City Planning and Urban Affairs Students Plan a Sustainable Future

Enrique SilvaAssistant Professor of City Planning and Urban Affairs Enrique Silva led a graduate-level seminar called the Boston Urban Symposium in the spring of 2012. This course included collecting and analyzing background and demographic research, site feasibility and design, and writing grant and financing proposals—but the main objective of the course was to make a real difference in an economically distressed local neighborhood.

Partnering with the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC), the Symposium put forth a proposal for a future site that focused heavily on the use and benefits of urban agriculture. By the end of the spring 2012 semester, this proposal included a new community-friendly space, raised gardening beds, a tot lot, and a building to house classrooms and demonstration kitchens.

Concrete action has already taken place—on January 18th, the CSNDC along with Fairmount Indigo Corridor Collaborative, hosted the “Design Charette for the Oasis on Ballou Avenue,” in which several elements of the Symposium proposal were discussed.

Read the whole story at BostInno