinn Architects, Milton Yu from Peter Quinn Architects, Yin-Yin Chen from Peter Quinn Architects. Katia Pezzato from Verdant Landscape Architecture, and Cameron Campbell from Burke Site Civil. And I believe Yin-Yin and Katya have not been elevated to panelists. So Swathi, if you could elevate them to panelists, that'd be appreciated. So we're here tonight to present updates we made incorporating feedback from the CDD and planning board memos. On the first, Peter, if you could share your screen.

What do you want to see in particular, Adam? Sorry. The presentation. Okay. Hang on. Let's go to the first. Okay.

Do you want to start with the first slide, Peter? That's the first slide.

Okay.

So on the first slide, we have an overview of kind of the highlights of modifications we made following, reviewing and responding to the staff report and the planning board report. And I think the most efficient way as the chair mentioned was to go through these comments off the bat. So Peter, if you'd like to take it away and we can run through them. The first two I think actually might be more of your history on this.

Sure. Adam, if you want to start with these and then I can pick it up.

Definitely. So we organized a meeting with the Department of Transportation staff about incorporating blue bikes onto Linnaean Street and potentially modifying the street tree placement to accommodate that. and to also move some of the short-term bike racks that are currently located Thank you for joining us today. But that conversation is ongoing and we intend to hopefully accommodate a blue bike station on Linnean Street toward the intersection and then add short-term bike parking spaces. along the sidewalk and the curb edge. There was a comment about Locating pickup and drop off in the front yard.

And I just don't believe that's gonna occur based on this section of the zoning.

Okay.

Pick it up from here. So the first comment was about the space that... is right here on the south side, actually the southeast corner. And what we've done here is we pulled the facade back to create a little bit of space around what we hope will be a coffee shop. and this allows some shelter and some tables and the like. I can show you that in plan as well. Just give me a second. Right there, okay. So the building's already pulled back a little bit from the edge of the property line, but there is a space right in here where some cafe tables could sit. It just gives a little more breathing room overall to this area. So that was one of the first things that we wanted to show you.

This also gets a little more light into this commercial space and make it a very pleasant, what we hope will be a cafe space as well. We also talked a little bit about a building mural and we've been thinking about that as kind of a fun topic. As you probably know, Linnean's breed is named after Carl Linnean, who was the father of botany. and so we you know we're thinking about some sort of botanical element that would be you know built into the The cladding system that we use. And so just made a suggestion here. You know, it's kind of a nice gesture. These actually are plants that are named after him, have his name in the Latin name of it. So going around a little bit to This side here.

Hang on a second. Yeah. So there was a discussion about trying to get more light into these studio units that are over here. and we actually did, I think it's best to show that on the elevation. You just give me a second there. We'll get there. Okay, so we've widened. We are constricted on that by an overall percentage of opening that we can have on this side, given how close it is to the property line. There's specific building code limitations on that. So, you know, we've tried to allocate it a little better so that the studios have generous windows. The studios are sitting right in here.

Partitions were added to the balconies where they are shared with different units and We just wanted to keep it really simple. These are not party decks or anything like that. They're more like flower pots and maybe a couple chairs kind of balcony. So we're just continuing the same railing feature to separate them. Okay, the next section would be the top section of the... The area around the garage door, you may recall we had a garage door in the back section of the building and we did add a of light in that garage door. There are a number of other features here too that I can just speak to all at once. So There's the glazing probably a little more accurately portrayed.

And we also started to detail the brick a little bit, creating these shadow boxes in here. And there's also a It's kind of a turned, I think it's called the Roelock, not Roelock, band course of brick where the bricks are turned to give a little kind of interesting shadow. I think we have a picture of that. like this. Corner, of course, is not 90 degrees, so we'd like to actually Play with that a little bit and have a kind of splayed corner as well. There'll be a lot of other features that we add as we develop the design, but I think we're starting to get a handle on it and looking forward to seeing that develop more. Moving on, the elevators inside the building, not a mundane topic for us because there's...

several white people on this team. And so what we did is we actually made the Elevators, oversized, actually bigger than what's required by the Cambridge bylaw so that we can get cargo bikes. And we found that it was just as easy to do both of these. has these large oversized elevators and they'll take the cargo bikes down to the basement in an instant and any other bike as well. We did map out the routing of the bikes into the building. You'll see this dashboard line as I go through the plans that shows how they get down into the basement and so forth. The quantity of rooftop content service has been greatly reduced. The reason for this is that We are going to a different system on the studios.

So previously we had every studio had a rooftop condenser. and now we are finding that we can do one that is actually inside the unit and will ventilate through the wall with a relatively small penetration of the wall. and this meets the passive house standard. So we really got the rooftop condensers down to just the Larger units, the one bedrooms and larger and the commercial space, which really makes it much easier to deal with in terms of siting and trying to get a large enough solar array up here. It doesn't affect our green roof adversely at all. So we're happy about that outcome. So all the studios, and you know this is a majority studio building, so that really has taken off a lot of condensers from the roof.

And just to continue with that point, we did do a number of studies to show, and we can go through this in a live 3D model that we have available in SketchUp. This is the view you would see from about 500 feet away on Mass Ave. As you can see, you don't really see any rooftop equipment except for the you know the penthouse of the elevator and the shed for the stairways and the like and going a little closer of course you're not going to see anything then But that does show you, you know, we set the parapet at approximately 18 inches above the roofing. There are a couple places we had to go a little higher, but it's mostly 18 inches. And it seems like a reasonable amount. Going in the opposite direction up toward Porter Square, looking back at 450 feet, we're seeing virtually no mechanical equipment as well.

And then a little closer, of course, you're not going to see any there either. And then we started it from Linnian Street. So this would be about 400 feet down, looking back. You don't really see it there, but this is where we raised the parapet up to three feet right in here. This would be the one place you would see it if we had kept it at 18. But actually, I think that helps the massing a little bit to have that staggered. parapet height and then a little closer same kind of thing you don't really see much at all um let's see We'll get to the landscaping in a minute and we'll have Katya make a presentation on that. We already talked about the western end of Linnean Street facade. has been given a little more residential scale detail.

So let me show you what that is. You know, in here we were, you know, we have been kind of varying the windows a little bit, but most of the windows, and I think it was a fair criticism, have kind of more of a major streetscape kind of sizing to them. So when we got to the residential end of this, which ends roughly along this line here. We scaled the windows back to singles and doubles rather than triples. And we have a little more Blank Pail as well. So I think that helps a little bit kind of reduce the commercial scale of the window glazing as you get closer to NASA. I can also show you A couple more. That's it for my list, but I just would like to show you a couple of our renderings since you folks asked for those.

So this is the one I already showed you showing the projections and kind of the hierarchy of the bays on the front. and the overhang that we have here that creates a nice extension of the sidewalk along the building edge and that wraps around here. Now when you look at this, this looks like This is right up at that doorway, but there's actually almost a small plaza there, about 12 feet wide, to sit between these planters and that doorway. So it's just an impression of the 3D model. but you know we tried to wrap the kind of landscape thread around the building and Katya can talk about that in a minute. An aerial view, get a good shot of our

Carl Linan, Twin Flowers, and then finally a street view or approximately a street view across Linan Street. and you know here you can see the step down I mentioned about the glazing having been modified but we also are you know stepping the building back to try to get to this lower level as the primary facade you know at just four stories rather than six and then this steps back about five feet and this one steps back I think a little more but yeah basically they're They're all in reference to what we have to our neighbors to the right and the transition to the residential scale of Linnean Street. Excuse me just for a second. A lot of slides.

Yeah, so this is the side where we talked about that. Yeah. and other 3D models which you've seen before in the earlier version. They're about the same now and actually We did get a preview with our team today of this in a 3D live model. I think I'll just not go into these in too much detail because they're better to see in the flyby that we set up. But in the meantime, I'm going to pass the baton here to Katja and I'll keep open the landscape images that we have so she can present that.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. I'm Katia Posadlo, Principal at Verdant Landscape Architecture. We've made just a few updates to the landscape plan in response to a few slight building changes. as well as to the comments from the last meeting. Number one, we've added some low shrubs along the left-hand side of the property, that side property line. It had been all crushed stone in between the fence line and our building. but we've added shrubs along that edge and along the bottom of the page there that you see. We've also, in the upper left-hand corner there, you see a small tree. We had proposed a larger scale tree in that location, but it was pointed out that there might not be enough soil volume accessible to that tree. I substituted it for a much smaller style tree that'll just be a serviceberry instead of a larger shade tree.

We also heard that there was a desire, as Peter has shown in the pretty pictures and renderings that you'll see more of later, there was a desire to incorporate more planters and plantings around the edges and at the entry to the lobby, for example, in this location. but also into the retail on the far corner. So we've added a number of planters. They're heavy duty. I don't know if you know the company Street Life. They're like these fairly heavy duty products that are installed and they have integrated you can have a variety of different configurations of integrated benches so we like the idea that as you walk towards this lobby there'd be two benches on either side that's what the yeah if you could go to a rendering that'd be lovely Yep, there you go. Thank you. So there are cantilevered wood benches that are attached to the planters alongside. So adding greenery as well as bench seating opportunities.

All the planters will be part of a permanent irrigation system so we can be sure they get enough water not only because they're within planters which we Always like to have permanent irrigation in them so people don't have to go out and water them all the time, but also because these are largely located underneath building overhang. So I wanted to make sure that, you know, since they won't get a lot of rainfall, if any, that they'd be adequately watered. Lastly, I'll just note that we do still meet the minimum cool factor score of one. And maybe if you go to the next page, Peter, there's really not much else that has changed on the plans. But if you go to the next page, there's the roof deck, which I guess this also hasn't changed. We still include an extensive green roof of 2,814 square feet. which will be nice and wrap around that amenity deck at the at this level so still very excited about this project and

I think we're also wrapping up a few details regarding cool factor calculations and how things are calculated. So we'll be making a few tweaks and updates to our drawings to make sure we comply perfectly. Thank you.

I also want to mention that now that you reminded me, Katya, the underside of this overhang, you know, we would like to do an you know the longboard material which has a wood-like look but it's actually aluminum it's very commonly used in high quality soffits So they give a nice aesthetic to that experience of walking along that edge. If that's okay for now, I would like to bring on our 3D model that's requested, but it's at the pleasure of the chair.

Absolutely, share the 3D model.

Everybody likes a movie, otherwise TikTok and YouTube wouldn't exist, right? Okay, so we could make Yen-Yen. to come forward with her SketchUp model. And actually, it'd be best if you just ran through the movies that you set up and I think you slowed them down so people can take them.

I'm going to show...

This is Yanyan Chen from our office. She's done all these 3D models. Go ahead. Sorry.

Okay. I'm going to share three videos. The first one will be an aerial view of the proposed project and follow with two eye-level views from Mass Ave and Linear Street. The first one will be...

Would anybody like any of that repeated before we go on to the next one?

Okay, the next will be eye level on Mass Ave.

Go ahead and get into the next one.

Okay. I'm from West Lenia Street.

Please slow it down a little bit.

If you would like to go back to A specific location, I can show it on the 3D model. It's the same model that used to create these videos.

Well, maybe through the Q&A there may be an opportunity to do that, but I found the models very helpful. Thank you for bringing that tool to the presentation. It's a very comprehensive tool. few of where we stand at the moment so thank you but I think at the moment unless there's specific questions that anybody has for the modeler from the panel from the planning board for the modeler No, so let's move on. Thank you. And thank you, Peter. Sure.

I just would like to point out, if I may... that you know the building has a lot of subtleties of shadow lines and little offsets in depth and you know of course playing with black and white and and you can actually see them in that 3D model better probably than anything else just because they move dynamically. But I think that's a kind of a nice feature of the whole building. Adds a lot of character.

Okay, any further comments you'd like to make in your presentation or are you complete at this point? I think that's it. Okay, terrific. Thank you. Sure, thank you. Under the Wire at 24 minutes. Thanks. All right. But who's counting? Thank you. At this point in the hearing, we're going to turn it to public comment. According to the zoning, we take public comment at these design review sessions. And I would like to remind speaker that the board's action is not to approve or deny this particular application, but to provide advisory comments on the design as has been presented both tonight and materials in support of the submission. So any members of the public who wish to speak should now click the button that says raise hand. If you're calling in by phone, you can raise your hand by pressing star 9.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the board had received no written comments for this project on the second review. Written communications received after 5 p.m. yesterday, however, will be entered into the record. So let's see if there's hands. It doesn't appear, at least from my desktop, that there's been any hands raised, but I'll now ask staff to double check that. Evan, are you seeing anybody?

No, there are no hands raised. So I would encourage anyone who does want to speak to use that raise hand function now to get in the queue.

I think that's ample time to press the buttons. It appears that questions have been answered. After all, this is the second. are viewing here and the presentation materials and the presentation have been very thorough. So I'm not surprised that there aren't particular questions at this point. So at that point, at this point in the hearing, I think we'll move from our section on public comment, since nobody is participating and that's fine, understandable, to questions for the project team or for staff. from the board. Is there anybody from the board that has got outstanding questions that they'd like to have addressed at this point? Mary Lydecker.

Thank you. I had a Quick question about the ability to reduce the number of condensers on the roof. It looked like in the documents you're identifying kind of a zone that no longer is required. for meeting the sustainability goals. But what is going in that area where you no longer have condensers? Did you think about expanding the green roof or right now it looks like it's just additional white roof?

Adam, do you want to answer that? Sure. We were looking to maximize the amount of solar panels and potentially expand the green roof. This is the area we have. We have been starting to lay out all of the condensers needed and some of the larger condensers are going to need to be spaced out a little more. So there's going to be some condensers located along the Southside of the elevator head house that aren't currently shown in this plan but are going to be ultimately required to be located there just due to the line set lengths and technical aspects of their capability. So I think some of this white space will be reduced. We are also looking at potentially placing a higher planter on the south side of the common roof deck if there's enough space. We believe we have enough roof loading capacity to handle that.

We are also looking at potentially locating a pergola on the common roof deck as well that we just started thinking about but haven't designed at this stage.

There was also a comment at one time from the staff about making the roof deck larger, and we are limited to the size. or smaller, otherwise it would become a seventh story from a building code point of view. So we have to be careful about that.

Okay, we'll move to Diego.

I have three questions. One is the color of the penthouse. I wonder if that's been looked at to be matched with the white or if the gray that I'm seeing in some of the renderings is sort of the final color for that. The other question is, I think I heard that the bike racks on Linnian Street might move to be more on the sidewalk or more like an urban approach to that. and if that's so, what would replace that space? And then my last question is, I mean, I was really interested to learn about the father of botany, you know, the name being Linian. I didn't know that. It's pretty cool, actually. And I think that's pretty awesome to tie that to the mural. And I was curious because I've... I'm pretty interested in it. I think it looks great. But I'm wondering if sort of as that gets developed, if there's going to be any like community feedback or is there going to be...

I was just going to say, we're not...

Finalizing these colors yet, we're trying to get there. We're treating the main body of the roof structure in the same manner, at this point, as the same manner that we're treating the rest of the building. So you can see we have the same kind of siding up there. It's just the elevator part. which pops up, you know, necessarily behind, above it. We would probably do that in a simple, you know, grayed out panel. You don't actually see a lot of it from the screen, as I said before, so.

We don't want the building to be white. It's intended to be more of a cream color. And in some of these renderings, it appears rather white. We're really just working with the manufacturer of the material. They're opening a new plant in the U.S. and they're going to have a lot of colors available. And we're waiting... We're waiting to receive that color chart so we can make final selections and we'll do that in coordination with CDD once that chart's available. If we want to discuss the bike placement on the sidewalk, right now they're located I think very close to the bikes, the short-term bike space are located quite close to the building. Are you talking about on Linnean Street or Massif? Okay, so on Linnean Street we have bike racks. Right, are those going to stay there? Those will likely stay there, those bike racks, yes.

And then the goal is to introduce a blue bike station. in between the street trees on the sidewalk on Linnean Street. We were talking about it over here in this area. I think between the existing light post and then potentially moving that It was actually going to be, I think there's a new method of breaking up the blue bike stations into two sections. So there could be one on either side of the tree well. One in between the light post and the tree well and another one on the other side of the tree well.

and these are the short term bike spots.

I'm sorry, the final question I didn't get a chance to write down.

Yeah, I'll repeat it. I was curious on the process for the development of that mural that's by the Flowers. Sure.

Yeah. So the manufacturer of the siding will actually print that directly on the material in the factory. And then they number it so it's installed and it goes through the same kind of printing process as the color. So it's very long lasting. It doesn't need to be repainted. In a couple of years, it's not going to fade, is what I'm trying to say. And it's a twin flower, which I believe the Latin term is... Linnea borealis because it was Carl Linnaeus' favorite flower and he named it after himself, I believe. And is that the final design for that mural or is it going to be a process? Not the final design. It's really just the design we came up with and we're open to suggestions, feedback. Any comments that any members of the planning board, community, CDD may have?

Thank you.

Just on that note, I don't know if you know, but at the other end of Linnan Street was the original Harvard Botanical Garden, which, you know, was one of the reasons why it was named Linnan Street as well. Dan, I believe you're up next.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just a couple of questions. One is kind of going back to the roof scape. So have you engaged mechanical engineering on this project or is this still conceptual?

No, we've engaged mechanical engineering and really been diving into that process of locating all the condensers and we have a A condenser layout now that's more advanced than what's shown in this plan.

Okay, so I guess my question is then a little bit more technical, which is the ERV system, is it a centralized system? or are each individual unit getting its own individual ERV?

It's a unitary system. So there is a centralized system for the common areas that's located... in between this roof deck passageway and the condensers shown on the easternmost side. So there's a large centralized system that serves all the It's actually on the other side, west of the elevator head house. And that'll serve down to the basement space, all the common area, the first floor common area, and then all the common... Hallways and corridors. And then there are unitary systems for all the residential units.

Okay, thanks. There was a piece in the staff memo about trying to minimize the exterior facade then. Yes. And so there's a strong trade-off there. So glad to know that you're already working with the MEP and probably addressing those. The other question goes back, I think, to cladding. This is a very Simple question, maybe presupposes an opinion, but in looking at colors, did you consider at all in the renderings as to changing the color of the sixth floor? You have some, you know, I know you're you're waiting on the to provide you with the breakout but it became a little bit more even more pronounced to me in the 3D rendering

that six story makes the building feel a little bit more boxy. And I was just kind of curious whether you'd done additional color, potential color studies in that area.

We've started to look at it. We haven't done a robust color study is the honest answer. We've started gathering materials and we don't have the final materials yet. which has been a little bit challenging, but we're open to having a slightly different queue on the sixth floor. I don't think we wanna go, to a completely contrasting color, but potentially something a little different than the main body. And until we have the colors, it's going to be difficult to accomplish that. They are different textures as well. We have these vertical That's all the questions I have for now.

I may have likely have comments.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Ashley, you're next.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions. One is for the staff and one is for the project team. For the staff, I know this is our first non-AHO project of this process. Can you remind me um should we also be expecting to see you know some materials or mock-up once those have been selected or And then for the project team, I feel like this was discussed last time, but I don't remember, but can you refresh my memory as to why the south side of the building, which we see here, on this ground floor in a second and third floor in a corner is there's you know no windows or transparency can you I can't remember if it was like a butter issue or um

It's right on the property line. You're talking about these surfaces right here, right?

Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Yep. Okay. And will we see a mock-up or some materials? Will that be shared with the planning board, which is what we're used to on larger projects? Staff maybe could address that question.

Sure, I'm happy to jump in on that and other colleagues maybe can can fill in the gaps if I misspeak or miss anything. I think because this isn't a special permit We certainly have done this for AHO projects. The developers have have provided opportunities for planning board members to review those materials. So that could be a conversation with the developer, but I'm not sure if we would be able to require that.

Thank you, Evan. Mary, been patient.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like a little... More discussion about the comments that were in the staff memo about the differentiating the two facades, the Mass Ave facade versus Linnahan Street. I know it seems like it's been tweaked a little bit, but the comment is still in the staff memo. So I would assume that the staff feels like further changes could be made. So I'm just curious as to What the project team's thinking is in regard to that and also to the articulation of the of the top I am happy to know that you're thinking about a pergola and it seems to me like you know to the extent that you could see more greenery or whatever

But anyway, your thoughts on where you are on Linnean versus Mass Ave facades.

Yeah, Peter Quinn here. So I think... you know given that um you know the building as a whole has to hold together and I think we you know we felt like we have the vocabulary to change the scale as we get closer to residential end of The building on Lydian Street, we just need to implement it. And so that's what we did. We didn't want to take like a wholesale different kind of building approach. Changing colors, maybe different kinds of trim and all that sort of thing. There's just not enough building there to do that. And it may not be convincing. So this is a more subtle approach that we're We're proposing here. We also think that Massing is working with us with these step backs.

and the step backs actually start at the edge of this Bay projection here so you have you know one here another one here then they step back vertically this way so as I mentioned before so I think it's like something I would just put it forward as a subtle approach and we're hoping that it works. I do have... A sort of a composite street view that might be useful. It just takes me a second to bring it up because it was in the backup material. Hang on a sec. That's a contextual segment.

So

You know, kind of, you know, I mean, we're dealing with the scale of a building, which is obviously much bigger than, you know, the neighborhood, although there are plenty of four and five-story buildings right around. And even on Linan Street, there's a number of four-story buildings. Four and a half. So the important thing is to get this massing down to four stories and then to put in it Windows that, you know, seem to be of scale that is appropriate to that. Now, we did not render these other buildings here, but, you know, I'm sure you can imagine they're generous Victorian kind of windows. Mm-hmm. But that's kind of like how we started with this was to you know kind of look at you know this box uh as a as a kind of massing and then you know we step up to ours and then step up further um and you know our Our alignments are what they are because we're dealing with a commercial building.

So obviously our second floor is going to be much higher than the second floor of these buildings. Yeah, so that's kind of where we took the approach subtler.

Okay, and any further thoughts about ways to articulate that talk? Top level, more, I know you said potentially look at a different color, but, you know, anything to sort of eliminate or improve upon the boxy look.

We're definitely going to look at coloration and texture. As Adam said, we do have a different material between lower and upper. I don't know if you saw that in this model where I just blew it up. but this has got this vertical material so even if I mean you can imagine even if they were the same color they would look different because of the way because of the grain and the material being different. So yeah, there's a lot to study here. And we're certainly gonna do a mock-up ourselves. if not for public viewing, just to make sure we get it right. Great.

All right. Thank you.

Yeah, sure. Great. Thank you. I have one question and it actually related. It relates to the mural, you got my attention. It's more of a, I guess, a suggestion. I know of two botanical murals and There's one, I believe it's on Sydney Street, near Sydney and Erie Street. I don't know what's going on in the building. It's a commercial building, but it's got flowers painted on it. But the interesting thing about it, and this is why it relates to Linnéan Street, is that they actually show a line and then show what the root structure would look like. So it looks Botanical, right? Because it's some kind of scientific research building but it's got all of these plant specimens and they look like specimens because they aren't just renderings of flowers. They actually show The Roots. And that's kind of cool because suddenly it becomes like botany rather than flowers.

So I would ask you to potentially have a quick look at that, Peter and Adam, to see. whether that's something that could be incorporated here which would make it or Botanical. I know this is just a placeholder, an idea, and I think it's a lovely idea that it locks this building into this particular place, into a piece of Cambridge history. It gives it a sense of place and a So it captured my imagination. The other question is just building on Ashley's observation about the panels, the blank panel. I was particularly struck in the view from 500 feet down Mass Ave, 3D.11 shows how prominent that panel is. Now, I know there's a zero lot line there. But that to me looks like another place where you could put something on it.

Now, it's on somebody's property line, so you're not going to put a big giant flower and bright colors on it. This leads me to another suggestion for a field trip for you. I know of another botanical mural, which is inside. it's at the end of at Brigham and Women's Hospital at the end of what they call the Pike in the Hale building there's a lobby a space a cafeteria in a lobby and there's a blank big blank wall there what they did is they painted as if there was shadows of a tree cast onto the wall. It's uncanny. You go in there, it's like, oh, that's beautiful. And then you realize, well, it's February. There's no leaves on the trees outside, but there's this very subtle shadow Look, now in your renderings, every time your assistant showed her video, the trees are rendered in this very light Project onto the building, right? Soften the building. It's a wonderful rendering technique.

It looks like that. very subtle beautiful artistic sort of botanical rendering so check that out I think there's an opportunity to be more of a placemaker in that in that canvas that sits there I agree with Ashley that's that's unfortunate the way you see that and it presents at 90 degrees the avenue it's very very prominent and it's blank and that's too bad.

So you're thinking of it sort of as a canvas that needs a painting.

Yeah. A subtle one. Yeah. So anyway, this is verging probably I'm jumping into the next section of the of our hearing which is comments and discussion but rather than a question it's a friendly suggestion that maybe you make a couple of field trips to inform your graphic design on the building which I would encourage That process. Okay, so at this point, yeah, the chair misbehaving here, jumping to comments before we finish the questions. But I think the board's questions are exhausted, so we will now move and I'll take my proper position at the end of this. We'll now move to a comments discussion from board members on their proposal as it sits before us tonight. So who wants to start? Mary.

I'm going to jump right in and give you more field trip ideas. The other really beautiful botanical mural in City of Cambridge is in the Annex by Mike Glier. If you go in the lobby and then in the room with, you know those well from meeting with the city. And I think maybe part of what everyone is hedging around is, I think it would be amazing if you engaged in graphic. is and um you know the one by Mike Glier is less strictly botanical if you will right but it um it's so gestural and you know um just beautiful in a different way so um I just want to layer that on felt like I could roll right in and I think also layering on that it was really the south facade that area both on the corner that's right on Mass Ave but also the south West Corner that's facing the neighbors that struck me as the most

Thank you so much for joining us. to look at those, the whole South facade basically for any opportunities to enliven it. But not too much if it's on the lot line, no, too bright colors. I think also layering to everyone else, the color, right now is striking as very contrasting and I was kind of looking at other buildings up and down Mass Ave this week and I noticed that a lot of times when The whites and grays are used. There is still some brick or some red, and I'm not actually necessarily recommending that, but I do think if and when you do any mock-ups, I think even from curiosity, I think we would all love to see that. because we're often talking about

I could imagine that having this more kind of monochromatic or non-colored version might actually play really well with Lesley buildings down the street that kind of lend themselves that way. So just a curiosity about how those will all play together. Nostalgically, I'm going to kind of miss the Walgreens corrugated green. I kind of secretly love that. So I don't know if you can do an homage to that, but you'll have to think through that one. We did talk about the green roof. I love to hear that you guys are thinking about either a pergola or planters, something that makes the deck not necessarily get bigger, but just feel a little bit bigger. Thank you so much for joining us. and then the fences.

I think about this a lot because often we have these very urban large buildings and then the fences that we see for the projects and they're on and a lot, you know, against lots and that might want something that's maybe more residential, if you will. But they just strike me They're so different from what you're doing with the building. They don't feel, they're wood fences that don't feel urban. You're doing all those pickets along the balconies. And I feel like The fence should feel like it's the same high quality investment that the building is getting. Again, it's really a gesture to the neighbors that You're paying attention to it. One side of it, I think, is the opaque six foot. Another side is kind of the open. It transitions to the open forefoot. But it really strikes me as though a residential neighbor built those, not.

and so I would give those attention just in addition to some of the planting that you've added which is nice along those edges to again be kind of gesture towards that that neighborhood side. It did look like you were starting to get some more planting around the base of the building. And I think the street life ones you were picking, Katya, with the benches felt like a nice gesture to encourage people. to be there in the space. The one at the corners kind of bugging me a little bit is that that one looked like it's more custom built. I was wondering if one of the street life circular ones might feel a little bit more Welcoming or again having, you know, sometimes those have the built-in seating as well. So maybe just looking at that one at the corner to make sure it feels like it's all cohesive with the other pieces you have. But overall, appreciate the attention to Thank you.

Thank you. Barry, Diego, you're next.

Yeah, so I think this project has really grown on me. I'm really digging a lot of the decisions that you've made, and I feel like the comments that you've sort of adopted onto your design has been really successful. I'm a big fan of the cargo bike elevators. I think the roof is going to be awesome for the residents. I think also the public-facing aspects of it, like the mural, I think is going to be a great addition. Hopefully that survived and it's a great design. I'll second what Tom and Mary suggested, which is using, you know, Collaborations with artists or references to botanical. Again, the Hartford Botanical Garden is a really interesting historical fact, and I think that gives this building a sense of place and belonging. I I might be in the minority here, but I don't have an issue with the massing. I feel like it's appropriate, especially the 3D views that you showed.

I think that the step back that you did on Linnean Street is pretty successful. Thank you for joining us. A little bit clearer, there's that sort of line that suggests just like one element, and it's nice. I think the previous time we saw this, it was a little bit broken, but I feel like the, you know, juggling of the residential and commercial has become a much more cohesive design. And yeah, thank you. Look forward to seeing it.

Thank you, Diego. Dan, you're next.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Excuse me, just a few comments. One that I had alluded to, and I don't think it's a matter of massing, Diego. I like the massing of the building as well. I think the color study, as you guys have talked about, of that sixth attic floor would help. reinforce that four-story banding and I think make the building read more since there really isn't room for a step back. Anyway, that's a suggestion that I think you guys will take a look at and don't need to belabor it. Like Tom, I think there's a real opportunity at that South East Corner, really to do something with that upper balcony. That's South Illinois. I was just looking back at the plans and hoping that there were more residential windows in that west corner.

It seems like there are windows in the plan, so maybe that hasn't quite advanced to that level. But really, I think even looking at the west elevation, I'd love to see that kind of north elevation and residential window treatment wrap around to the west rather than continuing that kind of major vertical banding. I think, Peter, that the sensitivity that you're showing to Linnean really can wrap around to that face that's neighborhood-facing. and not necessarily be the same vertical language that's the public street front on Mass Ave and the name. and it does look like there's some opportunities for some additional windows to the south for those units. I'm not quite sure if that's just that we're looking at the top floor plan which has that one window but Potentially, since you're back at five feet, you may be limited by the 25%.

I'm not quite sure what is driving The window placement there on the south to the west. So there's your west elevation. There's your major verticals. If there's an opportunity to wrap the more punch window residential feel that you have on the balconies. and wrap that back to the west side. That may help it feel more three-dimensional and less facade to facade. Again, take that as a suggestion and a comment. But then I guess as you wrap again from the west to the south, the current elevations show no windows where Mary had pointed. did that out um there are some windows shown in plan again you may be

A little bit more limited on the percent of glazing opening per floor, but maybe those windows could be some singular windows that might help that facade as well. Again, it's tucked back, but It is residential and neighborhood facing.

Yeah, I understand. We'll continue to refine these percentages as we get data from our window manufacturer.

Understood. I believe we took the... Yeah, it's tough in that.

Even if you're back a little bit further than five, you gotta get to 10 feet before you can really have a little bit more flexibility. The last piece, really just at the ground level, I know that you're wrapping some brick back there. That's more, you know, I think there's parking along that side of the building. I'm not suggesting that should all be brick, but maybe a different cladding material rather than the same as the deck above the corner retail. There's something just a little bit I don't know, that's a very minor comment on that choice of breaking up the materials that way. And very last thing, and maybe Mary might support this, the sort of minor rail fencing between the individual units feels

like it could be a little bit more substantial I'm wondering if you considered doing a planter in between something that was had a little bit more substance and maybe um Some plant material could provide a little additional privacy. I know you're trying to be minimal about it, but for a cafe table, you're basically asking your neighbor if you can borrow some sugar. That's my last comment. Thank you. Great job. I think it continues to get better and hope you take my comments in the spirit that they're offered.

Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Carolyn Zern, you're next.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So like everyone else, I appreciate some of the feedback that you guys have or some of the responses. to our feedback from our last meeting. I really appreciate the warming up of the residential entrance and I'm encouraged to hear that you're thinking about adding the pergola and something else to warm up or kind of soften the roof deck. I also encourage you here that you're not committed to the white and that you're looking at some different coloration there. I had a similar comment to Dan's on the plan left, I guess, western side of the southern elevation. And I understand that fenestration, if you're limited for Passive House on fenestration, But maybe a different color there, something to break up that kind of big blank wall feels like it would help and be a nice gesture to the neighborhood.

But other than that, I am in agreement with what my colleagues have said, and I don't want to waste time repeating them. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Carolyn. Ashley Tan.

Thank you. I just want to start off by saying similar to Diego, I'm definitely getting more excited about this project and even looking at the round four plan earlier, I just reminded how this is A very contemporary housing stock there. A lot of the housing stock here is kind of old and just even little details like Thank you so much for joining us. you know this new housing stock is something obviously the city wants to see more of and I'm excited to see The team trying to make this really happen and the video was also super helpful. Ted is not here tonight or else he would be very excited to see the video to give us some context.

And I'm not going to repeat too much, but I think the part that needs more work and everyone else has already given a lot of great advice is that the South facade. The South Corner on the second and third floor. Anything that can be improved would be great. And I also, I think this may have been in the memo from CDD, but even considering More sunshades on the southern facades where the windows or balconies are, I think would also be great additions. So thank you.

Great. Thank you, Ashley. Mary Flynn.

Thank you. I wasn't here for the first review, so I did look at the plants and read the comments, and I have to say, I think you have made a lot of progress. This is one of my least favorite intersections in the city. So I think this is really going to be A wonderful, wonderful change in addition to adding all of the housing units. I think it's a nice architectural statement. And, you know, I think the suggestions that people have made before and continue to make tonight about, you know, working more on the coloring and The blank facades are all things that will make the project even more successful. I really, really like the idea of the nod to Mr. Linnean.

My entire life I've been calling that street Linnean Street. It's good to know at last that I now know how to pronounce it correctly. But I think that's just a great nod. And as Tom said before, it gives the building a nice sense of place and a good nod to Cambridge history. Yeah, I would appreciate it, you know, if you continue, obviously, to work with CDD on a lot of the minor disabilities. Thank you, Mary. Thank you.

Mary, as you know, I just moved to Cambridge 43 years ago, so I've only been saying it Lydian Street for 43 years, not my whole life. but I probably have to admit I'm never going to be able to change the mispronunciation at this point this old dog doesn't learn new tricks too well um uh So I did jump the gun a little bit on my comments and that means I could be a little briefer here. I think Some evidence of how this building is going to evolve were the brick details that Mr. Quinn showed very quickly as he's getting into a whole other level of the design. We're looking at a designer that's taking and finding opportunity either in the weaving of a corner that's not 90 degrees or in a lintel. And that's very exciting to me because this is an architect

who obviously has, I think, a very good partnership with his owner who is evolving the architecture in a really good way, which will be terrific for the city. There'll be a very, very high quality building if that process keeps going. And I have every confidence that it will. I wanted to say... Two other things, focusing in on a detail of the landscape, which was the benches at the front door. Those are benches for perhaps somebody who doesn't live there, right? There are also benches for an elderly person who may be on his way to look for a new pharmacy. or Relocated Pharmacy, right? Who has to take a rest. And for me, that's the very best spirit of

a private developer understanding that he also is shaping the public realm and shaping the experience of people who aren't necessarily his tenants and that spirit which occurs in other places in the building. This is just one example is why I'm on the planning board is to find those moments where the evolution and the development of this city contributes to civic life. and that spirit both in this owner because I don't know if there's any I don't think there's any payback necessarily for the owner to do that rather than it's it's contributing to civic life and I very much appreciate that as an example. And the last comment I want to make is I asked you to focus in on the ways in which the design had evolved since we last met in February.

it's a bit of a trick question but you are graded on that and I'll say the other thing as a planning board member you hope after these hours we spend here on Tuesday nights that we make a difference and we apparently through this discourse, this discussion that we've had with you, we've made a difference. You listened. You didn't do everything. Appreciate that. There's an economic cost. You did what you could. You took the advice seriously and with respect. or at least you presented it in a respectful way. Who knows what you say behind our backs? I don't care. The building got better. You listened. And that's a terrific thing. to understand that these processes on Tuesday night do make a difference in this city. So I wanted to thank you for taking the feedback seriously and incorporating as much of it as possible. as you have and as you could.

So I have every expectation that the helpful comments that have been made tonight, I hope respectfully, will also be taken under advisement as well. With that, I'm looking for, let me go back to my script. What am I looking for? Are there any final comments from anybody else after that? None, Hearing None. So only full members. Oh, sorry, Evan, you got a comment?

Yeah, we just, sorry. One of the neighbors in the butter seems to have their hand up. I see. after the public comments. So we were just wondering if you would allow them to speak and make their comment now.

Well, in the spirit of what I just said, where we've got a team that seems to take discourse and advice to heart, I want to pull the board, but I think we'll... It makes sense to potentially take this out of order. It's unprecedented in my experience. I'm seeing nods from my fellow board member that this is something. And Peter, you were probably going to respond to some of the comments that have been made. just before you speak Peter I want to get this member of the public give them an opportunity to speak to the developer and to the planning board on the record so Evan thank you for drawing my attention to that and with that I will ask that the speaker, that you unmute them and that the speaker identify themselves, give their name and their address. And if Mr. Bentley would, yeah. If Mr. Bentley would go.

Do you want me to speak now? I was just going to give you some instructions. Oh, sure, sure. Yeah, there we go. Three minutes. Mr. Bentley, go ahead. Yeah, thank you for, I think this is a nice improvement. I'm very grateful, Adam. to the architectural team for the softening and acknowledgement of the building.

Just- You could give your address, Mr. Penn?

Sure, it's 1734 Mass Ave.

Thank you.

Thank you. The question had to do with the moving of the condensers off the roof or the reduction in them and simply where will that heat exchange take place? Where will those I'm trying to understand basically if they're split units or however it is, there'll be still some kind of exchange with outside air. And so I'm wondering if they'll be visible, audible, that kind of thing.

Adam, do you want to? Sure.

So the units were... Just one second, we have a technical issue because with the echo it's impossible. I'll mute my... Thank you, Mr. Bentley. Okay, that worked. Okay, go ahead, Mr. Siegel.

We're going to be utilizing these recently, in the past couple of years, Passive House approved Epica units made in Italy. and they have a condenser built inside that's inside of them and it's a unitary system that contains a condenser and an ERV all in one system and they directly vent out the sidewalls So it doesn't add to the venting because we're going to have an ERV vent in either condition, but it's going to be the heat exchange as well. and they're very quiet. We've looked at the sound ratings of them and they're going to be fully compliant with the Cambridge noise ordinance.

So they'll be housed inside the building basically and just have a breathing hole on the outside? Correct. Okay, I get it. Do you have any sense of what the debate, will we be hearing them on the...

I believe at maximum capacity, which will be the coldest winter day, it's about 50 dB at the actual unit, at the side of the building.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Bentley. Okay. Mr. Quinn, traditionally the chair gets the last word, but is there something you need to...

Yes, with all these compliments on the design, as well as fair criticism, I especially want to mentioned some of the other members of our team that helped put this together.

If you don't mind.

No, wonderful. Thank you. Yes, Anam Chan-Wei was... on our staff and she's a superb designer has helped very much and has that great collaborative relationship with Adam and Brendan. and Milton is our zoning specialist and who got us through the gates on all of the peculiarities of the new zoning. As you know, we're first. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Quinn. Okay. With that. I'll go back to the script here, which is only full board members will act on this particular item. So is there a motion to conclude the design consultation and submit a final report with our comments? to the superintendent of buildings. And if you could say your name, if you're willing to support that motion.

This is Mary Flynn. I'll make that motion.

Okay. I'm looking for a second, as always.

This is Mary Lydecker, second.

Okay. The double-barreled Mary motion. With that, Evan, can we have a roll call vote on that?

Sure thing. Ted Cohen is absent. Mary Flynn?

Yes.

Thank you. Mary Lydecker?

Yes.

Diego Macias? Yes. Ashley Tan.

Yes.

Carolyn Zern.

Yes.

And Tom Sieniewicz. Yes. Great. That's all members voting in favor.

Great. Thank you very much. We have one more item, which is not on the agenda, but important nonetheless, which is I have been led to believe or to understand that this is Troy Jackson's last hearing. She's not quitting the board. She's moving to a town across the river and so is no longer eligible to sit. That's a foolish rule. Why don't we have people from, I don't know, from New York City come and sit on the planning board? So I just wanted to thank you for your contribution. for our sometimes thankless job, especially as an associate member, often patiently sitting here and then you don't get to actually vote. Nonetheless, your contributions are very, very much appreciated. Even silence is meaningful. It means that you're You're agreeing with fellow board members and you're moving the hearing on efficiently.

So I've appreciated your smile and your very thoughtful comments from time to time. and your almost perfect attendance, which is a model that the chair maybe needs to learn from. With that, I wanted to thank you very much on behalf of the board and the city of Cambridge for your contributions tonight. So I don't know if you have any parting words.

No, thanks, Tom. Yeah, I'm sad to be leaving, but, you know, also a little bit excited for, you know, moving to a little bit bigger spot. No longer crammed in my one-bedroom apartment at Cambridge Point, so it's, you know... Bittersweet, but I've learned so much from all of you the last couple of years. It's been, I think, just a craft course in zoning and urban design. So I really appreciate all of you. So thank you.

Okay, Joy, they need some help over there across the river. So get on the planning board in Boston and fix them up. Okay, anything else from fellow board members?

Just thanks, Joy, and best of luck in your new home.

Okay, I guess that's it. Thank you, everybody, and we'll see you next month, I gather. Thank you for the good discussion tonight. Good night. Thank you.