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Rindge Towers

Affordable housingBuildings and structures in Cambridge, MassachusettsMassachusetts building and structure stubsModernist architecture in MassachusettsPublic housing in the United States
Residential buildings completed in 1971Residential skyscrapers in MassachusettsSkyscrapers in Massachusetts
Rindge Towers March 2015
Rindge Towers March 2015

Rindge Towers is an affordable housing development in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Completed in 1970, the three 22-story towers make up a 777-unit apartment complex located in close proximity to the Alewife MBTA station at the terminus of the Red Line. The towers are named for Frederick H. Rindge, the philanthropist who funded construction of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge City Hall, and the Cambridge Public Library. The towers are built in the Le Corbusier style, which advocated dense high-rise housing complexes set within parks and open spaces. This style has since fallen out of fashion in favor of mixed-use and mixed-income development. Also known as "Fresh Pond Apartments I, II and III", the buildings are by far the tallest in North Cambridge; their height is estimated at 269 feet (82 m).Originally constructed to spur development in the Alewife region of Cambridge, the towers—like many high-rise housing projects of the era—quickly became associated with crime and fell into disrepair. Living conditions at the towers have improved from their nadir in the 1980s. However, the complex is still a focus for law enforcement activity, and in 2008 the Cambridge Police opened a substation at the towers.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Rindge Towers (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Rindge Towers
Rindge Avenue, Cambridge

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N 42.393 ° E -71.13895 °
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Rindge Avenue 364
02140 Cambridge
Massachusetts, United States
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Rindge Towers March 2015
Rindge Towers March 2015
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Alewife station
Alewife station

Alewife station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station in the North Cambridge neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the northwest terminal of the rapid transit Red Line (part of the MBTA subway system) and a hub for several MBTA bus routes. The station is at the confluence of the Minuteman Bikeway, Alewife Linear Park, Fitchburg Cutoff Path, and Alewife Greenway off Alewife Brook Parkway adjacent to Massachusetts Route 2, with a five-story parking garage for park and ride use. The station has three bike cages. Alewife station is named after nearby Alewife Brook Parkway and Alewife Brook, themselves named after the alewife fish. The Fitchburg Railroad (now the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line) opened through North Cambridge in 1842, followed by the now-closed Lexington Branch and Fitchburg Cutoff branch lines. An extension of the 1912-opened Cambridge–Dorchester line to North Cambridge was first proposed in the 1930s, though planning for the project did not begin until the 1960s. The Red Line Northwest Extension project included a station at Alewife Brook Parkway to capture traffic from Route 2, as a planned extension of the highway was cancelled in 1970. Construction began in 1979; with the planned route to Arlington Heights rejected by Arlington, Alewife became the terminus of the extension. Alewife station opened on March 30, 1985, though some peak-hour service did not run to the station until that December. The station has a single underground island platform, with a busway and glass-roofed fare lobby inside the parking garage. Ramps connecting the garage to Route 2 opened in 1986. The station spurred transit-oriented development on formerly industrial land in the surrounding area. Although designed for two additional levels, the garage has not been expanded; repairs and elevator replacements began in 2018. The station features six works of public art built under the Arts on the Line program.

Danehy Park

Thomas W. Danehy Park is a park in North Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its eastern entrance is at 99 Sherman Street. It is bounded on the north by the MBTA Fitchburg Line and to the west by Fresh Pond Mall. The lands in northwest Cambridge had previously been a brickyard and, from 1952, a city dumping ground. The landfill closed in the early 1970s, at which point the city of Cambridge allowed the MBTA to use the land as a staging area during construction of the Red Line in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The MBTA also dumped soil excavated from tunnels on the site. After a redevelopment effort that cost $11 million, the 50-acre (20 ha) expanse opened to the public in 1990, containing athletic fields, paths, and a wetland area.The park was named after Thomas W. Danehy, mayor of Cambridge from 1978 to 1979. Engineering firm Camp Dresser & McKee led development efforts. Opening ceremonies included a skydiver. Danehy Park increased Cambridge's open space by 20%.Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal often frequented the park with his entourage after its opening, which led to controversy when a limousine was driven onto the park's athletic fields.The park has a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) path made of recycled glass and asphalt designed by the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles that culminates atop a hill that is Cambridge's highest point at 72 feet (22 meters) above sea level.Danehy Park has been identified by the Society of Architectural Historians and American Society of Landscape Architects as one of the first examples of a landfill redeveloped as a park in New England.

WJIB

WJIB (740 AM) is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and serving the Boston DMA. The playlist draws from 5,400 records, concentrating on adult standards from the 1930s through the 1960s, and softer pop music from the 1950s and 1960s. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, along with sister station WJTO in Bath, Maine. WJIB runs no commercial advertisements (instead relying on listener donations, in the same vein as a non-commercial station), and broadcast in AM stereo until the summer of 2012. On August 4, 2017, the station began simulcasting on an FM translator at 101.3 MHz, W267CE. WJIB is an indirect successor to a previous Boston FM station at 96.9 MHz with the same call sign (now WBQT, owned by Beasley Broadcast Group) which in turn descended from WXHR, one of the first FM stations in the Boston area. Coincidentally, what is now WJIB was once owned by Harvey Radio Laboratories, the same company that owned WXHR/WJIB-FM. The AM station was first known as WTAO, then WXHR, and later as WCAS. In 1967, a year after they were sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe, WXHR became WCAS while WXHR-FM changed to WJIB, featured the beautiful music format, and became well known for a nautical-themed station identification featuring a buoy bell and a seagull (now used in modified form by WOCN-FM on Cape Cod). WJIB-FM became WCDJ, a smooth jazz station, in 1990, and the call sign WJIB lapsed. After Kaiser/Globe took over, the AM side at first broadcast a format with music and local news of interest to listeners in Cambridge and nearby communities, but was not very successful. By 1969, WCAS had flipped to Oldies. This was followed in 1972 by a soft rock format that, by 1973, had evolved into a folk/rock format which, while not enormously successful, gained a devoted following in the Boston area. In 1974 and then again in 1975, WCAS was almost sold to religious broadcasters, but both times, citizens groups intervened and thwarted the sales. The format continued even after Kaiser finally sold the station, in 1976, but ended with a sale of the station in 1981 after the then-owners, Dan Murphy and Mel Stone, were forced to file bankruptcy for WCAS. The rest of the 1980s would see a revolving door of owners, call letters, and formats. In the summer of 1991, Bob Bittner purchased the station, then known as WLVG ("We love God") and programming a Black Gospel format. Bittner changed the format to "Earth Radio" (a blend of contemporary music with environmentally-aware public service spots) under the call letters WWEA. The WJIB call letters were applied for by Bittner in 1992 and were granted to him by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the 740 station in Cambridge. Once having gained the WJIB call letters, Bittner switched the station to beautiful music on August 4, 1992, expanding it slightly as the station gained success, and then gradually morphed it into an adult standards station with a slight remainder of beautiful music in the mix, totally programmed by Bittner (WJTO is an almost exact copy music-wise). The station's studio still occupies a section of the original building owned by Harvey Radio Labs, the original proprietors of WXHR and WTAO. Originally a daytime-only station, WJIB gained nighttime power in the early 1990s with an output of five watts. Despite this meager power, WJIB's nighttime signal can be heard inside of Massachusetts Route 128; just outside the 128 belt, listeners usually get Toronto's CFZM at night, with a format similar to that of WJIB. During the spring and summer of 2006, a small construction developer circulated a petition in the local Fresh Pond, Cambridge neighborhood to gauge community support or opposition for tearing down the Concord Avenue buildings that originally housed WTAO and currently house WJIB. The firm proposed the removal of the buildings owned by Cambridge Self Storage, a rental storage company, and their replacement with 220+ 3-4 story condominiums and townhouses. The proposal ran into considerable community opposition, citing traffic congestion on Concord Avenue and surrounding roads.