Insight
Governor Baker Signs Energy Bill
As Advocacy Chair of the USGBC Massachusetts I have had the privilege to work with the chapter and a broad coalition of other organizations around PACE legislation for commercial buildings. We are very excited to see that the energy bill passed by the MA legislature includes provisions for PACE. This is one portion of a larger bill that focuses on…
Workforce Housing and Innovation Tenants
BisNow’s “The Future of Cambridge: Innovation, Community Engineering and the Spread of the Kendall Square Phenomenon,” moderated by our old friend Rich McKinnon, was an interesting, insightful discussion between public (Tom Evans, the Executive Director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, and Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager of the City of Cambridge), and private (Alex Twining, CEO Twining Properties, and Lawrence…
What Is Density Anyway?
There are a lot of people talking about density these days. Is it good and important for sustainability? Or is it bad and hurts property values? When we talk about density, we rarely define it, but it clearly means very different things to different people. During a recent ULI Technical Assistance Panel I was part of in Provincetown, this really came…
The Housing Ecosystem
People often talk about moving up the housing ladder. The progression is pretty standard for many; from living with your parents, you move to a college dorm and then your first apartment, maybe pausing at a starter condo before buying a house. But not only is the housing ladder getting harder for many people to climb, it’s also missing some…
For Better or Worse, Provincetown is Ahead of the Curve
Provincetown is one of my favorite places – anywhere. I’ve been going there for almost 30 years; I have watched it change, as places do, and I love it now as much as I did then. But like all communities, it has its concerns and issues. So I was honored to be part of an Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance…
Keeping Retail Relevant
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make the retail experience enjoyable, exciting, and relevant for shoppers in 2016. Doug Stephens, a retail consultant and futurist, recently asked in the Financial Post, “If a smartphone is now a store, what is the role of the store?” It raises a lot of questions, many of which can be…
New England AIA COTE Leadership Summit
Many AIA chapters throughout the country have COTE (Committee on the Environment) groups. The New England AIA COTE committees get together yearly to discuss current topics in the industry. Sustainability leaders throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire are invited to participate in the day long series of workshops. I participated in the event on June 2nd,…
IBPSA Workshop
Arrowstreet participated in a workshop last week hosted by the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) Boston chapter, which focused on early energy modeling. The workshop brought together architects and engineers to talk about ways that we can improve upon our processes to facilitate better design integration of energy modeling. We also discussed ways that we can use modeling to demonstrate…
Designing Environmental Advocacy
As Advocacy Chair of the USGBC Massachusetts, it was a pleasure to host in partnership with AIA Massachusetts, a roundtable discussion with a dozen sustainable and environmental focused organizations from the Commonwealth. We had an exciting group of people who advocate for solutions to climate change, education, health, etc…The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss advocacy goals around the…
Economical Design and Boston’s Housing Gap
If you live in the greater Boston area, you’re aware of Boston’s current housing crunch and just how expensive it is to live here; according to a report from real estate data firm Reis, Inc., the average rent in Greater Boston topped $2,000 in 2015. Development and construction in desirable, urban areas is expensive, and as a result, it is often…