By Karen Klinger

In Porter Square, it's the building people love to hate.

Some find it an odious structure that not only clashes in its stark modernism with the Victorian buildings in the surrounding neighorhood, but towers over--and obscures--the landmark St. James's Church across the street. To others, it is more of a metaphorical insult, a daily reminder that the city poked an entire neighborhood in the eye by allowing its construction over the strenuous objections of residents.

"It is universally loathed, and rightly so," says Porter Square Neighbors Association President Susan Hunziker.

But the 15-unit condominium complex at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Beech Street, still known as "Long's" for the funeral home previously located on the site, is more than that. As a housing development it has been an abject failure. read more...

By Karen Klinger

For most of its nearly century-long existence in Cambridge, Lesley University has for the most part flown under the civic radar while its much larger neighbor Harvard developed a reputation as a bully boy willing to throw its weight around to get what it wanted, whether new buildings, new properties or new zoning.

But in recent years, Lesley began a rapid expansion program, raising its profile as it grew to a student body of more than 10,000, moved up Massachusetts Avenue from its main campus in the Agassiz neighborhood to establish a second campus in Porter Square and acquired the Art Institute of Boston (AIB).

In its latest move, Lesley announced its intention to establish a third Cambridge campus with a $33.5 million deal to buy seven buildings on the eight-acre campus of the Episcopal Divinity School near Harvard Square. Lesley President Joseph B. Moore said the university would like to use the EDS facilities for student housing, library services and academic space. read more...

As one of Porter Square's monuments to fast food, the former Taco Bell/KFC at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Walden Street was never much to look at and the fare wasn't great, but at least when it was open, it was, well, open and operating.

But it closed well over a year ago, a victim of the state's long-term project to replace the bridge on Walden Street that spans the Fitchburg commuter line tracks. The construction drastically reduced the number of cars using Walden, and with that the flow of customers into the restaurant.

Now the building is boarded up, sitting forlornly with a "For Lease" sign on it, surrounded by an empty parking lot. Most residents always regarded the circa 1950 building as something less than an architectural gem, but in its current state, it easily ranks as an eyesore.

A while back, the building caught the eye of one of Cambridge's graffiti taggers, so now it sports spray-painted ... Art? A Message? read more...

By Karen Klinger

Porter Square residents are wondering what will happen now at the site of the Japanese-Korean Kaya restaurant after the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal turned down the owner's bid to tear down the eatery and put up a 50-room hotel.

Despite a show of support for the project by a number of neighbors, the board voted 4-to-1 at a lengthy February 28 hearing to reject owner Meehn Su Gim's request for a variance to build a five-story hotel and attached 210-seat restaurant on the property at 1924 Massachusetts Ave.

Board member Gus Alexander reflected the majority opinion, saying "It's too much of a building for this site," adding, "You're asking us to rezone the property, and that's not our jurisdiction."

"You get an 'A' for effort," board member Edward Wayland told
Gim and his architect, Michael McKee, noting that they had met repeatedly with abutters and other neighbors over the course of a year and had modified the project to meet their concerns. But he said Gim was attempting to deviate too far from zoning regulations by proposing to build a structure with more than twice the allowable square footage for a commercial building on the site. read more...

By Karen Klinger

Lesley University in March will unveil its latest plans to relocate the Art Institute of Boston to Porter Square by transforming an historic church into a showcase arts complex with studios, galleries, a glass atrium and a library open to the public.

The university merged with the nearly century-old AIB in Kenmore Square a decade ago and had been searching for a new Cambridge location for the school when the opportunity came up in 2006 for it to buy the North Prospect Church, a white-steepled structure circa 1845 conveniently located adjacent to Lesley's University Hall (the old Sears Roebuck building) on Massachusetts Avenue.

At a recent meeting of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, Lesley spokesman Bill Doncaster offered a preview of plans for the site drawn up by the Cambridge-based architectural firm of Bruner/Cott, which has won national awards for its work in turning an old factory in North Adams into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCa), the largest museum of its kind in the United States. read more...