THEN & NOW
THE
MAKER’S MARK
BY ELIE LEVINE PHOTOS BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
A
s skyrocketing real estate prices cause rents to soar, maintaining space for the arts in Somerville is increasingly difficult. Still, arts and recreation thrive in a recently developed non-industrial complex—located in a historically industrial space. Along the abandoned B&M railroad line and within one of Somerville’s oldest industrial neighborhoods lies the Somernova business complex. It occupies several repurposed buildings that previously housed older manufacturing facilities, collectively known as the Ames Business Park. This 300,000-square-foot space once housed the former Ames Safety Envelope company that shuttered in 2010. It now includes several newer Somerville businesses, like Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, Artisan’s Asylum, Aeronaut Brewing Company, and the first Greentown Labs building off Park Street. Brandon Wilson, who has served as the executive director of Somerville’s Historic Preservation
22 Then & Now | scoutsomerville.com
Commission for two decades, refers to this stretch as Innovation Row. The zoning ordinance, adopted in December, has established this as a “Fabrication District” that supports the city’s creative economy, from individual artists to technology startups. “It has been encouraging to see how … Somerville, especially under the Curtatone administration, has come to appreciate its older building stock and ways to preserve its architectural craftsmanship and contribution to the streetscape,” she says. “The city’s always had these industrial spaces that have gone from manufacturing to the creative economy,” says Gregory Jenkins, executive director of the Somerville Arts Council. Wilson says the project developed out of two needs: to find new uses for the city’s aging industrial spaces, and to forge and maintain spaces for the arts. “So many spaces in the city have these interesting, cool buildings along the railroad tracks,” she says. “I as a planner want to preserve those buildings, [but] they need to be profitable enough to pay the rents. You can do that by making them attractive
