Kendall Square Google tower advances

Developer Boston Properties has the necessary Cambridge approvals as of early December to build an 18-story, 387,187-square-foot glassy tower at 325 Main Street in busy, busy Kendall Square.

That four-story commercial building is currently best-known as the home of the M.I.T. Coop. The new tower would likely house Google, which already has offices at nearby 355 Main Street (no formal announcement yet from the internet colossus, however).

The project is also expected to produce a new head house for the Red Line’s Kendall Square stop as well as a fresh pedestrian connection from Kendall Plaza to the square’s roof garden. There will also be parking for more than 150 bikes at the new tower and restaurant-slash-retail space on the ground floor.

The tower at 325 Main will, of course, join a wave of fresh development in Kendall. That development includes M.I.T.’s 1.8 million-square-foot Kendall Square Initiative and the university’s redevelopment of the 14-acre Volpe transportation center, which is likely to produce Cambridge’s tallest building.

Can the square handle all of this? Stay tuned.

• Kendall Square tower would replace M.I.T. Coop with possible Google offices [Curbed Boston]
• 7 neighborhoods in the Boston area that everyone should be watching [Curbed Boston]
• As top innovation hub expands, can straining local infrastructure keep pace? [Curbed Boston]