Housing Changing Cities: Toward more inclusive, intensive and connected neighborhoods in Boston and Cambridge

Adding mixed-income housing is vital to addressing the Boston area’s housing demand and affordability challenges, and increasingly requires design approaches that challenge convention. Greater density often enables greater affordability, but with hurdles of fitting new buildings, streets and blocks comfortably amidst established neighborhood patterns. Recent community conversations around new housing development reflect a mix of traditional NIMBY attitudes and strong support for significant amounts of new housing.

Two speakers pioneering new approaches in Boston and Cambridge will share their strategies and lessons. Patrick Barrett III, with PW Realty, successfully advocated for zoning changes around Cambridge’s Central Square that enable more housing and supportive commercial uses through greater density. Tamara Roy AIA, Principal with Stantec Architecture, has redesigned public housing superblocks into OneCharlestown, a development that weaves a variety of building scales back into Charlestown’s street/block system. Join the presenters in lively discussion of what design and program strategies can most effectively connect new and existing residents into a cohesive community.

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For those who qualify, 1.5 LUs are available.

To learn more about the Urban Design Committee, please visit architects.org/committees/urban-design-committee.