About Kendall Square

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Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kendall Square is the globe’s leading innovation district.  With MIT at its core and Harvard within walking distance, Kendall Square has a 200-year heritage of fostering the kinds of ideas that change the world. It is home to brilliant minds, dreamers and hard workers.

Mathematician. Lab tech. Student. IT inventor. Entrepreneur. Nobel Prize winner. Scientist. Venture capitalist.

The talented people of Kendall Square continue to invent (and re-invent) the future every day. The square’s 24-7 environment -- with welcoming lecture halls, independent film screenings, upscale restaurants and buzzing cafes -- attracts businesses, students, residents, and visitors alike.  With names like Google, Microsoft, Novartis and Genzyme in the neighborhood, it’s no wonder Kendall Square is where the smartest innovators want to be.  Take a trip to the Cambridge Innovation Center or visit the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and be inspired by the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame.  Maybe the 'next great idea' will be your own!

Kendall Square Facts

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  • 1

    Other Reasons to Want to Be Here

    There’s a saying around town these days: “Where are Boston’s best restaurants? In Cambridge.”  Kendall Square is one of Greater Boston’s best places to live, work and play. We are home to inspired cuisine at restaurants like Abigail’s, Catalyst, Evoo, and Hungry Mother;  local pubs and hangouts like Cambridge Brewing Company, Champions, and Mead Hall; and great arts & culture including independent movies at Kendall Square Cinema and live musical performances at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center.  In the warmer months, there’s kayaking on the Charles, outdoor concerts, games on the North Lawn, and farmers’ markets. And when the temperature drops, you can enjoy ice skating at an outdoor rink, great pour over coffee and hot chocolate, and tour the galleries of the List Center for Visual Arts.  With thousands of units of housing in and around the Square, you won’t want to leave!

  • 2

    A History of Innovation

    Kendall Square has a rich history of changing the future.  Everything from the sewing machine to the first phone call to what we now know as email has stemmed from Kendall Square.  And the ideas just keep on coming. Students graduate and stay, investors come here to provide them with funding, and the community helps to accelerate their ideas.

  • 3

    Kendall Square is Still Growing

    Twenty one new restaurants have opened since 2011, and nearly 1,000 units of housing have been built and occupied in the past six years.  In addition, Greater Kendall Square has another nearly five million square feet of development recently completed or in the pipeline, making room for new office, lab and research facilities, as well as residences, restaurants, retail stores, and parks.

    Source: Money Magazine

  • 4

    A+ Location

    Kendall Square is home to the world’s greatest research institution – and the other happens to be within walking distance. MIT and Harvard make Kendall Square one of the most attractive innovation districts in the world, creating new technologies that save and change lives.   The Cambridge Innovation Center has over 300 start-ups – more under one roof than anywhere else in North America.  These companies share space (and beer and ice cream) as well as ideas and energy.  It all pays off; companies located in Kendall Square receive more R&D money per capita than Silicon Valley, Austin, or Research Triangle Park.

  • 5

    Where Great Minds Come to Work

    It’s no coincidence that there are hundreds biotech and technology companies located within one square mile of Kendall Square – including the world’s leading publicly traded technology and biotechnology companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Biogen, Genzyme, Novartis and Pfizer.  And, of course, there’s also MIT.

    With plenty of space to “bump and connect,” scientists and entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to grow and learn from one another to accelerate their ideas.

  • 8

    We walked on the moon. Literally.

    Armstrong’s “one small step for mankind” were made in boots manufactured in Greater Kendall Square by Russian emigre and entrepreneur Abraham Hyde.

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