Street of the Future: Workshop 1

 

Before & After Infrastructure

New England’s historic infrastructure is an invaluable asset, drawing tourists and residents attracted to its sense of place and culture. But those who maintain streets, repair aging pipes and power lines, and seek transformative street level improvements know that our history can also be our Achilles heel.

The first in a wider series, this one-day workshop, hosted by Boston University, will bring together city leaders, utilities, planners and academic researchers to identify barriers and challenges to coordinated infrastructure management in aging cities and explore emerging solutions. Together, attendees will consider both above and below ground infrastructure, from lights, lanes and greenery to pipes, roots and soil.

AGENDA

9:30am – Registration

10am – Welcome and Open

10:10am – Managing Streetscape to Substrate: Lessons from the Mayor’s Office
This opening discussion will provide insight into the management challenges mayors face in providing safe, attractive streets and reliable underground infrastructure to support vibrant, healthy cities.

  • Moderated by Katharine Lusk – Executive Director, Boston University Initiative on Cities
  • Mayor Kimberley Driscoll – City of Salem, MA
  • Mayor Alex Morse – City of Holyoke, MA

10:55am – Lessons Learned on Coordinated Infrastructure Management
This panel discussion will explore efforts underway to overhaul how cities manage permitting, stakeholder coordination and regulatory challenges related to street and utility upgrades. Together, they will discuss forecasting and future-proofing, new coordination and communication tools, and continuing barriers to success.

  • Moderated by Audrey Schulman – Co-Founder, Evaluator, Site Manager, President of the Home Energy Efficiency Team
  • Margaret Cherne-Hendrick – Post-Doctoral Associate, Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy
  • Laeyeng Hunt – Lead Engineer, National Grid
  • Chris Osgood – Chief of Streets, City of Boston, MA
  • Patrick Roche – Energy Coordinator, Metropolitan Area Planning Council

12:00pm – Break – Lunch

12:30pm – Lunch Keynote – Mapping the Street of the Future
David Leopold helps direct City Digital, an initiative of the university/industry accelerator UI Labs, which uses the City of Chicago as a testbed for new infrastructure and building technologies. Leopold will present work underway to virtually map, coordinate, and catalogue the complex structures that lie under the city’s street, from water pipes and gas lines to subway tunnels.

  • David Leopold – Director of Project Management, UI Labs

1:15pm – Break – 15 minutes

1:30pm – Working Group Breakouts: Challenges and Barriers on the Ground
Attendees work together to tackle a simulation of a major street infrastructure upgrade in an aging Massachusetts city. Where are the pain points? What barriers are preventing coordination? What ideas, tools, or technologies could be implemented to make the process more effective? Together, we’ll envision how cities can approach infrastructure management, and the very ecology of our streets, with a more collaborative and efficient eye.

2:30pm – Report Back & Close

3:30pm – Optional Gas Leak Safari
Guided one-hour gas leak safari around the Boston University campus.