Professor of Urban Design and City Planning at MIT, where he heads DesignX, the school's accelerator for innovation in design, cities, and the built environment. Senior Partner at Tekuma Frenchman Urban Design Innovation,a global design and consulting practice
This webpage offers a course overview for Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs (MIT) course 11... more This webpage offers a course overview for Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs (MIT) course 11.301J/4.252J, Introduction to Urban Design and Development. Topics discussed include public participation in development, redevelopment, urban design, the art of cities, and the environmental and social effects of cities. The page provides recommended readings and samples of student work regarding the cities of Boston and New Delhi. This course is part of MIT OpenCourseWare, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate and graduate-level courses online and make them freely accessible
This thesis describes the history of Montgomery County, Maryland's Moderately Priced Dwellin... more This thesis describes the history of Montgomery County, Maryland's Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) law. Passed in 1973, it is the oldest inclusionary zoning legislation in the country. The law emerged out of three policy streams-land use and density, fair housing and desegregation, and workforce housing and economic development-that coalesced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Advocates for affordable housing appealed to widely held values in their effort to pass the MPDU legislation. The law stipulated that 15 percent of all units constructed in subdivisions of 50 units or more must meet the county's definition of affordability. Among the county's goals was the equal distribution of units across the county. Because the county left provision of the affordable units to the private sector, the county had little control of where units got built. In addition, a sewer moratorium limited growth in the county for most of the 1970s. As a result, housing prices apprecia...
MIT Center for Real Estate Research Paper Series, 2021
We investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial amenity for urban agglomeration, accelerator prog... more We investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial amenity for urban agglomeration, accelerator programs, upon start-up firm’s private equity performance. Accelerators are firm development programs that utilize physical space, human capital development programming, mentorship, financial capital, and community engagement to accelerate the financial feasibility of start-up firms. A sample of US accelerator treated and matched control firm’s over the 2005 to 2015 period yields a study of 16,720 firms. Results indicate that there is statistically significantly more cumulative funding for accelerated firms, when taking into consideration the endogenous choice and selection of start-up firms into programs and series stage in cumulative funding. Secondly, we assess variation across accelerator participation timing and find that firms with pre-funding when coming into an accelerator leads to higher cumulative funding. Lastly, we document accelerator program’s ability to cultivate agglomeration through spa...
According to Castells and Hall (1994), technopoles represent the mines and the foundries of the i... more According to Castells and Hall (1994), technopoles represent the mines and the foundries of the information age. On the one hand, they are quarries for raw materials: fundamental technology and information. On the other, products based on those technologies are also conceived of, designed, and sometimes manufactured in the same centers. Since Technopoles of the World (Castells and Hall, 1994) was published, several technological transformations have impacted the urban landscape. Telecommunications infrastructure has become ubiquitous in most European and US urban centers. The availability of high-speed, digital voice and internet communications has impacted cities spatially (not always in significant or obvious ways), socially, and visually (increased digital media presence). More recently, technology is also being embedded in the city fabric creating a channel for location-based communications. How have these new technologies changed the notion of the technopole as the production c...
Increasingly over the past decade, the National Park Service has found itself confronted with pro... more Increasingly over the past decade, the National Park Service has found itself confronted with proposals to develop major national historical parks in urban settings. These proposals have involved circumstances very different and more complex than those the Park Service has experienced in its traditional role of planning and managing wilderness parks. This thesis examines the difficulties the Park Service has encountered in attempting to plan for large-scale urban historical projects. An alternative planning strategy is proposed in which local needs and federal interests receive balanced consideration. Finally, ways this proposed strategy might be applied in the specific situation of planning and developing a national historical park in Lowell, Massachusetts are explored. CONNECTING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT: A PLANNING STRATEGY FOR URBAN NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARKS
In November 1996, the United States Congress passed legislation creating a new unit in the Nation... more In November 1996, the United States Congress passed legislation creating a new unit in the National Park system-- the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. This new park includes 30 islands and approximately 50 square miles of water in Boston Harbor. By November 1999, the National Park Service and the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership, the official managing body, are required to develop a plan that will guide future development and management of the park. Planning for the Harbor Islands is taking place in the broad context of park planning and design, in the more focused context of the challenges and opportunities facing America's National Parks, and in the specific context of the character and historical uses of the Islands themselves. These three factors will shape the future of the Islands as a new National Park unit. The legislation creating the Harbor Islands National Recreation Area describes several purposes for the park. These goals, like those of other Nation...
the park staff has launched an initiative to engage the Lowell community in discussions about the... more the park staff has launched an initiative to engage the Lowell community in discussions about the park’s future. As a means of prompting a robust dialog, the NPS has commissioned two white papers – one on the topic of educational and cultural directions for the Park and this paper, on preservation and development. This paper reviews Lowell’s situation at the time the park plan was formed, the intent and mechanisms of the plan, what has been accomplished in the park’s first 30 years, and offers some directions for the role and contributions that the park may make to preservation and development in the future. At the end of the paper, a series of discussion questions are provided, The input of staff of LNHP has been very helpful to the authors in providing data regarding activities of the LNHP and Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (LHPC); however, the views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not represent official positions of the NPS or other participants in...
This webpage offers a course overview for Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs (MIT) course 11... more This webpage offers a course overview for Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs (MIT) course 11.301J/4.252J, Introduction to Urban Design and Development. Topics discussed include public participation in development, redevelopment, urban design, the art of cities, and the environmental and social effects of cities. The page provides recommended readings and samples of student work regarding the cities of Boston and New Delhi. This course is part of MIT OpenCourseWare, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate and graduate-level courses online and make them freely accessible
This thesis describes the history of Montgomery County, Maryland's Moderately Priced Dwellin... more This thesis describes the history of Montgomery County, Maryland's Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) law. Passed in 1973, it is the oldest inclusionary zoning legislation in the country. The law emerged out of three policy streams-land use and density, fair housing and desegregation, and workforce housing and economic development-that coalesced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Advocates for affordable housing appealed to widely held values in their effort to pass the MPDU legislation. The law stipulated that 15 percent of all units constructed in subdivisions of 50 units or more must meet the county's definition of affordability. Among the county's goals was the equal distribution of units across the county. Because the county left provision of the affordable units to the private sector, the county had little control of where units got built. In addition, a sewer moratorium limited growth in the county for most of the 1970s. As a result, housing prices apprecia...
MIT Center for Real Estate Research Paper Series, 2021
We investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial amenity for urban agglomeration, accelerator prog... more We investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial amenity for urban agglomeration, accelerator programs, upon start-up firm’s private equity performance. Accelerators are firm development programs that utilize physical space, human capital development programming, mentorship, financial capital, and community engagement to accelerate the financial feasibility of start-up firms. A sample of US accelerator treated and matched control firm’s over the 2005 to 2015 period yields a study of 16,720 firms. Results indicate that there is statistically significantly more cumulative funding for accelerated firms, when taking into consideration the endogenous choice and selection of start-up firms into programs and series stage in cumulative funding. Secondly, we assess variation across accelerator participation timing and find that firms with pre-funding when coming into an accelerator leads to higher cumulative funding. Lastly, we document accelerator program’s ability to cultivate agglomeration through spa...
According to Castells and Hall (1994), technopoles represent the mines and the foundries of the i... more According to Castells and Hall (1994), technopoles represent the mines and the foundries of the information age. On the one hand, they are quarries for raw materials: fundamental technology and information. On the other, products based on those technologies are also conceived of, designed, and sometimes manufactured in the same centers. Since Technopoles of the World (Castells and Hall, 1994) was published, several technological transformations have impacted the urban landscape. Telecommunications infrastructure has become ubiquitous in most European and US urban centers. The availability of high-speed, digital voice and internet communications has impacted cities spatially (not always in significant or obvious ways), socially, and visually (increased digital media presence). More recently, technology is also being embedded in the city fabric creating a channel for location-based communications. How have these new technologies changed the notion of the technopole as the production c...
Increasingly over the past decade, the National Park Service has found itself confronted with pro... more Increasingly over the past decade, the National Park Service has found itself confronted with proposals to develop major national historical parks in urban settings. These proposals have involved circumstances very different and more complex than those the Park Service has experienced in its traditional role of planning and managing wilderness parks. This thesis examines the difficulties the Park Service has encountered in attempting to plan for large-scale urban historical projects. An alternative planning strategy is proposed in which local needs and federal interests receive balanced consideration. Finally, ways this proposed strategy might be applied in the specific situation of planning and developing a national historical park in Lowell, Massachusetts are explored. CONNECTING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT: A PLANNING STRATEGY FOR URBAN NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARKS
In November 1996, the United States Congress passed legislation creating a new unit in the Nation... more In November 1996, the United States Congress passed legislation creating a new unit in the National Park system-- the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. This new park includes 30 islands and approximately 50 square miles of water in Boston Harbor. By November 1999, the National Park Service and the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership, the official managing body, are required to develop a plan that will guide future development and management of the park. Planning for the Harbor Islands is taking place in the broad context of park planning and design, in the more focused context of the challenges and opportunities facing America's National Parks, and in the specific context of the character and historical uses of the Islands themselves. These three factors will shape the future of the Islands as a new National Park unit. The legislation creating the Harbor Islands National Recreation Area describes several purposes for the park. These goals, like those of other Nation...
the park staff has launched an initiative to engage the Lowell community in discussions about the... more the park staff has launched an initiative to engage the Lowell community in discussions about the park’s future. As a means of prompting a robust dialog, the NPS has commissioned two white papers – one on the topic of educational and cultural directions for the Park and this paper, on preservation and development. This paper reviews Lowell’s situation at the time the park plan was formed, the intent and mechanisms of the plan, what has been accomplished in the park’s first 30 years, and offers some directions for the role and contributions that the park may make to preservation and development in the future. At the end of the paper, a series of discussion questions are provided, The input of staff of LNHP has been very helpful to the authors in providing data regarding activities of the LNHP and Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (LHPC); however, the views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not represent official positions of the NPS or other participants in...
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