Inspiration
Alaska
Scott Pollack and I were recently in Anchorage, Alaska as part of Arrowstreet’s on-going work for the United States Army and Air Force. Anchorage and its surroundings are humble and amazingly beautiful; one of those places that looked and felt truly unique, like no place I’d ever been before. We were able to steal away from our work for a…
Speaking at ICSC RetailGreen
ICSC’s RetailGreen is the premier annual conference that gathers leaders in sustainability to focus on the retail development industry. Those of us on the programming committee have seen the conference grow, largely due to the interest shown by the developers and retailers in attending, and also because the program content is so strong. Along with highly technical workshops and “big-picture”…
Green Apple Day of Service
USGBC MA is organizing several activities in the Boston area for the first annual Green Apple Day of Service this Saturday, September 29th. “Where we learn matters” is the theme of this national day of service, organized by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Sign up for one of the activities on the Green Apple website or organize your own, and be sure to let others know about these activities.
Arrowstreet at the Bisnow Retail Summit
Arrowstreet Principal Scott Pollack recently moderated a panel of real estate giants at Bisnow’s Annual Retail Summit. Terry Brown, CEO of Edens, joined Barry Rodenstein, SVP of Brixmor; Michael Jammen, Principal of UrbanMeritage; Ed Mitchell of Legal Seafood; and Steven Kelly of Timberline Construction to discuss the current state of retail development. Panelists agreed that deals are happening, but financing…
Arrowstreet at Bisnow: Life Sciences Summit
Recently, a small delegation of Arrowstreet architects attended the Bisnow Life Sciences Summit. Jim Batchelor, our President and CEO, moderated one of two panels, which included recognized industry experts from a variety of perspectives who spoke on the strength of the Life Sciences industry in the Cambridge area and in Massachusetts. The panels included Tim Stoll of BioMed Realty Trust, Jeff Lockwood of Novartis, Pamela Norton of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Chuck Pappalardo of Suffolk Construction Company, Peter Calkins of Forest City Boston, and Robert Beal of The Beal Companies. The discussion was inspiring, and affirmed many of the experiences we’ve had at Arrowstreet in recent years working with life sciences planning expert Dan Winny and our clients designing lab and office spaces. Both panels also provided a very optimistic perspective about today and long term expectations for the growth and development of this key industry in Massachusetts…
Wonderland Garage Opens
The MBTA’s new Arrowstreet-designed South Parking Garage and Intermodal Transit Center opened on Saturday (June 30th) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by MassDOT Secretary Richard Davey, Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Revere City Councilor at large Anthony Zambuto, among many others from the Revere community. Both the Boston Globe and the Daily Item of Lynn reported on the event…
Using GIS for Planning Projects
I’ve recently been working on an Air Force Services planning project. Part of the project involves some really cool design proposals for future implementation; the initial steps included assessing the existing programs and assigning them to the existing building layout, for which we used a powerful piece of GIS software called ArcMap…
Speaking at SCUP: Campus Hospitality
On April 12, I will be speaking at SCUP’s North Atlantic Conference alongside Peter Riley of Harvard University and John Kiely of Collegiate Hospitality on the topic of “Positioning Hospitality on Campus.” During this toolkit, Peter will share valuable firsthand experience from Harvard’s campus hotels and how the University is positioning these facilities to meet institutional goals for the future. I will share key suggestions for planning and designing campus hotels, while John will share the developer’s perspective…
Breakfast with Congressman Mike Capuano
In a talk that touched on Washington gridlock, the MBTA Green Line extension, and the Main Street Fairness Act, Congressman Michael Capuano spoke at the kick-off of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce’s new monthly “Government Affairs Breakfast Series”. The late January event was held in the Mount Vernon Restaurant, a short distance away from the new Assembly Row development and the future Orange Line T stop…
Traveling in Jeddah
In December I went with Rasem Badran of Jordan to meet with a prospective client in Jeddah. The client, who is developing a new retail and mixed-use town center in Medinah, short-listed two finalists to come for an interview and charrette. Rasem has international stature for his work in restoring and building new construction in areas of Islamic heritage, and Arrowstreet has done several projects with his firm. While I was there, I snapped these photos of historic structures in old Jeddah.