Insight
Planning for Net Zero in Cambridge
Recently the USGBC MA’s Advocacy Committee hosted guest speaker Susanne Rasmussen, Director of Transportation and Environmental Planning for the City of Cambridge. Cambridge is leading the way for a net zero future in Massachusetts, and their policy can provide ideas for other municipalities to create successful plans for their communities. Susanne spoke about Cambridge’s Net Zero Plan, the process for developing it,…
Modernizing Historic Buildings
There are a lot of interesting, historic buildings in Boston, and increasingly less space available for new development. As a result, developments like Congress Square are enhancing the best parts of historic buildings, and thoughtfully adding to them to create needed additional space, combining the best of both worlds. An added benefit of building up, opposed to demolishing, is that…
Commuting by Ride Sharing
I commute from Coolidge Corner in Brookline to Arrowstreet’s Post Office Square office on the Green Line. A year ago, I saw small groups of people waiting in the morning for what looked like a private driver. One day I decided to ask what were they waiting for and was told about Bridj. The company operates small, luxurious shuttle buses…
Greenbuild 2015
Greenbuild 2015 in Washington DC was as busy as ever this year. From a conversation with James Cameron to educational sessions to checking out new products on the expo floor and school building tours, I was able to make great connections with all that is happening in the world of green building. As the COP21 climate talks begin today in…
ABX 2015: Infill Density: Case of Alewife Cambridge
Last week, Arrowstreet’s Jim Batchelor and Claes Andreasen were part of the ABX 2015 panel Infill Density: Case of Alewife Cambridge. The development around Alewife has taken care to prepare for future climate change while protecting nearby wetlands and greenspace. Arrowstreet has been involved in several projects in this neighborhood, which is one of the fastest evolving multi-family locations in…
Great Marsh Resiliency Planning
The North Shore’s Great Marsh Coalition kicked-off its Living Shoreline Project by hosting the first in a six part workshop series at the Salisbury Public Library last Friday. Through an interactive community workshop, the Coalition and several partnering organizations built upon the Great Marsh Symposium which took place earlier in the month. As a guest speaker, I worked with residents…
450 Kendall Achieves LEED Gold
450 Kendall Street has achieved LEED Gold, making all six of the buildings in BioMed Realty’s Kendall Square LEED certified. Kendall Square was a pioneer: this development received a special permit as a Planned Unit Developent (PUD) in 1999, before LEED certification was a requirement of special permits. There is only one parcel remaining to be developed, and that lot…
Successful Public Spaces Are All About Edges
In the past few days I have attended three presentations about designing successful public spaces, two at ABX and one sponsored by Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance. I learned a new word, thigmotactic. A strict definition is something like contact-loving, but in the context of placemaking it is generally used to mean edge-seeking. When selecting a place to stop and rest,…
Building Minority Report
Last Friday evening one of our new team members, Stephen Zuber, spoke at an Arrowstreet Design Forum about some work he had done with interactive multimedia environments. Right out of the Tom Cruise film “Minority Report,” Stephen’s prior project for a university in Texas involved creating a large display wall which was visible to any viewer in the space, was able…
Adaptive Migration in Urban Planning
Last week, I attended the 3rd annual ACCO Rising Seas Summit, which brought more than 300 professionals together to highlight the interrelationships between sea level rise, climate change, and extreme events. One topic discussed that is particularly interesting was adaptive migration, which looks at the affects an influx of new residents would have on an outside community if they were…