Rindge Towers is an

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

development in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

.Cambridge City Council has a future
The Boston Globe, May 16, 1999 Completed in 1970, the three 22-story towers make up a 777-unitHurley, Mary

The Boston Globe, September 12, 1999 apartment complex located in close proximity to the Alewife MBTA station at the terminus of the Red Line. The towers are named for

Frederick H. Rindge Frederick Hastings Rindge (1857–1905) was an American business magnate, patriarch of the illustrious and prominent Rindge family, real estate developer, philanthropist, and writer, of Los Angeles, California. He was a major benefactor to his ...

, the philanthropist who funded construction of

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as CRLS or "Rindge," is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, the Rindge Technical ...

, Cambridge City Hall, and the

Cambridge Public Library The Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts is part of the Minuteman Library Network. It consists of a main library and six branches, located throughout the city. Having developed from the Cambridge Athenaeum, the main library buildin ...

. The towers are built in the

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

style, which advocated dense high-rise housing complexes set within parks and open spaces. This style has since fallen out of fashion in favor of mixed-use and mixed-income development. Also known as "Fresh Pond Apartments I, II and III", the buildings are by far the tallest in

North Cambridge North Cambridge, also known as "Area 11", is a neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts bounded by Porter Square and the Fitchburg Line railroad tracks on the south, the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, Somerville on the northeast, Alewife Brook ...

; their height is estimated at . Originally constructed to spur development in the Alewife region of Cambridge, the towers—like many high-rise housing projects of the era—quickly became associated with crime and fell into disrepair.Flint, Anthon
Giving density a bad name
The Boston Globe, February 23, 2003 Living conditions at the towers have improved from their nadir in the 1980s.Walker, Adria

The Boston Globe, September 24, 2012 However, the complex is still a focus for law enforcement activity, and in 2008 the Cambridge Police opened a substation at the towers.Dunning, Matt
Police open substation at Rindge towers
The Cambridge Chronicle, May 06, 2008

References

Affordable housing Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts Public housing in the United States Modernist architecture in Massachusetts Residential buildings completed in 1971 Skyscrapers in Massachusetts Residential skyscrapers in Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-struct-stub

See also

References