Cambridge plans to take over demolition of Riverview Condominiums, the 66-unit building at 221 Mount Auburn St. where dangerous structural issues were discovered in 2023. Citing concerns around the state of the building, city staff will close adjacent stretches of Mount Auburn and Sparks streets starting Saturday and enact detours, interrupting the usual route to nearby Mount Auburn Hospital.
Update on July 18, 2025: Additionally, the Department of Conservation and Recreation is closing the right westbound lane of Memorial Drive between Hawthorn Street and Gerrys Landing Road, also starting Saturday. Both eastbound lanes and the left westbound lane of this segment of Memorial Drive will remain open to traffic. The closing and detours may last through the end of 2025 “and will significantly affect commuter routes and neighborhood travel,” officials said.
City representatives held a community meeting Thursday at Buckingham Browne & Nichols, a private school near the West Cambridge condos, to present updates on the demolition.
Around the time of the condo’s initial announcement of a demolition in early June, the building’s board reached out to the city saying members wouldn’t be able to undertake the complex and costly demolition alone, deputy city manager Katherine Watkins said. The building overlooking the Charles River rises nine stories or 102 feet and stretches a full half a block from Sparks Street: 232 feet along Mount Auburn and 53 feet along Sparks Street as it meets a parking lot with Bradbury Street to the north.
Now the city plans to use a state law provision allowing local inspectors to demolish a building to protect public safety and recover the cost – over $8.8 million, according to a report by Consigli Construction – through a future sale of the plot by the condo trust.
When the building was evacuated in November, it seemed possible repairs might allow residents to move back in a year. In December, as details of the extent of the problem emerged, the possibility of repair looked less likely. In April, a report confirmed those doubts: Consigli estimated that repairs would take $73.2 million, beyond what made sense for the 66 condos. That left demolition as the most viable option.
The city looks to start demolition in late fall, Watkins said. The city still needs to go to court to confirm its authority to demolish as well as to hire contractors and environmental consultants.
As a complication, contractors cannot enter the structurally unsound building to remove asbestos in its ceilings and tiles. As a result, the whole site will be treated as hazardous in what is called a “nontraditional demolition” by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection; the massive undertaking will require misting and air monitoring to help mitigate dust and asbestos, a fiber toxic when inhaled.
The structural problems arose because the building was not built to its intended design in the 1960s. A combination of incorrectly placed reinforcement and low concrete strength, among other issues detailed in a 310-page report by engineering firm SGH, have created a building that is likely unable to withstand its own weight. Even without people, furniture or snow, the building still has “very low to potentially zero safety factor” according to SGH, and, in a worst-case scenario, is at risk of a “pancake” collapse, Watkins said.
It will not be the first time the public sector has been involved with the development. Riverview was created after the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority exercised eminent domain to take properties on the plot in 1959 as part of urban renewal projects. The authority chose First Realty in a contest to develop Riverview and Bradbury, the neighboring townhouses that are part of the condo trust.
The issues plaguing Riverview were outside the purview of city inspection at the time, city representative Jeremy Warnick said.
“Because of the size of the building, a city inspector would not have been checking the concrete or the reinforcement placement,” Warnick wrote in an email. “It would be the duty of the structural engineer to test and look at the position of the rebar.”
The reasons for such poor construction remain unclear, though archival documents indicate that the companies responsible for the costly mistakes likely still exist. The condo board and city seem focused on the task at hand of demolition, as opposed to investigating an error that is now legally irrelevant, given a statute of limitations on construction that is long expired.
“We certainly encourage [the condo trust] to be exploring that,” city manager Yi-An Huang said. “But it’s hard. Even if there may be some responsibility from the original construction, we’re talking about 65 years ago.”
Several neighbors asked about the plot’s redevelopment at the meeting, though city representatives at the meeting said they were focused on the demolition. Current zoning allows for a seven-story building up to 85 feet in the C-2 district that Riverview is in, though a developer could build higher with a zoning variance.
“It would be up to the condo association to determine how they proceed in terms of rebuilding and selling to a developer, which I think would be kind of likely,” Watkins said. “But that is continued to be determined.”
The process will take an estimated six to eight weeks for engineering and permitting, then 12 to 16 weeks for the actual demolition.
In the meantime, the city will close parts of Mount Auburn and Sparks streets “immediately adjacent” to the building as a “very precautionary” measure, Watkins said. That means detours for all traffic, including MBTA bus routes 71 and 73.
The city is hosting a community meeting over Zoom from 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 24. View documents and sign up for project updates at cambridgema.gov/221mtauburnst.
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Here’s my take.
It will cost substantially more than 8.8 million. It will take more than 12 to 16 weeks for demolition.
When it is finally demolished, and the remediation of the plot is finally completed, it will become a 25 story affordable housing building.
This is a perfect place for such a building. Good bus service on Mt. Auburn, close to the T in Harvard Square and a Star Market less than a mile away. This is what we need in Cambridge.
It will probably cost substantially more than 8.8 million. It will probably take more than 12 to 16 weeks for demolition.
When it is finally demolished, and the remediation of the plot is finally completed, why not have the city buy it and make it affordable housing.
This is a perfect place for affordable housing. Good bus service on Mt. Auburn, close to the T in Harvard Square and a Star Market less than a mile away. This is what we need in Cambridge.
In 2018 I met a guy named Jim Freeman at the park near Fresh Pond and he told me he was an architect and he designed Riverview. He was in his 90s at the time. His obituary says he also designed some of the buildings at Wheelock College. Maybe the administrators at Wheelock should inspect their structural integrity. Jim Freeman’s obituary can be found here;
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/james-freeman-obituary?id=6864345
I agree with @Old Boy. This is an ideal site for affordable housing and a chance for the city to address the housing crisis.