Insight
The New Neighborhood Has Spoken
George Tremblay lent me his copy of the book, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. In it, the author writes, “In a more encompassing suggestion, John Ruskin proposed that we seek two things in our buildings. We want them to shelter us. And we want them to speak to us – to speak to us of whatever we find important and need to be reminded of.”
Community Strategies for Sustainable Development
As a participant on the BSA’s Committee for the Advancement of Sustainability, I wanted to share some information about a free forum on June 19th. The committee promotes a sustainable agenda beyond the immediate focus of architectural practice, and engages other organizations in a dialogue that promotes sustainable principles. This year our task has been to organize a forum which will focus on empowering municipalities across Massachusetts to develop sustainable strategies for buildings, infrastructure, and planning…
Reflections on the Living with Water Charrette
I had the privilege of acting as co-chair for one of the four sites in the ULI Living with Water: The Urban Implications Charette. This event provided an opportunity for a broad range of professionals with diverse expertise to discuss and strategize resiliency strategies related to sea level rise and inland flooding. The goal of the event was to develop real strategies related to planning, design, and public policy to address ongoing and future impacts of climate change…
Living with Water: The Urban Implications
As co-chair of ULI Boston’s Building Resilience Task Force, I am joining other ULI members in a design charrette titled Living with Water: The Urban Implications, on May 8th…
Affordable Housing Development Competition
My students celebrated the end of their semester last night at the awards ceremony for the FHLB Affordable Housing Development Competition. Over the past six weeks they have been working with Donald Alexis from the Caribbean Integration Community Development (CICD) along with architecture and policy students from Harvard’s Kennedy School and Northeastern to design an affordable housing proposal in Mattapan…
BSA Business Model Charrette
The Building Systems Committee at the BSA recently held a charrette on the business of architecture. The charrette was part of a larger symposium titled The Changing Ecosystem for Design Services, which included presentations by American Institute of Architects’ economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA and Phil Bernstein, FAIA. Both presenters discussed current trends and new modes of collaboration that are crossing the traditional boundaries of practice…
Governor Forum on Energy, the Environment and the Innovation Economy
On March 23rd, I attended the Governor Forum on Energy, the Environment and the Innovation Economy at Faneuil Hall. The forum set the stage for Massachusetts Gubernatorial candidates to provide their position on sustainability topics affecting the Commonwealth as well as discusses opportunities to elevate sustainability goals…
Healthy Places – the Getty (Part 1)
Pat Cornelison and I went to Los Angeles to attend ULI’s Healthy Places conference, a very interesting conference on an important topic. I will post about that experience in a separate blog post, but first, I’d like to comment on something else…
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
This week, I attended a symposium about Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. PACE is a way for property owners to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The Massachusetts program is also looking at funding for resiliency measures. Secretary Richard Sullivan’s opening remarks reiterated the Governor’s commitment to a sustainable energy future in Massachusetts…
101 Main Achieves LEED Silver Certification
I’m happy to announce that the new regional offices we designed for BioMed Realty at 101 Main Street received LEED Silver Certification. The office is open, collaborative, and crisply detailed; multiple breakout and “huddle” spaces encourage impromptu discussions and collaboration. We’re proud of the project, and doubly proud of the green design choices (green power, enhanced commissioning, and low-emitting materials, to…