Welcome remarks from Danyson Tavares, Executive Director of YouthBuild Boston and newly elected member of the BSA Board of Directors, emphasized the need to reinforce participatory processes that engage broader publics as partners and leaders in envisioning, prototyping, and decision-making about the future of the built environment. He encouraged attendees to advance community design approaches that move beyond superficial engagement towards transformational practices that redistribute power, meet real community needs, and foster spatial justice.

Community Design Director at the BSA, Ben Peterson, provided an overview of C+CD’s approaches to collaborative design from quick design consultations to more extensive coalition-building efforts across many stakeholder groups. David Silverman of STA Design shared his experiences collaborating with Susi Sanchex from UX Studio and hundreds of engaged Malden residents to envision a new Center for Arts in Culture to be housed in a former courthouse. He highlighted the importance of negotiating the realities of budgets, timelines, and building conditions as fundamental to the implementation of vibrant, collective imaginations of community-defined futures.

After reflecting on past C+CD projects across the region’s neighborhoods, from Mission Hill to Mattapan, from the landscapes of Chelsea Creek and Mass and Cass, the evening concluded with lively conversations on forging new partnerships and new opportunities for bringing community design to life. Many valuable connections were made that hold promise to launch the next collection of community-driven design projects across Greater Boston.

It was inspiring to see such a diverse, committed group come together to explore new approaches to collaborative design. The attendees represented a variety of stakeholders from different publics and communities across the region. This array of perspectives reflected the importance of establishing ways for those most affected by design decisions to have a meaningful voice in how those decisions are made. Communities and architects each bring unique expertise to the table - together, their impact is far greater than what either could achieve alone.