Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the 01/06/2026 meeting of the Cambridge Planning Board. My name is Mary Flynn, and I am the chair. Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2023 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. I'll give instructions for public comment at that time, and you can also find instructions on the city's web page for remote planning board meetings. This meeting is being video and audio recorded. There will also be a transcript of the proceedings. Please note that this meeting is not being streamed live on the city of Cambridge online meeting portal in Cambridge cable television channel twenty two. We'll start this evening by asking staff to take board member attendance and verify that all members are audible. With that, we're gonna go to Jeff.

Thank you, Mary. This is Jeff Roberts. H Theodore Cohen, are you present, and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

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

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you, Mary. Diego Macias, are you present, and is the meeting visible and audible to you? Diego is absent. Tom Sinovich, are you present, and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

Thank you, Tom. Ashley Tan, are you present, and is the meeting visible and audible to you? Ashley is absent. Carolyn Zurn, are you present, and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Present, visible, and audible.

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

Jeff, yes three times.

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

Visible and audible.

Thank you, Joy. And then back to Mary. Can you confirm the meeting is visible and audible to you?

Yes. It's both visible and audible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mary. So with that, we have five planning board members present and two associate members.

Very good. Thank you, Jeff. The first item this evening is an update from the community development department. For that, we're gonna go right back to Jeff. And, Jeff, if you'd also introduce any other staff members who are with you this this evening.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mary. So my name is Jeff Roberts again. I'm the director of zoning and development in the community development department at CDD. I, with me is Swathi Joseph on my team, and we also are joined by Eric Thorklinson, on the, urban design team in community planning and design.

I believe that's all the staff members we have this evening. I'll just, start by saying happy New Year. It's good to see everyone again, and we'll be, off to what will be another meeting of the another year of Cambridge Planning Board. And we're starting off with a a meeting this evening, which is a little bit unusual. We have three design updates that we've put together for the planning board.

This is something that we do from time to time when there's a case that has previously had a a planning board special permit granted and there are changes made to the design because the the planning board's purview includes design review. There are changes that sometimes we and the urban design team believe should come back to the planning board for your input before signing off on on any any permits. So so that's what we're gonna do. So for for those who are who are viewing, we'll be going over those cases. So just keep keep track of what case we're on.

And and if you haven't heard yours, it'll it'll come up. I will note, just for the for the record, we are having some technical difficulties in the city building, so this meeting is only, over Zoom. It will be recorded. But this is an all general business meeting. And following those design updates, we will have the election of the planning board chair and vice chair, which occurs at the first meeting of every calendar year.

So, after tonight, the meetings we have scheduled, we don't have anything scheduled for next week, and we don't have anything scheduled for January 20, which means the next meeting would be January 27. And at that meeting, we'll have a public hearing on a zoning petition that relates to institutional uses. This is some work that we've done along with our law department, and the city council referred that as a zoning petition around the end of last year. It it deals with some legal land use issues having to do with with institutional uses and how those are, how those are regulated under state law. So we'll talk about that more when we get there.

And then the following week, perhaps appropriately, will be our annual town gown report meeting. So we'll be there will be presentations from, Harvard University, MIT, and Lesley University along with some updates from, from our, data manager, Scott Walker, who will will tell us a little bit about, institutional, growth and development in the city. The town gown reports for those three, universities and the Holt International School of Business are on our website now. So, planning board members and members of the the public can can go to the web, under town gown reports and can review those reports. That is where I will leave it at this point, and I'll turn it oh, I'm sorry.

I I did wanna make one other update. So just flipping over to the city council just to give an update on some of the zoning work that that the planning board has seen. The city council met at its last meeting in the year on December 22, and the Massachusetts Avenue zoning petition and the Cambridge Street zoning petitions were both, eligible to be, ordained at that point. The Mass Ave zoning petition was adopted by the city council, so that zoning has gone into effect. That zoning sort of broadly speaking allows, in the section of North Mass Ave, north of, the Cambridge Common, along that corridor allows residential heights up to 12 stories above grade, and there are some additional provisions within Porter Square to allow to allow greater heights under a PUD special permit process.

So the planning board made a a positive recommendation on that. That was it was adopted largely as the planning board saw it. One small change was a putting some stronger mandates for active use in the section of Mass Ave south of Porter Square. So as as cases come through, we'll be able to talk about that a little bit more. And then the Cambridge Rezoning petition was not acted on at the meeting on the twenty second.

The new city council has been inaugurated, and they have their first regular best business meeting next Monday. So they could take it up at next Monday's, city council meeting, or they could take it up in two weeks, before that petition expires. So that is all the updates I have at this time, and now I'll turn it over to the chair.

Thank you, Jeff. Do board members have any questions, on the update? No. Okay. Then let's see. We're gonna move on to the next item, which is approval of meeting minutes. The board has received oh, Tom, did you wanna say something? You're waiting for the next thing. Okay. Yep.

Alright. The board has received certified transcripts for the meetings held on November 18 and 12/09/2025. Do board members have any questions on either set of meeting minutes? Okay. Seeing none, I do need to have a motion on this. This will be for full board members only. Is there a motion to accept the transcripts as the meeting minutes?

This is Tom. So moved.

Thank you, Tom. A second, please.

Ted second.

Thank you. And, Jeff, may we have a roll call vote, please?

On that motion, Ted Cohen?

Yes.

Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich? Yes. Carolyn Zurn? Yes. Mary Flynn?

Yes.

That's all members present voting in favor.

Okay. Thank you. Tom, I know you did wanna say something about that.

Yes. I do note, that I've got a, I need to recuse myself on the first, matter of general business tonight. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you. Alright. The next item on the agenda is a design update on case PB one fifty, a previously granted special permit for a commercial building at 360 Binney Street. CDD staff are going to provide an update as to why this is before. So for that, we're going to go to Jeff.

Thank you, Mary. It's Jeff again. This is a special permit that was originally granted by the planning board in 1999 and enabled the construction of, the 1 Kendall Square development or this this building, which is part of the 1 Kendall Square development. And the current property owner has proposed some changes, to the, lighting on the building. This is lighting that is on the sort of roof area of the building.

It is it has some it's different from the planning board's original approval, and so that's why the urban design staff at CDD wanted to inform the board of the changes and solicit feedback and comments to better guide staff as part of the continuing design review. They the design team for the building owner will present the updates. Eric is here from the urban design team who can provide some input. Susanna had also worked on on this case, but she is is unavailable this evening. So Eric will be able to help with any questions. That's it for me.

Good. Thank you. So the presenter this evening is Rebecca Caulfield. Rebecca, you have up to fifteen minutes for your presentation, though we would ask you to be as concise as possible. And if you would begin by introducing yourself and other members of your project team, we'd appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you for your time this evening. My name is Rebecca Caulfield. I'm the vice president of preconstruction services at PIDC Construction. We are the acting construction manager for Amgen who is the owner of 360 Phoenix Street. I'm joined by Sal Messina, also the PIDC project executive, Chris Gringo Amgen, as well as Charlotte Bosworth, the responsible for the waiting design. Would you like me to share the documents that were distributed, or would it be better just to do a general overview?

I think it would be worthwhile to have the documents available. So if you could bring those up, that would be helpful.

The first is just a cover page that provides an overview of what the the project itself is and just to to briefly summarize that. The building was constructed in the year 2000. And during that time, approximately 700 linear feet of lighting was installed along the the roof parapet to uplight the existing, screen wall. About twenty years later, so 2020, Amgen had undergone some, roofing renovations, essentially reroofing the entire, structure as well as capping the parapet wall. At that time, those existing neon lights were removed in order to support that work.

However, due to, other constraints, schedule, and also COVID nineteen delays during 2020, those lights were not replaced in time. Here we are now five to six years later, having budgets approved, having an updated, light fixture selection as well as updated design, that they're looking to to do a one for one replacement. So, essentially, reinstalling lights in the existing locations or the prior locations, that's 700 or near feet. The differential being that the lights themselves now would be LED fixtures, which is a more energy efficient fixture. As well as being energy efficient, each fixture itself would have a visor, which helps with the snow light into the sky.

The lumen pulse control system, is also, specified for these fixtures, is able to be, handled remotely as well via the BMS for the the building, which allows workers from Amgen to remotely modify the light fixture levels if required. So if there was an issue in the middle of the night, it's capable, to be modified, without having somebody physically on-site. In order to be, in to abide by the city of Cambridge's lighting ordinance and reduce the energy consumption, they would be scheduled to be significantly dimmed or turned off between the hours of 12AM and 6AM. I believe that's a general overview. Again, some of those highlights just covered in that cover page.

We also had shown some images of what the prior install had looked like. Again, the suggested or or the proposed install being one for one replacement. So looking to to match the the prior movements. However, also noting that the designer has the ability to dim the fixtures as needed to meet lighting ordinance levels. This was just a a brief overview of the lighting locations, again, showing this is the the full roof plan in blue, building the locations of where those lights would be run, again, meeting a one for one replacement for prior install.

We did a brief mock up or mark up of the plan just noting where along the parapet lights these would, these would run, the lighter blue area representing what would be a stainless steel bracket, and the darker blue area, noting the fixture itself. We've also included this detail, which is a a little bit more, specification as to what that would look like. Again, a stainless steel bracket mounted to the parapet wall. This is the light fixture, again, which which can be modified, for angle, and then we had drawn in, which would be that visor, which is a special accessory purchase for these lights. In 2020, was when this project was originally, proposed.

Had provided a mock up report at that time. I will go through the details there because I just being respectful of your time. Additionally, we've included a cut sheet for the new proposed light fixture. Fixture. Again, an an LED fixture as opposed to the originally installed neon fixture. And then this is the LuminFull specification, which I alluded to earlier regarding the controls of the light fixtures themselves. So, again, looking to have those programmed, to significantly dim or shut off starting at 12AM and remaining so until 6AM and noting that those can be, handled remotely should there be a request or issue.

Alright. Thank you. That concludes your presentation, my take? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate, the overview and, and you're being so concise. Planning board members, do you have questions or comments for either staff or the proponent? I'm not seeing any. Eric, maybe if you could briefly talk about why you guys why the urban design staff wanted this to come back before us.

Oh. I know.

Let's see. I'm checking Susanna's notes here. We had a last minute substitution. I think she doesn't give a specific reason. I just I imagine it's just because this is a significant aspect of the city's roofscape and just wanted to make sure that you saw it. Okay. Particularly because they haven't been on for several years, and we sort of gotten used to them not being on.

Yeah. Okay. And, Dan, I do see your hand up. But, Jeff, I'm assuming you may wanna add something to the question I just asked. So let's go to you first.

Sure. Thank you, Mary. Just I'll add because I I help in meeting with Susanna and and the developer team on this, the the owner's team. You know, the the issue of lighting at the at the roof level of a building is something that's always been a bit of a sensitive issue. It's something that we try to focus on when reviewing things before the planning board because sometimes that it's an issue that gets overlooked, and and it's not until the building is actually built and some of the some of that illumination comes on that people start to understand better the impact that it has.

I I think some some members of the board may may recall a lot of the discussions that have happened around lighting. Also, you know, the urban design staff will make sure that when projects come to the planning board that there is a night view so that, you know, it accurately reflects what the what the lighting would look like. So given that the the lighting hasn't been on for a while and given that it's a it is a change that does impact the appearance of the building, we thought it was important for the board to have an opportunity to to see it and ask questions. I think in terms of the in terms of the specific concerns that we might have, I think those those are issues that are covered pretty well in in the letter in the presentation in terms of whether the light lighting would be adjustable, where the lighting is directed, making sure that it it avoids glare or sort of unnecessary, trespass that that might have an impact on the the public or the the broader neighborhood.

Oh, great. Thank you so much. That was very, very helpful. Dan, what what are your comments or questions?

Yeah. Thanks. Just a just a few. I wasn't quite clear about whether the the existing, the original lighting, the neon tubes, were still in place or they had actually been removed. It had a little bit to do with just the disposal of some of those those items.

I think as a general comment, I thought it was a very, very well put together presentation. I appreciate it, and, I think the, it'll be nice to have that lighting back. The other question, really had to do with the the dimming and what was driving that. Certainly, whether it's energy efficiency, or I didn't know whether there was, any kind of neighborhood input or feedback that had asked for that, whether it was just generally good neighborliness and maybe some energy, energy saving. Otherwise, those are my my questions.

K. I

can address those. Okay.

So the knee the neon tubes have been removed already during the reroofing project to you know, for flashings and whatnot. We got involved. They were no longer there. As far as the dimming in a prior, meeting with the city, they just explained, that in a previous type project, there wasn't the availability to remotely dimmer the fixture, and it, you know, became a nuisance in middle of the night when they were going through the commissioning and start up efforts. So we just made sure that this, system is compliant and can achieve that.

Thank you. And what is the the schedule for moving forward with with the new lining?

So the schedule right now is is on a a bit of a hold, I would say, just knowing that we're awaiting this meeting and this discussion. The fixtures themselves don't carry a significant lead time upon approvals, maybe a six to eight week lead time, and the install itself, we anticipated about four weeks. But none of none of that we we've actually started really until we've had this discussion and and received approval from the the c d the CPD.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Board members, comments, any other questions or comments on the the new lending scheme? Ted, let's go to you.

No questions. I do remember when the building was lit previously. I think it was very nice and added a little, you know, excitement to Kendall Square in the evening. And it seems to me that the proponent really has taken into consideration all the things that should be taken into the ability to dim it remotely and the fact that the the lights would be off, I think, from midnight to I remember if they said 6AM or 8AM. So it it seems to me they've addressed all the questions we or any of the neighbors might have, and I think it will be a a fun thing to have the building lit up again.

Thank you, Ted. Anyone have anything to add? Other planning board members. I'm I'm in a second, I guess, Ted's comments. I think I think it will be nice to have have the lighting, but I really do appreciate the the ability to to adjust the levels.

And and I appreciate the, obviously, the compliance with the the lighting one. And it sits off from midnight until 6AM. Because lighting is is was noted always, an issue of concern, for the neighbors. So the ability to be able to switch levels or adjust levels if need be, is is very appealing. Alright.

So I see no other hands up. Thank you for the presentation. We appreciate you coming back to us and, and providing this level of of detail. We do need a motion to conclude the design update. And for this, I need both of the associate members to vote. So both Dan and and I'm sorry. I'm blanking all of a sudden on names here. And, Joy will, be voting on this. So, could I have a motion then to conclude the design update?

This is Carolyn, so moved.

Thank you, Carolyn. And could I have a second, please?

I had second.

Thank you. And, Jeff, a roll call vote, please.

On that motion, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Leidecker? Yes. Tom Sunevich is absent for this case. Carolyn Zurn? Yes. Dan Anderson? Yes. Joy Jackson?

Yes.

And Mary Flynn?

Yes.

All members present voting in favor.

Great. Thank you very much. And thank you again to the proponents, and we look forward to seeing the lights back up.

Thank you so much for your time this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So we're gonna move on to agenda item number two, and I believe that Tom is going to rejoin the meeting for this discussion. This item is a design update on case, p one ninety eight, a previously granted special permit for Discovery Park master plan development that, is comprised of multiple buildings, including the one at 68 Wharton Park Drive. And Jeff is gonna provide an update on this this design change.

Thank you. This is Jeff Roberts once again. So this is a special permit that was originally granted by the planning board in 2004. We're kind of progressing chronologically through time. I don't think that was intentional with the agenda, but I just realized that this is a an a a multi building phase development called Discovery Park, and it included open space improvements as well as the construction of new buildings and the restoration of a, natural, wetland area, near the, the Little River.

So the property owner has proposed some site and landscape changes that, differ from the planning board's original approval. This has been reviewed by the conservation commission, but it also came to us under the continuing review for planning board cases. The urban design staff wanted to inform the board of these changes and solicit feedback and comments on the proposed changes to better guide staff as part of the continuing design review. So the the the ownership team will present the updated plans. And once again, Eric is present to address any comments and questions.

Great. Thank you, Jeff. The presenter this evening is James Rafferty. Mister Rafferty, you will have up to fifteen minutes for your presentation, but please be as concise as possible. So if you would introduce yourself and the other members of your project team.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Good evening, madam chair. For the record, my name is James Rafferty. I'm an attorney with law offices located at 907 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. I'm appearing on behalf of the property owner, Healthpeak Properties. Present with me is senior vice president Claire Brown of Healthpeak, the project architect, Eric Wyant, and the landscape architect, Christian Lemon.

As noted by mister Roberts, this is a Discovery Park as a project that was approved by the planning board in 2004. Some people on the board may be old enough to recall that this was the former campus of the Arthur d Little Company right on Route 2 next to the Boulder Room. A lot has changed over time, but the campus itself contains, several office buildings in a hotel use. The building at 60 Acorn Park had been the home of Forrester Research, a Cambridge based company that, grew up in Cambridge, moved out of the Discovery Park campus years ago. They've actually reduced their footprint and were contemplating, relocating to another municipality.

But the Healthpeak, team was able to convince them that the this was the right location for them to remain. But the building was a bit tired, and it lacked the amenities that marketplaces, office spaces now have. So, as noted by mister Roberts, there has been some, site changes, including the addition of a pickleball pickleball court and a a seating area. But we have had several meetings with the design staff, and they've been helpful. But I'm wondering if we could put up the few pages we submitted because what I'm seeing on my screen doesn't look anything like what we're proposing.

Thank you. I

I wish that was our property. That looks amazing.

Yes. Alright.

So The Oslo Opera House, isn't it?

Yes. It is. Yeah. Yeah. My screens were mixing up here a little bit. Apologies.

Credit to those that have such a command of architecture worldwide. That's something I may have to give mister Cohen credit for.

Yeah. He he been there.

He rivals mister Thorkleston, who I always credit with coming up with obscure references to buildings all over the world. But at any rate, this we can be a little lighter because this is only design review, madam chair, I assume.

Yes. Yes.

So so in this case, this is just to familiarize people with the campus. Most people perhaps know it best from traveling along, Route 2, but it has several internal buildings. And as I noted, there's there's a hotel in the in the Discovery Park project itself. There's also a couple of adjacent multifamily buildings that were built under separate ownership along the area. But this building in particular, 60 Acorn Park, had a single tenant in it.

And as a result of business decisions made by Forrester, they've actually reduced the size of their workforce and are returning three floors of the building back to healthy. So it's gonna go from a single tenant building to a multi tenant building. And one of the ways to activate the building has been determined is to make the lobby area a little more interactive. There has been and is a food use on the Ground Floor, but there's also, been a case when it was a single tenant. There wasn't much, coming and going from the building beyond the employees.

So miss Brown and her team came up with a plan to revitalize the Ground Floor lobby. And one of the elements that's gonna enhance the Ground Floor lobby is the creation or expansion of a terrace on the backside of the building. So mister Wyant will take the board through what what this enhanced terrace looks like and the opportunity. So the changes that we're seeking approval for under design review really are external to the building. They are this terrace area, and the adjoining amenities.

The amenity space has been approved by the Concom, the the amenity space, meaning the area where the pickleball court has has proposed. But mister Wyant, maybe you could pick up with the next image we have.

Thanks, Jim. And I'm just realizing that I accepted this invite passed along from Tom Shaw. So this is not Tom Shaw. This is Eric Wyantz. I'm a design principal at Menta Emma Architects in Boston.

I have a very long and unique history with this site going to back to the early two thousands when I was a very young junior architect and helped work with the design team that actually came up with the original master plan. And over the years, I've worked on a number of changes in subsequent phases of the master plan. Most of the changes have really occurred because of market conditions, and I guess it's kind of a nice segue to talking about why we're here today. With Jim mentioning that Forrester is consolidating their footprint, it really leaves us the opportunity to reimagine the entire Ground Floor. And so we're proposing kind of a a new amenity Ground Floor, that will not only be an amenity for the tenants upstairs, but also for the adjacent buildings.

As part of that amenity, and lobby refresh, where our big idea is really to make a stronger connection from the inside of the building to the outside. So we're opening up the building a number of walls that we're knocking down on the interior. We have a new lobby and lounge space, new fitness, new dining facilities, a new cafe, create new conference center. And we really wanna take advantage of activating, as many of the edges of of the site as possible. And so these are the existing conditions that you can see on the south side of the building.

The existing building is elevated about three or four feet with flood storage beneath the building, and we have a south facing terrace that runs almost along the entire expanse of that edge. It stops short for some peculiar reason on the left side. It doesn't make its way all the way to that edge. But behind that zone is a two story atrium space and and kind of fronted by curtain wall. Yeah.

You can see in the bottom left. Thanks, Christian. So part of the idea is to expand the terrace approximately 30 feet to the left, to the west. We plan to keep the existing staircase and the existing ramp that service, that upper level terrace. I'm gonna let Christian walk through, some of the landscape features, in the subsequent pages.

Alright. Thanks, Eric. Christian Lemon, Lemonbrook, landscape architects. So as Eric mentioned, you know, expanding, the terrace to meet some of the goals of the of the lobby here. So the focus is the dashed red line here, which is a currently landscaped area, and you can see the viewpoint standing below looking up to that area along the road and the approach, down Acorn along this edge here, which is is this area here which we're not disturbing.

So a little bit finer view of the area we're actually looking at. So it's, again, currently landscaped area. There's one river birch tree we proposed to remove and replace with another focal tree, some crushed stone in there. So we're really trying to turn this, you know, current landscape into area to an expanded terrace that that connects back to the, lobby. So in plan here, access out of the lobby to a new paved area here that would be at the same level as the existing terrace.

We'll likely get new pavers and so forth. It won't necessarily exactly match the existing pavers that have been there for some time. And so this elevated south area here, would spill down into, three seating steps here. So it would allow people to sit up on movable tables and chairs here, but also, occupy this edge on the south face south facing view to, the park area. So, again, dash red line there, the existing stairs, terrace, and ramp, and sidewalk all remaining in place.

And then here we have a view of that. Again, the terrace, again, programmed outdoor furniture, with with umbrellas. We know there's some south side. It's gonna get a lot of sun, so we wanna create some shade out there. Again, the ability to casually sit on these seating steps along the edge that spill down to the sidewalk there.

You know, with the intervention, we're gonna affect a little bit of landscape on either side. We plan to reintroduce a focal tree in this area here. And this is the view, coming out of the lobby onto this new terrace here, so you'll have a nice view of the park across the street there and some of the improvements, including the pickleball courts. And then an idea of of walking along the existing sidewalk. These are the existing stairs.

The lobby, is here in the background. So this is the new terrace with furniture and and how it, spills down to the sidewalk along there. And then finally, in the larger context of the improvements for this project, at least exterior improvements, you can see again the terrace here and that on the south side in the park, we've been working, through a series of improvements, the seasonal, like, public seating area here. There's an extension of the current path that ends here at this crosswalk to extend through the park to pickleball courts that will also include a basketball net as well to play through there. And then, you know, we have to do some stormwater mitigation with some planting and so forth there, but this has all been approved by, Hong Kong so far.

So that would, you know, that would summarize the the exterior improvements for this project. So with that, I'll end and turn it back to you, Jim.

Thank you, madam chair. That that does conclude, our presentation. It is, admittedly limited, but it's, the focal point is this Yes. Enhanced terrace. And we're happy to answer any questions. And

Okay. Thank you, Jim and team. We much appreciate your presentation. Planning board members, Anyone have questions or comments at this point? Nope. Let's see. I'm not seeing any. I do, I did have one question in terms of the pickleball courts. Are those gonna be open to the public? You may have said that and I missed it, but are they open to the pub and how is the public gonna know that they're there?

Sure. So the the pickleball courts candidly are, that area is owned by, HealthBeat, and they are intended as an amenity for the tenant. In fact, believe it or not, it was a considerable source of, negotiation with, Forrester's decision to remain at the at the at the campus. So but but it's also the case, and that's miss Brown can confirm that, the tenants are there mostly, Monday to Friday during business hours. So, in discussions with staff, HealthFeak has agreed to put signage up with the phone number on it, because the intention is that members of the public, particularly on the weekends, can use the courts can use the courts.

There is, there is property management people on staff twenty four seven. So if there's any question about access or for some reason the gate was, was locked or whatever, the notion was why not put up a sign with the phone number. But, it is an amenity for the tenants. It's a significant expenditure to keep an existing tenant in place, but there is a willingness to allow for public use, if the tenants are not using it.

Okay. Great. Thank you for that clarification, Jim. Dan, let's go to you.

Alright. Thank you, madam chair. Jim, thanks for the clarification. That was very anticipated. My question about about ownership there that I just, I guess, wanted to start out saying that I really think that this plaza and the new entry will help activate that space.

I think it's a both reasonable and well thought through approach. I think that for those of the people who haven't been back down there, I think it's a considerable improvement. Though, I certainly love the bowling alley, but, you know, I think, I think even Jay Forrester would approve. So I I you know, my one question, I understand this has been approved by Concom and that it is, tenants, owned property. I do know that there have been soccer, goals down there.

And as an advocate for Cambridge youth soccer, I wasn't sure whether that was a use that could continue or whether there've been conversations, with that organization. Active recreation space is tough to come by. So I'm not quite sure how that transpired, but, if that did go away, that's, that's a little bit of a loss.

Right. I could let miss Brown, speak to that, but I my understanding is that that that while the courts will encroach somewhat on the impromptu soccer opportunities there, the idea is to continue to have that amount of open space accessible.

Yeah. Excuse me. Thank you everybody for your time tonight, your consideration of our project. Christian, maybe you can flip back to the plan that showed the open space, and it doesn't quite show that mound. So, Daniel, if you're familiar with the space, you know, there's a yes. Thank you. That is in the middle of those two soccer fields. So it doesn't as a soccer player myself, formerly, it doesn't quite work the way it has always been set up. So we're really activating one side of the green space, and the rest of the green space, we would love to continue to see soccer there. We put up volleyball courts in the, or a volleyball court in the summer. One of our clients hasn't had a staff that loves volleyball, so that's certainly a use we'd love to to see continued here.

Great. Thank you very much.

Sure. Any other questions? Could you just comment briefly on the the replacement tree in terms of, you know, size of the tree, caliper size, etcetera, and and how it compares to what's there today?

Well, we're just entering the the construction documents for, the project, so I don't know if we've necessarily selected the species yet. I don't know if you know, the existing tree is a is a river birch. It grows fairly fast and has not the the longest lifespan, so I don't think we'll be replacing the same tree. I think we'll replace it with something more substantial that can can last longer, and we'll you know, def we're definitely planning because to bring in a size that's definitely of specimen nature size. Okay.

Thank you. Alright. And then I'm just gonna turn briefly to Eric to see if you could just if you have notes from Susanna, if there was any other issues that she was concerned about.

Yes. Thanks. Yes. We we appreciate that it creates additional gathering space and improves the relationship between the building and the reservation and appreciate the seating and the use of the umbrellas, and that it won't be a drop off. We just wanted to make sure that all the access requirements are met in terms of accessibility and appropriate signage is there for the public somehow indicating, you know, when and that it is a public facility with proper, you know, permission for access.

And let's see what else. Yeah. We'd also like to encourage the that it sort of blend in with the kind of rough stone look of the existing kind of retaining walls and so on, you know, the steps at the step seating, things like stacked stone and stone slabs to to just kind of be coherent with the existing look. And she just noted that the pickleball courts have been approved by the conservation committee. And, yeah, again, the the the suggestion about signage, who maintains the courts, and what kind of public access and, you know, which you already went over.

So that's that's helpful. Would wanna minimize fencing. I'm not sure what kind of fencing is needed for these kinds of courts, but maybe don't make it taller than it need be. So that's that's what I've gotten from Susanna. Thanks.

Okay. Great. Thank you, Eric. And I assume, that discussions are continuing on some of those minor points, between the, you know, that development team and CDD. So, I think that's important. Folks, do anybody have any comments or further questions? Tom.

Thank you, madam chair. Just a a comment to say, I think it's a big improvement connecting Susanna's right on, better connection to the reservation through this detail and actually, it makes total sense relative to the the scheme of the building as was pointed out by the architect. Not sure why it stopped initially, but I think it makes it less suburban by connecting the architecture back to the the right of way that's there. And, And, of course, this is Corner Of Cambridge that I'm particularly proud of relative to desuburbanization because of, of course, the trees in the reservation are on the grid of a former parking lot, which has been erased, and the far parking lot has have been been turfed over and now is a field. But you could see the memory of where the cars would have been underneath the trees by the grid of the trees.

So I think it's a wonderful transformation. And as I read that landscape there and I I like the evolution a lot. I'm very much in favor of that.

Great. Thank you, Tom. Any other comments? Final comments from board members. I I tend to agree with with Tom. I think it is it is a big improvement, and it is nice to sort of see this switch from the very traditional straight suburban architecture as as was noted in in just bringing some more liveliness to the area. And I do appreciate the proponents' willingness to, accommodate the public on the weekend. I I appreciate that very much.

Madam chair, madam chair, I think it's worth noting, to mister, Sanavich's point that this is a success of the planning board community development. There were 2,000 surface parking spaces here back in the day. And and what the prior owner did in terms of working with DCI and creating I mean, this they created a green space here that's quite enviable. Yes. And it it's it's a credit to the hard work that's gone on, you know, since the early two thousands in this area.

Yeah. Very well noted. Thank you for pointing that out, Jim. Yeah. It's it is a wonderful resource. There's no doubt about it. Mary, do you have thoughts or questions?

Thank you. So I think primarily just to to assert what everyone else has said that it it is seems like a very thoughtful and nuanced approach to this, and certainly happy that you're able to keep the tenants there. A couple comments on the the kind of plaza area, and I know you guys are still in the design process and have no doubt that you'll resolve everything, especially materially. It's it's very thoughtful, I think, as Eric and Susannah have noted. There are a couple moments where it looks like if you go to one of the aerial views, it looks like on the right side, you have a drop that's over 30 inches.

So I feel like there may be, like, a little bit of attention to how guardrail or wall, you know, so it doesn't become overburdened by code barriers. Wondering about the stair on the left if it needs a handrail on the right side of it as well. Of course, that's a bit following kind of a building code approach to it. And thinking just about those terraces, how they meet the existing walls, whether maybe they wanna be proud, right, so that the steps balance into them. So it's basically just as I think the details on this one will matter because you're stitching into it, and I have no doubt that you guys will look at all of that.

And I really appreciate the the use of a few different materials to make sure that it doesn't, like, the the wood, which can be a little bit hard for those slats, which will add some warmth to this, which is otherwise obviously gonna be quite hard, might consider I I'm I love movable furniture and chairs. Sometimes I still wonder if, like, a backed bench that is wood, sometimes just something that warms it up can be nice too. But I also wonder about the you know, how the terraces hit the plaza flush with a little bit of a lip, you're gonna want I mean, I assume, again, that you'll figure all this stuff out. It's like, well, what's the right way to do it so that it's a proper wheel stop, right, so someone doesn't come tumbling down over that and also making me just wonder about you know, I think, Eric, you you and Susanna addressed that. I think the access seems to be with the crosswalk, you have that you pass through that other area.

So just wondering how that feels for someone who's trying to get through here. And I just have less of a sense of what that plaza is like today if there's anything there that needs to make sure other than signage that people feel like they can come over here. And I appreciate graphically that I agree you're gonna have different pavers, and I I like that you're doing something different with it instead of trying to match it. I think that that starts to add kind of a layered aspect, which I think in cities, it's less suburban. Right? It feels layered and built upon, which is exactly what you're doing in a really thoughtful way. So those are my comments. I appreciate seeing the update.

Great. Thank you, Mary. Okay. I don't see any other board members, with questions at this point. Jim, or team, did you wanna say anything else, in response to anything you've heard this evening?

No. I think the views expressed here are pretty consistent with what we've been hearing, and a lot of the comments from Eric and Susan have informed some of the, versions of this. There was, candidly, an earlier version that had a pull off area here, but it created, some conflict with the bike lane. And for that reason, based on the feedback we got, it was it was removed. So what you're seeing here is really a collaborative effort between CTB and the and the design team.

Great. Alright. Thank you very much. So then we are going to conclude, this with a motion. And once again, on this case, I am appointing both both associate members, Dan and Joy, to, vote on the case. So with that, is there a motion to conclude the design update?

This is Tom. So moved. Thank

you, Tom. Could I have a second, please?

This is Mary. Second.

Thank you very much, Mary. And, Jack, maybe we have a roll call vote.

On that motion, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich?

Yes.

Carolyn Zurn? Yes. Dan Anderson? Yes. Joy Jackson? Yes. Mary Flynn?

Yes.

That's all members voting in favor.

Great. Right. Well, thank you very much to the project.

Thank you, madam chair, for the board. It's always a pleasure to, come before you. Have a good evening.

Likewise. Good night. Mhmm.

Bye.

Alright. So we're moving on to the, last design update for the evening, which is, an update on case p b, three eighty three, a previously granted PUD special permit for a mixed use building at 3 23rd Street. And Jeff is going to provide an update on this case.

Thank you. So, this is another special permit that was granted by the planning board, this one in 2022. It enabled the construction of a 16 story mixed use building. There's currently a tenant fit out application, under review, and it proposes some changes to the building's rooftop mechanicals, which differ from the planning board's original approval. So CDD urban design staff wanted to inform the board of the design changes and solicit feedback and comments on the proposed changes to better guide staff as part of continuing review.

The I believe a representative of the tenant in this case will or the or their, designer will present the updated plans. And, urban design staff, Eric, again, is available, if there are any questions or comments.

Very good. Okay. So I have, the presenter as, Sean McKenna, and you will have up to fifteen minutes for your presentation, and please be as concise as possible. So if you would introduce the project team and begin, please.

Thank you, madam chair. Sean McCannell with Suffolk Construction, and I'll just hand it right off to the billing owner who will introduce the team in the project, Kelly Flynn with Takeda.

Okay. Thank you. Good evening, madam chair. My name is Kelly Flynn. I'm the head of real estate and facilities in The US region for Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

We will be the tenant at 3 23rd Street. I know it's been many years since Takeda's been in front of the planning board. But just by way of background, Takeda is a patient focused r and d driven global biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge. We have chosen to be in Cambridge not only for its innovation, academic excellence, and access to top talent, but for a variety of other reasons. We have long considered Cambridge home, and that is why we have decided to make three twenty third Street our largest global research and development center across the Takeda portfolio and also our US hub.

This new building that we are developing along with BioMed Realty really reflects Takeda's commitment to not only Cambridge, but Kendall Square as well as sustainability. We're building the state of the art facility with some really ambitious sustainability initiatives in mind, including LEED Platinum certification, FitWell, Living Building Core certification, and we anticipate that this building will deliver a 65% reduction in energy use intensity as well as a 40% reduction in embodied carbon. And we're here today specifically to discuss the rooftop energy recovery units and the design of the rooftop that are fundamental to efficiency and in the reduction of the fossil fuel use at this building. So we really appreciate the consideration and time of the planning board tonight. And with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our architectural partner, Charles Cleave Payette, is going to walk through the updated rooftop design for your review.

Thank you very much, Kelly. As she said, I'm Charles Cleave, principal in charge from Payette, and I'm joined as well by Stuart Bauer, my project manager and and associate principal. Hopefully, you're seeing my screen at this point. Maybe not, actually.

No. Not yet.

Now are you seeing my screen?

Yes. Now now we are. Interesting.

Okay. Great. So what we wanna talk about today quickly is a little bit of project context to kind of set the stage for our discussion and then talk about the the approval documents that are embedded in the special permit and then some views of the the building from various stand positions around Cambridge to talk about the visibility of the equipment that we are contemplating. And then at the direction of the CDC staff after we had CDT, CDD staff after we had some discussions with them, they'd suggested that we, complete a study of screening, the potential screening of of some equipment just to see what that would deliver. And so we'll go through all of that today.

And I'm going to move at a fairly quick pace because I know we're we're limited in time. And I also know that I'm gonna be revisiting some material that you've seen relatively recently, but just to make sure that we're all starting on the same page. Looking first at the special permit documentation, here we're seeing our site as viewed from the North looking towards the Southeast and our parcel here that currently the ice skating rink and or sorry, next to the ice skating rink, which you see over here in in green. But we're surrounded with life safety buildings, one residential building that you see in beige. The plan now with looking plan north up and the Ground Floor that has been a big discussion about the the nature of this building and ex extending the public realm.

But the idea that the lower floors of this building are are, you know, public outreaching, including the theater, But then when we get above into the six string 16 stories, we're talking about a life safety building life sciences building. And in elevation, the documentation that was in the special permit really envisioned this very complete coherent sculptural form of a building. It did have a certain amount of mechanical equipment that's envisioned to protrude above that line, but a lot of attention was paid during the design process with yourselves and and others on the CDD staff to to limit the amount of mechanical equipment that would be visible. And in this case here, we're we're looking at the same from the West. And that led to a rendering that we're all familiar with and and actually now starting to see it, you know, come to come to life in in three d, in in real life.

And, you know, we're all very excited about the way the building is taking shape. And as Kelly said, now now Payet has come on board to really talk about what's going on inside the building. And as our programming and design work has taken shape and led to the documentation that Sean has submitted to the city, we are fitting out this building as a life sciences building. It was envisioned initially as about a kind of 60% lab, 40% office split. That's fairly common for these these prototypical buildings.

We're we're occupying it at about a fifty fifty split. So a little bit lower intensity in labs than the building was designed for, but that's all good. It's it's very much consistent with the way the building was designed. However, it's important to understand with these buildings that there are different types of exhaust that are regulated and need to be treated differently. And so there are certain functions within the building that require their exhaust to be brought up to the roof separated from the general exhaust, and we have those both for dedicated exhaust systems in the building programmatically and also fume hoods.

And and like I said, this is all very much consistent with what I think was envisioned when the building was originally conceived. And as a result, through the discussions that that you all were a part of, a certain amount of space on the roof was left aside for accommodation of tenant equipment that was going to come in to provide these ventilation machines that are that are needed. And that happened in two different places. There's a there's a kind of a recessed trough that happens at the penthouse level, and then there's the roof level, which is at the same elevation as the perimeter of the building form. So the idea is that there's a certain amount of roof space there for us to put equipment on top of.

And we've populated those spaces as densely as possible. The the reality is we have a lot of equipment, and it's difficult. As you can imagine, in a tall building, you only have so much roof space. You know, if we were a three story building, we would have the same amount of roof space. So it's very difficult in these tall buildings to accommodate all of the equipment that's needed. But we think that our engineers have done a wonderful job getting the equipment concealed to the greatest extent possible. We have some exhaust infrastructure here. We have our generator here. These are all down in that recess pit, so you can't see them at all. And then when you go up to that upper level, we have a series of really small kind of specialty exhaust that are that are very small.

You you won't be able to see them. A small energy recovery unit that is for specialty dedicated exhaust systems that are that are happening for some of those programs identified in the elevation a few minutes ago. And then we have all all of those things are kind of in the same field as the existing stacks that you can see along the north side of the building. So all of that's happening within the forest that was always envisioned. Then we have our energy recovery unit for our fume hoods.

This is this is our our baby that sits right in the middle of the building. It sits there because it's gathering up the air from the shafts that are in that location. So it's it's placed to capture the air where it needs to be, and it's pulling all that air about 60,000 cubic feet per minute through an energy recovery system that is that is the engine that drives that sustainability goal that that Kelly was talking about. That's really fundamental to Takeda's vision of sustainability and a net zero building, but also Cambridge's goals for what the lab building of the future needs to be. It it leans heavily on these kinds of energy recovery units.

But, unfortunately, because it's that machine that's driving all that energy capture, capturing all the warm air in the winter, all the cold air in the summer, it's relatively large, and so it sticks up above those other units. And what that means when we look back at the same isometric that was in the special permit drawings is this one unit has three stacks that stick up a little bit above the other stacks that we're used to seeing for this project. And what that unit is is it's it's this device. This this is an actual shop drawing from the manufacturer. And and what you can see here in this side view is that there's a box that it's that is is the core of the unit.

That has the heat exchangers in it for energy recovery. And then there's a fan that's sitting next to it. Now in a in a tall building where roofs roof real estate is really constrained, you would typically put this fan unit right on top of that box because then it's as compact as it can possibly be. But we understood, and we've we've agree, I think, that we wanna keep this as quiet as possible visually. And so we've put the fan to the side and used that configuration to minimize its height, but still it requires a sound attenuator and a discharge nozzle and has a certain amount of height to it.

And so what we wanted to do in in response to questions from from the CDD is study whether this taller piece of equipment is going to be visible. Because in truth, by being at the middle of the building rather than at the edge the way that the base building exhaust stacks are, it's it's a little bit more concealed. You can imagine that it's it's hardest to see the things that are in the middle of the building. So we did this study that evaluated where around the perimeter of our site would you be able to see different elements. And so what you can see here is this ellipse in in kind of pink signifies a distance in which you can't see any stacks on top of the building.

So this is very consistent with that rendering that we're all used to seeing in the media about this building. You can't get any sense of what's going on in the roof. Now in the blue here to the north, this is a kind of a theoretical zone where if you were able to see the building, if there were no other buildings in the way or, you know, you're in the right place on the street, if you looked up, now you'd be able to see those base building stacks, the ones that are just part of the original special permit drawings. In this theoretical envelope of yellow, this would be a place where you would be able to see our proposed stacks, but not the blue ones yet. And then outside of that, you're far enough away that you're starting to see the building in elevation, and you'll be able to see anything you want to at that point.

Now all of this is very important to recognize that it's theoretical. This this is these views are dependent on no other buildings getting in your way. And as we all know, all of Kendall Square in this area is actually filled with very tall buildings. So there are very few places where we can get these views that we're looking at in yellow. And, of course, well, I guess out in the out in the the river, we can certainly go out there in our sailboats and see that.

But it's it's very limited and strategic. And what we wanted to do was pick the areas the sites that you've already seen, the the vantage points you've already seen, and and see what did you imagine before and what is the change as a result of our fans. And then we'll add some more views as well in order to be as comprehensive as possible. So in this case, we're at Viewpoint A, and that's coming across the Longfellow Bridge. And we're we're looking back at the building in this location, and this is showing the the stacks in the base building.

But they're on the north side of the building, so they're kind of minimized in this particular view. And then if I click, now I've got the the proposed stacks in place. If I go back and forth really quickly, you might see just a little blip. But in in our take, this is a very subtle event that we're looking at. We go to the next view.

Now here, we're we're kind of at the the south here looking from Kendall Square. Not surprisingly, we're very well screened, so we're never gonna see anything. So the before and after are exactly the same. When we go to Point C here, that's along Binney Street, we look up and we can see just a little bit of those base building stacks, and that's not surprising because we're now on that point to the north. And when we click, you can just see our stacks poke their noses right there.

So I'm gonna click quickly back and forth between those. And then I'm gonna go to the last view that was in the in the design review documents that that have been reviewed over over time. And this is at Point D, and it's along Charles Street. And this particular view, as it was discussed in the past, benefited from a tree that happened to be here, but we we continue to work with it. And so we've modeled in the base building stacks.

You can just see them there. And then when I click and I and our stacks come in, they come in lucky for me, they come in right behind the branch and you can't see them. Not surprisingly, we didn't rest on that, and so we've actually modeled it ourselves moving over to the left a little bit so we could get away from the trees. And we're even a little bit further down the street now, so we're seeing the base building stacks a bit more. And then when we click, you can see that it gets a little bit darker here, and that's our those are our stacks kind of in the same plane.

This is also a point to mention that we have artificially darkened the color of the stacks. We've made them kind of a dark gray in order to ensure that you can see them in this presentation because it's it's very easy for these things to disappear. And in truth, they'll be painted a color to match the rest of the equipment that's up there, which is selected specifically to blend into an average skyline as much as possible. Right? Like an average between a gray day and a blue day.

So then we started to add new vantage points in order to look at the building from other positions to be comprehensive in our analysis of this. And so now I'm showing you only views that include both the base building stacks and our proposed stacks. In this particular case, at 3rd Street in Binney, we can't see anything because everything is below the the roofline. When we go to the Broad and we're we're at Center Drive, you can start to see now we've got a pretty pretty good view towards our building, and you can get a little bit of that noise of the rooftop equipment. And then when we go here at Binnie across Volpe site, you're looking at the building from pretty far away.

It's hard to hard to pick them out, but they're there. If we go over I'm moving fairly quickly, and and we can always back up at any point. Binnie Street aligned with Kendall here. You can you can just catch a glimpse of a dot of a stack up there. And now this is an interesting one along Memorial Drive.

There's as we mentioned, there's always these tall buildings, but, you know, every once a while, you're gonna get a little gap in between the the buildings and you can catch a a view. And so in this case, here we are. We see our rooftop, and there are three stacks right up there that are visible as you go by in your car. And if we're now down towards the the channels right here at near at the base of the Longfellow Bridge on the Cambridge side, here you really can't you really can't see very much. But as you start to back up down the Longfellow towards Boston, they're gonna become more visible.

And I think we've all seen that. As you drive over the bridge, now you can start to see some of the the rooftop mechanical of the of the base building. And we've actually gone out at the CDD's recommendation. We've gone out with our cameras and studied this to make sure that our views are presenting a realistic and and as close as possible representation to the geometry that that we're seeing now that the building is is up in the air. And so we feel like these are very reasonable, rational presentations of the rooftop mechanical.

Having done all that, we talked with the CDD staff about this idea of screening, and they just were wondering. If if you were to come in and say, I got these things sticking up, can I screen them? What does that mean? Well, this is the unit that we're looking at that actually protrudes up above. And the important thing to remember is we cannot screen just the three stacks.

We actually have to screen the whole piece of equipment, and we have to leave the room around the equipment to maintain it. And that includes not just walking around the unit, but also removing those coils that that do the energy recovery work. And so, you know, we haven't designed this. This is really just talking about kind of order of magnitude, but it would be something like this. Almost certainly not quite as simple because it's a heroic event to put a piece of structure like this on the roof after that, but but it would be something of this scale.

And so if you imagine the elevation of the building looking like this and then putting a screen in front of that piece of equipment, we're now adding a pretty significant sized box to the top of the building. Okay? But we've also said that when we look at the building from far away, we can't really see this stuff, so maybe the box isn't that big a deal. We wanted to study that sort of in each case of here's the stacks, here's the stacks with the screen, because the screen is going to be bigger. So in this case, we go back to I'm gonna go back to each of those views that we had added before.

So in this case, we're we're at The Broad again and or we're at the yeah. The Broad and center, and here we see the stacks. Here we see what happens if you put on a screen around it. And so you can see that we've we've generated a larger event there. If we're in this position where we had shifted out onto the street on 3rd, that screen becomes now a more solid thing that we can't see through.

When we're along Memorial Drive, it becomes a larger event again. And perhaps most notably, when you're coming across the Longfellow Bridge, this is this will become a much more significant effect on the skyline of the of the of kind of the building, but also of Cambridge. And we actually even went a little bit further. We went over into that you know, like, if if you were to if you were to come down to that little park, we don't know the name of it, over by MGH and and looked kinda straight across. Here you can see that the the the stack sticking up is there, and when we put a penthouse on top of it, it reads like a little box.

So we did we did reach out to to CBT, and for what it's worth, you know, as the base building architects, they were they were quite firm in saying that they they discourage us from going down this path, that that it's inconsistent with the design that they discussed with the planning board back in the day where everything was very much about the coherence of the sculptural form of the building. We do think it's a building that was conceived as a life science building, and it's being used that way. These kinds of stacks were always anticipated. There was room left on the roof for them to arrive. We think they're have a very limited visibility, and so we we think that's a a very good story associated with this.

And that fundamentally, when we consider doing anything like screening to them, we actually are doing something that's detracting from the architecture, detracting from the story, and not helping the skyline of Cambridge in any way, shape, or form, but actually detracting from it. It's doing something this building doesn't want. And so we're we're hopeful that we can convince you that we have the the sort of most recessive, most respectful limited impact solution to something that we fundamentally need to do.

Alright. Thank you. Does that conclude your presentation?

I'm sorry. Yes. Does.

Alright. Fine. Thank you so much. And thank you for the the extra slides and and perspectives. That was very helpful. Let's turn to the board now. Questions or comments from board members who would like to begin? Ted.

Thank you, madam chair. Well, that was great. It was a terrific presentation. And, generally, I'm a proponent of screening on the roof. But given the the uniqueness of this building and what you've shown us today, I I think it would I would not support screening.

And I think the the the pipes the exhaust pipes themselves are more interesting. But when you talked about, painting them to match this the changing of the sky, I just wondered, have you and CDC CDD considered painting them either the orange or the blue of the skin of the building? So Just curious whether that might be a fun thing to do.

Well, we talked with CBT, the the base building architects about this, and they they apparently had, you know, a lot of discussion through their design effort about the coloring of their rooftop equipment. So their equipment is already going up and in place. And and there's a color a gray that's selected. And to be honest, typically would do this as well is when you're in this kind of world where you're saying this is the building form, and then these are mechanical things that are that are kind of the laziness of the building. We differentiate between the two, and we do have a tendency to to try to find that color that makes them quiet as quiet as possible. But I think in this case, because there is base building equipment far more of it than than we're putting up, we really do need to match their stuff.

K. No. Thank you. It was just a

Yeah. No. It's a cool question. Given given the uniqueness of this building, I think it's a really interesting question. Absolutely.

Thank you, Ted. Tom?

Yeah. I think the the most compelling thing to consider as a board is the argument that was made that these are components that make the tenants' infrastructure super energy efficient. Right? And and if that means that we have to tolerate and I don't know what percentage this would be visually in terms of the mass, you know, a a blip on the mass in return for the high performance of those systems. That's that's not so much of a dilemma for this board member.

I'll take that deal anytime for the really, I think, modest impact of the of the visual the visual impact of these stacks compared to the payoff of of the performance of the mechanical systems and the energy savings. So it's a deal that I'm very interested in. I I personally found the the presentation very clear. Thank you for going back to the original proposal and comparing it to the new one. And I agree that the screening makes it much more impactful than just leaving the pure stack.

So I I appreciate the presentation. I'm I'm clear on where I wanna go on that with it.

Thank you, Tom. Carolyn?

Yeah. I second Tom's comments. I really appreciate Takeda's commitment to sustainability, not just in energy efficiency, but embodied carbon and healthy buildings and and the whole picture. It's really it's it's wonderful and and much appreciated. And I certainly agree that the coloring should match the base building colors. Thank you. This is this is exciting.

Dan?

Thank you, madam chair. Yeah. So, again, great presentation. I think it comes back to me that this kind of rooftop equipment, particularly in Kendall Square, is ubiquitous. I think that it I I would be happy with it screened or unscreened. I think that it, it's relatively minimal in terms of its impact, And it's a bold enough building that I don't think people are are really that concerned about, again, ubiquitous mechanical equipment for lab buildings. So I'm totally in support of approving the project with or without.

Great. Thank you. Alright. And turning once again to Eric. I know, you know, Susanna obviously was concerned about, the rooftops and screening issues. But in addition to that, were there other concerns that she wanted us to

No. You've pretty much covered it. We we want to bring it to you because there was such an interest in the part of the board about the kind of roofscape in in original, presentation. And we'll, during continual review, we can look at color and finish and so on of of all the things up there. Sort We of we really do appreciate all the work the, you know, the the team has done to look at different options and pretty much came down to the same conclusion.

It's probably better just to expose it rather than, you know, make it a much bigger screen around it. As we talked about it, we met, I guess, twice. Yeah. We did meet twice. Mhmm.

You can imagine three, maybe at least, different strategies one could employ with regard to this kind of equipment. On the one hand, the John Hancock in Boston where you've got a very simple building and a kind of fringe of things up on the top that kind of contrast in the kind of appealing way to the, you know, the purity of the of the building. Or 2325 Binney or probably a lot of other buildings where the parapet wall is just tall enough that you can't see what's up there from probably anywhere. And then three, the fog. You know, I am pay I mean, you know, it's fog.

Oops. I I worked on You know, it's really celebrated as a as a as a cool thing on the top of the building. It's totally integrated into the design. And so I I guess my point is with all this, and particularly with future projects, it would be really great to make sure that there's sufficient space allowed for this kind of stuff or sufficient height of parapet or whatever it is that it's that it this tenant equipment, which you can't know how much it's gonna be in in in advance, that there's a strategy to accommodate it. Because in this building, it doesn't look it it looks like, basically, not seeing it or minimizing it is really the best thing rather than trying to make a an event out of it.

And so we just you know, this is gonna keep coming up with these lab buildings, and so just like to lay those out as strategies and and try to build the thinking right into the project from the beginning. So, let's see. What else did she have here? Yeah. Basically, we're comfortable with, you know, with not screening it. And, yeah, it all it all seems like a really great presentation. Thanks very much.

Okay. Thank you, Eric. Yeah. So I I'm in agreement with my my colleagues, I think, that a non screening is is preferable to to trying to trying to screen it further. I think I think the building is amazing, and I think that, you know, a little bit of mechanical equipment does sort of you know, it's it it is an ode to Kettle Square. Right? It's Okay. A little bit that you can see. So I I, I definitely appreciate all of the views that you've looked at, and I know you did a lot of extra work, for this presentation. So, again, it's it's very much appreciated.

So with that, I if there are no further comments from board members, I'm not seeing any hands going up. We, once again, are going to have have to take a motion, or make a motion to conclude the design update. And on this one, as with the other two, items this evening, I'm going to appoint Dan and Joy, to be, voting members. So with that, is there a motion, to conclude this design update?

This is Carolyn Zumoved.

Thank you, Carolyn. And may I have a second, please?

This is Tom. Second.

Thank you, Tom. Jeff, a roll call vote, please.

Yes. On that motion, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich?

Yes.

Carolyn Zurn?

Yes.

Dan Anderson?

Yes.

Joy Jackson?

Yes.

Mary Flynn? Yes. That's all members voting in favor.

Very good. Well, continued, good work, and, we look forward to, project completions. But thank you all very much for your time and your work on this tonight. And with that, we're gonna move to the last item on the agenda, which is the annual election of the planning board chair and vice chair. As most people probably know, both the chair and the vice chair serve a term of one year.

All nominations and voting will be by full planning board members only. And so first, I'm going to open nominations, for chair. Please raise your hand or say your name if you want to nominate someone to serve as chair. And I'm gonna leap right in. And, I would like to nominate Tom Sunevich to be, planning board chair. Are there other nominations? Okay. Seeing none, then,

Jeff may So Mary, thank thank you for the endorsement. Yes.

You have to accept.

For the endorsement. I'll I'll try to fill the big shoes that you wear, and I mean that with all due respect. Yeah. I'm I'm touched. Thank you.

You very much. Yes. Well, I'm I'm very,

very pleased that you're you're willing to step into whatever size shoes I do wear. Let's see. Okay. So are there any other nominations? No. Alright. So, Jeff, let me just clarify. Can I just move on then to the vote, or do I have to close nominations first?

I I recommend taking a or entertaining a motion to close nominations, and then we can just go right to to voting after that.

Alright. Thank you. I know we went over this, but I I still need clarification. Thank you. So is there a motion then to close nominations?

It's Ted so moved.

Thank you. Is there a second?

This is Mary. Second.

Thank you, Mary. And Jeff, a roll call vote on this one.

On, closing nominations, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich? Yes. Carolyn Zurn?

Yes.

Mary Flynn? Yes. That's all five members present voting in favor.

Okay. Alright. So now I, I need to do a, roll call vote to elect, Tom Sinovich as the planning board chair for a term of one year.

Right. So, so I'm gonna do a roll call. This is just a sort of a white they call it a white ballot, I guess, a yes yes or no on electing Tom Sinovich. Ted Cohen? Most definitely yes. Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich? Yes. Carolyn Zurn?

Yes.

Mary Flynn?

Yes.

That's all five members voting in favor of electing Tom Sinovich chair.

Great. Thank you, and congratulations, Tom. Now I'm gonna open nominations for vice chair. Please raise your hand or say your name if you'd like to nominate someone to serve as vice chair. Tom.

Well, I would like to nominate Mary Flynn as vice chair to back me up given my my my checkered attendance record at some time. So somebody with experience, I think, is needed at this point.

Thank you. Alright. Well, I am, happy to accept that nomination. Are there further nominations? Alright. Seeing none then, could I have a motion, please, to close the nominations?

This is Tom. So moved.

Thank you, Tom. Is there a second, please?

Ted second.

Thank you, Ted. And then we need a roll call vote on that.

Yes. On closing nominations for vice chair, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Leidecker?

Yes.

Tom Sinovich? Yes. Carolyn Zurn?

Yes.

And Mary Flynn? Yes. That's all five in favor of closing nominations.

Okay. And then, finally, we need a roll call vote to elect, Mary Flynn as planning board vice chair for a term of one year. Roll call

On vote Yes. On election, Ted Cohen. Most definitely is. Mary Leidecker.

Yes.

Tom Sinovich.

With gratitude, yes.

Carolyn Zurn? Yes. Mary Flynn? Yes. So that's all five in favor of electing Mary Flynn vice chair.

Great. Thank you. Well, thank you all for your support. Much appreciated. It's clear we only do this once a year because we're all so rusty at it. It really does require a script. So that concludes the business on our agenda tonight. Are there any additional comments from staff?

Congratulations to our our new leadership on the board. Look forward to a a great year.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

And any comments from planning board members? Yes. Yeah.

I I just wanted to thank you, Mary, and Tom for your great service this past year. I mean, you've you've been terrific leaders and look forward to it continuing.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ted.

Yeah. Very much appreciated. And thanks to all of you for the amount of support you've given us during during the year. We're looking forward to continuing to work with everybody in 2026. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. So if there's nothing else, I believe we are adjourned. And, happy New Year, everyone, and see you in a few weeks.

Good night.

Happy New Year.