Hey, there! Log in / Register
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Could be...
...that they're too busy creating the next "game changer". Or, they are all from SoCal, where this sort of weather is "winter-like".
Catered lunches?
Do the Kendall Square tech companies provide free lunch to their employees like Google does? That would be an excellent motivation to not venture outside for lunch.
Kendall Square
is incredibly windy, all the damn time. The area around the Biogen 'csmpus' seems to have been deliberately designed to be a wind tunnel.
I work downtown, but I run
I work downtown, but I run home from work most days and pass through Kendall on my way--I always see people outside there around 4-5pm. Maybe they are all working through lunch so they can leave early and enjoy "happy hour" sooner.
Just because you create a
Just because you create a nice space doesn't mean people will occupy it unless given a compelling reason.
/why most postwar design of public space fails
that area is actually usually
that area is actually usually full during the spring and summer!
Holiday
It's also the Friday before a holiday weekend. And at least at my company, most of the employees who work from home some of the week always work from home on Fridays.
Plus, in the shade and by the water, it's not that warm out. A beautiful day for a walk; for sitting and eating, maybe not so.
Has Kendall ever been
Has Kendall ever been anything other then a bunch of dreary windy soulless canyons?
Well it was a swamp followed
Well it was a swamp followed by a busy industrial area which became a toxic wasteland before being cleared for a NASA command center which instead became a parking lot which eventually became the hyper-modern anti-human semi-urban quasi-office lab park thingamajig it is today.
Ten years ago, or even five,
Ten years ago, or even five, you'd have been right. But during the day, at least, the area is much more lively now.
Outside of work hours, not so much.
Local
As someone who works in the area, I can assure you that most people are inside working. The only people who get to have a leisurely lunch outside are either managers or sales people.
People eat there when there is live music
as there often was during the summer. Unfortunately, the live music series finished up at the end of August.
Also, I'd suggest coming back on a Thursday during farmers' market hours (11-2).
Farmers market ended
Farmers market ended yesterday.
I was sad, someone told me it
I was sad, someone told me it ended the week before and that meant I lost my last chance for another meat pie for the year :(
Also, I have sat many times at the outside eating spaces along the water.
I used to
I ate outside regularly when I worked in Kendall Sq, but not over where this photo was taken. The patio in front of CBC/Bon Me/West Bridge/et al. was probably full of people at lunchtime, and probably still is.
It's Obviously Not An Architect's Rendering ...
... they're always filled with imaginary people who'd likely never go to such a place.
Not a usual sight
I worked next door to that area for the past 7 years and that is unusually empty. It was always occupied at lunch when I would go by (and often stop and eat there).... A snap shot is just that, a moment in time, not always representative of normal conditions. Give me a time lapse or a series of shots before I trust the claim. Now lunch prices in KS? those are off the chart. Hard to get a lunch under $10 and at least $15 if you want to be served (minus tip and drinks)...
edit to add: was also taken at 11am when most folks in that area are inside, working!!! lunch rush is closer to 1130-130
Time of day
I work in a building just down the block. Judging by the shadows on the buildings, this picture was taken around 9:00 AM. And since there is no Starbucks or equivalent anywhere near the courtyard, it's no wonder that there's no one sitting around, not to mention that the mornings have been pretty chilly lately. But during lunchtime and the early afternoon, it's difficult to find a table.
ok, it's not just me
That doesn't look like "lunch time". That's how the sun looks at "walk of shame" time.
garden atop a parking garage
when I worked in Kendall years ago, my colleagues and I used to eat lunch on a garden roof atop a parking garage. I don't know if it's still there....
Part of it still is
It was originally put in by Google as a sop to the city, so when they needed to put in a conduit between 5CC and 4CC to accommodate the growth of the Cambridge office, they got permission from the city to take some of that space back in return for putting in other greenspace in the area nearby. But about 2/3s of the original garden is still there.
Rooftop garden existed before Google was a company at all
It goes back to the early 1980s.