A jailhouse has stood between Second and Third Streets in East Cambridge since the early 1800s. It sprang up behind the old Middlesex County Courthouse, not long after East Cambridge became a real place, rather than a swamp at the edge of the Charles River. The idea of a jail along Third Street is nearly as old as the neighborhood itself. However, the monster of a building that looms over the street now is something else entirely.
The former Edward J. Sullivan courthouse and jail soars 22 stories above a tightly packed residential neighborhood. It’s not a welcome presence. A classic piece of 1960s government construction, the building is massive in scale, plunked down without public notice or consent, and hugely disruptive to the neighborhood around it.
Comments
This building is one of the most truly hideous buildings imaginable. It should be torn down.
If it is full of asbestos tearing it down is a huge, expensive task.
It is just as expensive to remove the asbestos in order to renovate the building as it is to demolish it, and every plan I have heard assumes that the asbestos has to go. The difference is that the current monstrosity could not be replaced legally because it so exceeds the zoning for the site. That means we're stuck with that big ugly thing plus some cosmetic surgery. I guess we should be thankful that the original plan to cover two blocks didn't go through, and the Bulfinch buildings between Spring and Thorndike are still there beautifying the area.
Hopefully these common sense propositions will take hold.