*POSTPONED* Jackson Square: Mending the Community Fabric in Jamaica Plain

This event has been postponed until Spring 2022 due to rain!

This event is part of Intersections: Equity, Environment + the City, a multi-day symposium November 6–13, 2021 brought to you by BosNOMA and Women in Design on intersectional and participatory design processes in Boston. View the full symposium schedule here.

Session Information

Join Kendra Halliwell AIA LEED AP, Giovanny Valencia, John K. Haring, and Mark Eclipse AIA LEED AP for an in-person tour of a community-driven comprehensive master plan decades in the making: Jackson Square. This 11-acre site in Jamaica Plain aims to restore the neighborhood fabric in an area scarred by demolition for a highway project never implemented. Redevelopment has been planned through partnerships between nonprofit developers Urban Edge, The Community Builders, and Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), making Jackson Square one of the largest community-driven redevelopment projects in the country. Participants will be able to demonstrate strategies to surmount the complex social, financial, regulatory, and policy hurdles that often impede affordable housing design and learn how architects and non-profit developers can creatively overcome these hurdles to achieve design excellence. Participants will be able to identify signs that a neighborhood is transforming itself through the lens of community building.

Speakers

Kendra Halliwell AIA LEED AP
Associate Principal, Practice + Design Team Leader, ICON Architecture

Skilled as an architectural designer, artist and illustrator, Kendra brings strong delineation and visualization skills to each project. She manages a wide variety of multi-family projects through city zoning and community engagement, working to achieve consensus along the way. Kendra has lived in Jamaica Plain for almost 20 years, and is lead architect for the 125 Amory site and Parcel III Redevelopments.

Giovanny Valencia
Community Organizing Director, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation

In his role at the JPNDC, Giovanny promotes the creation and preservation of affordable homes in the city, developing community support for JPNDC’s housing projects, and working with community members to advocate for the creation of new affordable units in private projects. Gio has been instrumental in local outreach for the Jackson Square redevelopment projects.

John K. Harding
Project Manager, The Community Builders

John's primary projects are focused in Jamaica Plain, spanning partnerships with Urban Edge and JPNDC, managing the complicated financing, phasing, and permitting processes of the Jackson Square redevelopments.

Mark Eclipse AIA LEED AP
Principal, Prellwitz Chilinski Architects (PCA)

Mark brings high level design skills to projects ranging from mixed-use and multi-family residential to retail and higher-education. He believes that every client has a message to convey, and is focused on helping them communicate their stories through design. Mark is lead architect for the Mildred Hailey redevelopment, and also designed Jackson Commons.