Hey, there! Log in / Register

What if giant question marks lit up the sky in Kendall Square?

Save Our Skyline - because commercial tenants shouldn't be allowed to advertise themselves like they do across the river.

Neighborhoods: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Seems to me that the Cambridge populace has been subject to "Prudential", "Citgo", "SHERATON", etc, for decades now. Why not return the favor and shine some commercialism over at the Beacon Hill crowd?

up
Voting closed 0

And this discussion - there's more going on here than simple concern over aesthetics.

up
Voting closed 0

If this building is half Intersystems and half Microsoft, what's so hard about putting both signs on it?

up
Voting closed 0

Exactly

Who is paying for the "volunteers" collecting the signatures for the ballot?

This is all very strange

up
Voting closed 0

Cambridge should put up the most hideous huge neon signs possible, ONLY along the building faces flush with the river. Until Boston tears down that embarrassing CITGO sign.

up
Voting closed 0

I for one miss the big neon CAIN'S sign that lit up the Cambridge side of the Chuck in the 60s. Maybe it was because of the college summer job I had there one year packing mayonnaise, snapping lids on gallon jars of salad dressings bound for restaurants, debating the Vietnam war with the old guys, and shouting at the long-timers who had gone deaf from the clinking jars on the conveyor belts.

I thought the sign was industrial art and welcome color among MIT's blandness.

up
Voting closed 0

Does she still proudly wave?

up
Voting closed 0

 

up
Voting closed 0

IMAGE(http://www.agilitynut.com/p/shellsign.jpg)

Oh...wait...

up
Voting closed 0

Isn't most of the property fronting the Charles in that area owned by MIT? Doesn't seem likely that they'll go in for huge gaudy advertising. I can understand the concern but if we're going by Boston's skyline then this is hardly going to turn into Las Vegas on the Charles.

up
Voting closed 0

The new sign ordinance modernizes an antiquated and inappropriate variance process. The changes originate from concerns of former ZBA members, city planning staff, and Planning Board members. The staff has been working on these changes for over one year - not in response to one building or one sign. The new policy is based on substance and facts not on corporate vendettas and spin. Intersystems was behind the orchestrated campaign to distort the issue due to their past conflicts with their landlord and co occupants of One Memorial Drive. They manipulated well intentioned groups like the Charles River Conservancy and spread misinformation. I am glad that six members of the city council did not allow personal vendettas to cloud over a substantive and needed policy discussion. In fact - the standards and criteria in the new Special Permit actually will result in smaller and less illuminated signs than nearly every sign that has been approved in recent years by a variance process. The council did a good thing and put signage review in the hands of design professionals and the Planning Board.

up
Voting closed 0

Can we get some full disclosure here, please.

up
Voting closed 0

Kendall Square reminds me of Houston Tx.... I don't see how a neon sign adversely affects the quality of urban life in that part of Cambridge. A good neon or led sign would actually add colour and diversity to a streetscape in which all buildings pretty much look alike no matter there purpose.

up
Voting closed 0