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Open Classroom

Myra Kraft Open Classroom, Spring 2021: Inspiring Design

Creating Beautiful, Just, and Resilient Places in America

Conducted in partnership with The Bruner Foundation, the Spring 2021 Myra Kraft Open Classroom (MKOC) will be entirely remote. There will be no in-person MKOC events for the spring semester.

IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION: The Zoom Webinar information is the same every week. Once you register, you will immediately receive the Zoom link, as well as an additional reminder one hour prior to each panel. If you have already registered for a previous week, you do not need to register again.

When: Wednesdays, Spring Semester
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST

AIA and LA CEUs are offered in partnership with the Boston Society of Architects and Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

Register Now


Course Facilitator
Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Synopsis

Design is everywhere.

It has become clear that the events of 2020 will have deep and lasting consequences for every aspect of society including the physical environments we inhabit—our homes, our neighborhoods, and our cities. What can we learn from previous experience that can be applied to current challenges and future efforts in Boston and other cities and towns in America?

Join us as we go on the road with the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence with some of America’s best thinkers on urban design to visit, discuss, and learn from award-winning places and people engaged in innovative urban design. We’ll hear from leading voices in architecture and urban design, planning and development, education and community engagement, and public policy and civic leadership.

Over the course of this 12-week lecture series, we’ll explore how people and cities across The United States are tackling tough challenges like: expanding affordable housing, addressing the impacts of climate change, fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, fighting socioeconomic disparity, improving public education, investing in public spaces, leveraging arts and culture, and providing access to healthy food. We’ll consider how we can apply these ideas as we plan for the future in Boston and other cities.

IMPORTANT: These events will take place via Zoom Webinar and will be recorded. We have a 500-person limit, so if you are unable to join, please utilize our livestream on Facebook Live.

Previous Sessions

Featuring Karilyn Crockett, Chief of Equity for the City of Boston

How do we create beautiful, just, and resilient places? We’ll kick off the Spring 2021 series with a conversation with Dr. Karilyn Crockett, the City of Boston’s first Chief of Equity. We’ll discuss strategies for embedding equity into urban planning and development in Boston and other cities. We’ll consider observations and lessons learned from her research and book People Before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making, which chronicles the 1960s era grassroots movement that halted the construction of I-95 through the City of Boston and had a lasting impact on geographic and political change in the city. The initiative led to the creation of Southwest Corridor Project (1989 RBA Silver Medalist), the expansion of public transit and creation of a new greenway connecting neighborhoods with downtown.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify and describe approaches to addressing equity in cities.
  • Understand and describe how inclusive planning processes and development projects can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-based projects.
  • Identify and describe the lasting impacts of the citizen-led effort to halt the highway and expansion of public transit along a new greenway in Boston.
Dr. Karilyn Crockett is the City of Boston’s first Chief of Equity, a Cabinet-level position Mayor Walsh established to embed equity and racial justice into all City planning, operations, and work. Dr. Crockett most recently worked as a Lecturer of Public Policy & Urban Planning at MIT, and is the author of People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making. Prior, she worked in the City of Boston’s Office of Economic Development, where she was tasked with creating an equity-driven policy framework for guiding job creation, small business development, neighborhood revitalization and public procurement strategies. Dr. Crockett is also the co-founder of Multicultural Youth Tour of What’s Now (MYTOWN), an award-winning, Boston-based, education nonprofit organization, and holds a PhD from the American Studies program at Yale University, a Master of Science in Geography from the London School of Economics, and a Master of Arts and Religion from Yale Divinity School.

 

Details
When: Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring

  • Larry Kearns, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal, Wheeler Kearns Architects
  • Brenda Palms Barber, Founder/President & CEO, North Landale Employment Network and CEO, Sweet Beginnings, LLC
  • Chris Bosso, Professor of Public Policy and Associate Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University

Like many cities, Chicago’s existing food supply chain is long and fragile, with a massive carbon footprint. In 2019, Wheeler Kearns Architects (WKA) floated a proposal to establish Chicago’s first Food Innovation District on the West Side, building on neighborhood assets like Inspiration Kitchens—Garfield Park (2013 RBA Gold Medalist). Other investments include the Hatchery, a food business incubator, and Sweet Beginnings, a social enterprise sustained by honey harvested at six apiaries located throughout the City. Join WKA Principal Larry Kearns and North Landale Employment Network/Sweet Beginnings’ CEO Brenda Palms Barber for a discussion about how growing, preparing, and processing food creates jobs, improves public health, and revitalizes neighborhoods, ensuring that every dollar Chicagoans spend on food benefits local communities while decreasing the City’s carbon footprint.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how investment in urban food systems can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-based projects.
  • Identify and describe examples of food-focused initiatives that increase access to healthy food, create jobs, and revitalize neighborhoods.
  • Describe the components of a Food Innovation District using case studies and reference materials.

Details
When: Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

A high school was an essential component of the vision for Crosstown Concourse (2019 RBA Gold Medalist), the transformation of an abandoned, 1.5 million square foot Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center in Memphis into an inclusive, vertical mixed-used village anchored by arts, education, and healthcare. Crosstown High is a ‘learner-centered’ public charter school (and member of the national XQ Super School network) that engages grades 9 through 12 students in interdisciplinary project-based learning that emphasizes problem solving, collaboration, relationship, and communication skills. Join Todd Richardson, President of Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative, and Ginger Spickler, Chief of Staff of Crosstown High, for a discussion about how the 16-acre complex—designed to promote openness, connection, and exchange—is a classroom for real-world collaboration, exchange, learning and community-building.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how investment in urban development can address community welfare through access to arts and culture, education, healthcare, and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-based projects.
  • Discuss the relationships between the design of schools, educational curricula, and place-based learning.
  • Describe initiatives that are rethinking approaches and redesigning high school education in America.

Details
When: Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Ann Yoachim, Director and Professor of Practice, The Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design at Tulane University
  • Julian Wellisz, Transitional Spaces
  • Michael Chavez, Project Development Manager, YouthBuild Boston

After a popular makeshift skatepark in New Orleans was demolished, Transitional Spaces, a volunteer-based group of young skaters, approached Tulane University’s Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design for help with developing a new one on city-owned land beneath a highway overpass. Join Small Center Director Ann Yoachim and Transitional Spaces’ Jullian Wellisz for a conversation about how the university-based community design center engaged neighborhood residents, skaters, School of Architecture students, engineering and design professionals, and public agencies in a collaborative design/build process that created Parisite Skatepark (2019 RBA Silver Medalist), the city’s first public skatepark. They and Michael Chavez from YouthBuild Boston will discuss how community-engaged design approaches empower and build capacity of people and communities, influence the next generation of designers and practice, and shape the future of cities.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand and describe how investment in recreational amenities can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-driven projects.
  • Describe community-engaged design approaches and practices and how they empower and build the capacity of people and communities.
  • Discuss how university-based design centers are resources for cities, educate the next generation of designers, and influence the future of practice.

Details
When: Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Karen Kubey, Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute
  • Brian Phillips, Founding Principal, Interface Studio Architects
  • Wandy Pascoal, Housing Innovation Design Fellow, Boston Society of Architects and the Boston Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab

How can design and designers promote health equity? Karen Kubey, an urbanist specializing in housing and health and editor of Housing as Intervention: Architecture towards Social Equity, will share her observations, including her experience co-organizing the international design competition that resulted in Via Verde—the Green Way (2013 RBA Silver Medalist), a new model for healthy and sustainable affordable housing in The Bronx. Brian Phillips, principal of Interface Studio Architects, will share the firm’s approach to designing modern, green, and affordable homes that nurture residents’ sense of wellbeing including the $100K Houses. They’ll be joined by Wandy Pascoal, Housing Innovation Design Fellow with the Boston Society of Architects and the Boston Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab, who will discuss the city’s efforts to use design to drive the creation of more affordable housing solutions.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand and describe how investment in healthy and sustainable affordable housing can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of affordable housing.
  • Identify and describe practical approaches to designing healthy and sustainable affordable housing.
  • Discuss how architects, nonprofits, the public sector, and communities can advance innovative housing design in cities.

Details
When: Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Jason Schupbach, Dean of the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University
  • Maria Rosario Jackson, Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University
  • Kathy Spiegelman, Vice President and Chief of Campus Planning and Development, Northeastern University

How does Boston, home to 29 colleges and universities, leverage its extensive educational institution resources to build a stronger and more equitable city? In Phoenix, a public private partnership between the City of Phoenix and Arizona State University led to the creation of Civic Space Park (2011 RBA Silver Medalist), a new signature public space in the heart of downtown. Drexel University Dean of the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design dean Jason Schupach and Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts professor Maria Rosario Jackson discuss how ongoing dialogue between their respective schools and communities and about creative placemaking are informing planning and investment in Philadelphia and other cities. Northeastern University’s Vice President and Chief of Campus Planning and Development Kathy Spiegelman will offer insights on approaches to university community partnerships in Boston.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand and describe how place-based investments by educational institutions can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of collaborative, public private partnerships in urban planning, design, and development.
  • Describe how college and university-based design programs can engage, empower, and build the capacity of people and communities.
  • Discuss how cities can leverage college and university resources for community benefit.

Details
When: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Knox White, Mayor, City of Greenville, South Carolina
  • Mary Duckett, President, Southernside Neighborhood in Action
  • Dan Adams, Director of the School of Architecture, Northeastern University
  • Karen Mauney-Brodek, President, The Emerald Necklace Conservancy

Increasing demands to address climate change and equity have focused attention on much-needed government leadership and investment in infrastructure across America. Greenville, South Carolina Mayor Knox White will share how Falls Park on the Reedy (2015 RBA Silver Medalist), the transformation of a forgotten waterfall and river valley into a beloved urban oasis, catalyzed community conversations about equity and the vision for 60-acre Unity Park, now under construction. He and Mary Duckett, President of Southernside Neighborhood in Action, will discuss how engaging the community in planning helped inform the park’s resilient design and role addressing racial inequity. Dan Adams, Director of Northeastern’s School of Architecture and Founding Principal of Landing Studio, will discuss the value of adapting and designing new infrastructure for shared industrial and public use in Boston and other cities.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand and describe how investment in public infrastructure can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging communities in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive public amenities.
  • Identify and describe examples of infrastructure that address climate change, public health, and socioeconomic and racial inequities.
  • Discuss how the design of infrastructure can connect neighborhoods, restore access to environmental resources, and increase civic engagement.

Details
When: Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

La Kretz Innovation Campus + Arts District Park (2017 RBA Silver Medalist) is part of the City of Los Angeles’ ongoing efforts to position itself as a sustainable city and leader in clean technology. Designed to foster creativity and innovation, the clean tech incubator and demonstration facility is the product of collaborative partnership between city agencies, local research universities and businesses, and the nation’s largest publicly owned utility company. John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects’ Founding Co-Principal Alice Kimm joins Kelli Bernard, former Deputy Mayor of Economic Development for the City of Los Angeles (and current Chief Executive for the Los Angeles Metro Area for AECOM); Ben Stapleton, former Chief Operating Officer of La Kretz Innovation Campus (and current Executive Director of USGBC-LA); and John Cleveland, Executive Director for the Boston Green Ribbon Commission; for a discussion about how the ambitious vision for the campus was realized through its design, development, and programs.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how investment in innovation and clean technology can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of collaborative, public private partnerships in urban planning, design, and development and how they advance innovation.
  • Identify and describe examples of clean tech initiatives that offer environmental benefits, create jobs, and strengthen communities.
  • Describe the components of a business incubator and how design can foster collaboration, creativity and engagement.

Details
When: Wednesday, March 1o, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

There is increasing evidence demonstrating the economic, environmental, and health benefits of public parks and open spaces. How do we ensure that they are open, accessible, and inclusive to all, meeting community needs and addressing environmental demands while fostering community? Landscape architects Mikyoung Kim, Founding Principal of Mikyoung Kim Design, and Kaki Martin, Principal of Klopfer Martin Design Group, join Deborah Marton, Executive Director of the Van Alen Institute, for a conversation about the process of creating inclusive and resilient public spaces. Kim and Martin will draw upon their experiences designing urban landscapes in cities across the United States, including Klopfer Martin’s The Steel Yard (2013 RBA Silver Medalist) in Providence, and Marton will discuss the 126-year-old Van Alen Institute’s current efforts to create equitable cities through inclusive design.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how investment in inclusive and resilient public spaces can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative public private partnerships in the planning, design, and development of public spaces.
  • Identify and describe examples of inclusive and resilient public spaces.
  • Discuss common challenges to designing inclusive and resilient spaces and strategies for overcoming them.

Details
When: Wednesday, Macrh 17, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Roseanne Haggerty, President and CEO, Community Solutions
  • Myriam Camargo, Founding Partner, CamargoCopeland Architect
  • John Friedman, Co-Founder, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
  • Bridget Conway, Student, Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Homelessness has been a persistent and growing challenge in cities across America but, according to Community Solutions’ Founder Roseanne Haggerty, it is solvable. She’ll share how the vision of inclusion informed the creation of The Times Square Hotel (1997 RBA Gold Medalist) in New York City and her organization’s approach and work with cities across America. CamargoCopeland Architects Founding Partner Myriam Camargo shares the story of The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center (2011 RBA Gold Medalist), a complex offering shelter and coordinated services in downtown Dallas. John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects Co-Founder John Friedman shares his firm’s Open Source Homelessness Initiative, a platform offering data, information and tools to help architects and others tackle homelessness. Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs student Bridget Conway shares her experience working with the New England Center for Homeless Veterans.

 

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe the impact of homelessness on community welfare and the economic, environmental, and social impact on cities.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of programs and projects that tackle homelessness.
  • Identify and describe examples of programs and projects that provide housing and resources for the homeless.
  • Identify and describe the role and contributions of design and designers in developing solutions to ending homelessness.

Details
When: Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

Design is all around us, yet why is it there so little dialogue about its impact on our lives? Boston Globe columnist Renee Loth moderates a conversation with Raj Mankad, Houston Chronicle Op/Ed Editor; and Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic and author of Becoming Philadelphia: How an Old American City Made Itself New Again, about the role of writers and writing in helping people understand the impact of planning and development in cities. They’ll discuss the challenges of writing about the architecture and “built environment” and why discussing the impact of investments like Buffalo Bayou Park (2019 RBA Silver Medalist) in Houston is so important.

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the importance of interpreting and communicating the impact of architecture and urban design and its influence on community welfare and the economic, environmental, and social vitality of cities.
  • Understand and discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships that promote public engagement and dialogue about planning, design, and development.
  • Describe examples of how writing and public programming about architecture and cities can influence public opinion and attitudes about planning and design.
  • Identify and discuss the challenges of communicating and writing about architecture and design and strategies for overcoming them.

Details
When: Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

Artists and arts organizations have long served as cultural anchors, community builders, and catalysts for civic change. Yerba Buena Arts Center CEO Deborah Cullinan, Santa Fe Art Institute Executive Director Jamie Blosser, and PROYECTO real estate development consultant Daniel Hernandez will discuss the role of cultural organizations in cities and the impact of large-scale arts-based urban development including Yerba Buena Gardens (1999 Gold Medalist)—the redevelopment of 87-acres in downtown San Francisco into a cultural hub hosting museums, public gardens, a convention center and hotel, and mixed-income housing. They and Boston Chief of Arts and Culture Kara Elliott Ortega and King Boston’s Imari Paris Jeffries will consider how insight from the development and evolution of these places, cultural planning efforts like BostonCreates, and leadership and experience of arts and cultural organizations are informing and driving current initiatives like Midtown Santa Fe and King Boston.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how investments in arts and culture can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of integrating art and collaborative partnerships with cultural organizations into design, planning, and development processes and projects.
  • Identify and describe examples of arts-based development initiatives, programs, and projects that foster community engagement and strengthen communities.
  • Discuss the role of the arts in promoting creativity, innovation and civic pride in cities.

Details
When: Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Maurice Cox, Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, City of Chicago
  • Tonika Lewis Johnson, Folded Map Project
  • Garrett Dash Nelson, Curator of Maps & Director of Geographic Scholarship, The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

Events over the past year—the civil protests, global pandemic, and western wildfires—illuminated the existing and growing impacts of embedded racism, growing socioeconomic disparity, and climate change in our country. How do cities respond? Maurice Cox, Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago will discuss efforts to address these challenges in the Windy City and lessons learned from his previous role as Detroit Planning Director. Tonika Lewis Johnson will discuss how her Folded Map Project helps Chicago residents share their experiences living in different parts of the city and foster conversation and understanding about the impact of urban segregation.Garrett Dash Nelson from the Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map Center offers additional insight from his work on the relationship between community structure, geographic units, and political ideology.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how inclusive and community-engaged planning can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships that engage residents and communities in planning, design, and development processes.
  • Identify and describe examples of initiatives and projects that increase awareness of and engagement in planning and development in Chicago and Detroit.
  • Discuss the role of mapping in documenting, evaluating and increasing awareness about equity in cities.

Details
When: Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

Featuring:

  • Anne-Marie Lubenau, Director of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, Bruner Foundation
  • Ted Landsmark, Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, Northeastern University
  • David Gamble, Principal, Gamble Associates
  • Robert DeLeo, University Fellow for Public Life, Northeastern University

How do we create beautiful, just, and resilient places? In this session Anne-Marie Lubenau and Ted Landsmark reflect on the conversations over the course of the semester about the role of design in creating equitable and resilient places and cities. They’ll be joined by architect and urban planner David Gamble, Principal of Gamble Associates and editor of Unconventional Conventions: Transforming Boston’s Future—a collection of essays on the challenges Boston faces in the 21st century and efforts to make the city more livable, equitable, resilient, and beautiful—and Northeastern University Fellow for Public Life and former Massachusetts House speaker Robert Deleo. Together with the audience we’ll identify and discuss emerging themes and ideas to apply to our collective work.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand and describe how the creation of inclusive places can address community welfare and affect economic, environmental, and social change.
  • Discuss the value of engaging in collaborative partnerships in the planning, design, and development of inclusive, community-based projects.
  • Identify and describe approaches to addressing equity via the planning, design, and development of places and programming.
  • Identify and describe examples of award-winning projects that illustrate the role of design in addressing equity.

Details
When: Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Time: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST
Where: Online

Facilitator: Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center

*Important Notes*

With MKOC fully online, we’ll have to make a few slight adjustments to a new format. Please be aware of the following:

  • One hour prior to each week’s session, we will send a reminder email with a Zoom Webinar link for your convenience.
  • These events will be recorded. As an attendee, your face and name will not be visible.
  • We have a 500-person limit, so if you are unable to join via Zoom, please utilize our livestream on Facebook Live (You do not need to be a member of Facebook to view the livestream. If you don’t see the video at first, you may have to scroll down slightly).
  • You will still be able to ask questions, even anonymously, via the Q&A option on the bottom of your screen. 

You can find more resources for joining a Zoom Webinar as an attendee here.