11 posts tagged “cambridge”

This past weekend Boston hosted a big sporting event.  I am, of course, referring to the 43rd Head of the Charles Regatta, which attracts about 7,000 rowers and 300,000 spectators along the Charles River that separates Cambridge and Boston.  A few friends from sculling camp showed up, and we cheered on people from camp who were racing.  The weather was beautiful, watching rowers navigating the turn before the Eliot Bridge was exciting (and not always without contact between boats), the company was fun, and dinner afterwards at Elephant Walk was delicious.

Have I mentioned that there's a wild turkey that lives in East Cambridge/Kendall Square?  He likes staring at his reflection in buildings and cars.

This picture can barely express the beauty of the sky last night.  The details in the puffy clouds hiding the sun.  The shadows on the edges of the clouds above the sun.  The rays of light and shadow across the sky and toward the horizon.  Eyes are amazing in their ability to capture all these subtleties (as well as having a much greater field of view).

The Ray and Maria Stata Center was designed by architect Frank Gehry for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  I can see it from our office, I frequently walk past it, and I've even attended meetings there, but I'd never taken the time to photograph it.  That finally changed last night as I was one of several photographers to take part in a photography meetup.  Here's a baker's dozen selection from the pictures I took:

Well, it's sort of the new view.  My back is to the window, so it's the view I get a taste of in the rear view mirror on top of the monitor.

I should really set up my camera to take daily time lapse pictures of the construction...

Our office lost power around 10:55am yesterday.  We had front row skybox seats to the rescue mission at One Broadway in Cambridge, a 17-story building across the street from our office.  Apparently maintenance crews were doing routine work on a transformer in the basement of the building and it exploded, unfortunately killing one of the workers (we could see EMTs performing CPR on someone, and even from the 12th floor it didn't look good).  Smoke filled the stairwells, making it difficult for people in the building to get out.  Some threw objects through windows to get fresh air.  Others managed to get out onto the roof of a lower portion of the building that is only four stories high.  A couple firetrucks raised ladders to the lower roof, and several people were evacuated from the roof (we couldn't see the second firetruck used to evacuate people from our vantage point).

A couple images of the view from our office are on the right.  Click on the image below or here for some video I shot (it's not overly exciting).

The news story from the local ABC affiliate, Channel 5 WCVB, can be found here.  More news and images from the Boston Herald article.  (I'd link to the Boston Globe articles, but they're evil and require (free) registration once you start exploring their site.  Boo!  Hiss!  I think that's evil, so no links for them.)

 ◄ Video

My quest for lunch took me past the Broad Canal again and the CELCo building had some deliciously abstract reflections.  This image was not retouched in any way and there was nothing floating on the surface of the water.

I was poking around Microsoft's Live mapping service and noticed they're touting their beta 3D mapping feature so I thought I'd try it out.  I tried to replicate the view from the office, but there are a couple major buildings missing from the skyline.  What happened to the Prudential Center and 111 Huntington Avenue?
 

A closer inspection of the site from the Boston side of the river shows a wonderful rendition of the Christian Science Center (in the foreground), but a big flat space where the two landmark skyscrapers are located.

I was also a little disappointed to find that the Stata Center was not portrayed in three dimensions.

Last Friday, when temperatures were in the 60's, I noticed that one of the local Rhododendrons was flowering.  The poor, confused plant must be wondering what's going on now that temperatures are in the 30's (notice how the leaves are drooped and curled, which is how a Rhododendron protects itself from the cold).  Also in this set is the Cambridge Electric Light Company reflected in the Broad Canal.