Plans for the Waltham Watch Factory: Worse than condos
Developers in Waltham. They just won't give up! From the Boston Globe:
Borderline hopes our elected leaders don't suck up to the Waltham Watch Factory developers, like many of them did earlier this year to support development near Rte. 128.
Developers have applied for a special permit from the Waltham City Council that would allow them to create a 30-unit "apartment-hotel" at the site of the Waltham Watch factory complex on Crescent Street.Actually, Andrew, it's kind of an old concept, that Waltham has lots of experience with. Excecutive hotels, welfare hotels, long-term hotels, dormitories ... the type of facility aimed at people who have no intention of putting down roots here. Even condos would be better than this.
"It's kind of a new concept," said Andrew Albers, project manager for Colomba Brothers Development Corp. "It's for stays longer than in a hotel but shorter than a year's lease on an apartment."
Borderline hopes our elected leaders don't suck up to the Waltham Watch Factory developers, like many of them did earlier this year to support development near Rte. 128.
posted by Borderline at 11/18/2006 03:42:00 PM
2 Comments:
I am from Waltham, but live in Los Angeles currently. I'm home for the holidays, my parents still live here. The Waltham Watch Factory is such a beautiful building, and there has to be a better use for it than the apartment-hotel idea being proposed. Something like a multi-use cultural center would be so much better. I realize that this has already been done to a limited extent with the old BMC Factory. But you could have an art museum, history museum, natural history museum, science museum, educational facility there, as well as restoring a section of the inside so that it looks like the old factory did when it was in use. So much history has occured in this area. I think there's just an amazing opportunity to create something amazing from an amazing old building. And having a place of learning across the street from a school...doesn't that sound like it makes sense? Maybe the National Park Service could take it over if the City or State either don't have the funds or the inclination. I'm an actor and photographer and I just spent a whole roll of film taking pictures of the building. I'm just brainstorming. And anyway, unless you have such a tourist attraction in the town, what good does this hotel do? The building is enormous. Anyway, I've said my piece...for now.
They did put a museum in the building and the rest of the space is being restored and turned into apartments, retail spaces, and restaurants. You shouldn't talk about things you don't know about. You shouldn't always listen to what newspapers say. They only try to stir things up. Why not check out the watch factory site.
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