12 minute read
Up-Front
Golden Announces Departure from BPDA
Boston – Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) director, Brian Golden, announced he is concluding his tenure after serving for more than eight years as the chief executive of the agency.
As chief executive, he has managed the biggest building boom in Boston’s history, while ushering in holistic reforms designed to improve how the agency supports the residents of Boston. He focused on improving transparency, accountability, and community engagement, while furthering equitable outcomes throughout Boston’s neighborhoods.
Appointed as permanent director by Mayor Martin J. Walsh in 2014, Golden is the longest serving leader in the agency’s 65-year history. Over the past eight years, he has steered more than 90 million square feet of development approvals through the BPDA’s permitting process. He grew the BPDA’s planning capacity, dedicating the resources and personnel necessary to complete the first general city plan since 1965, Imagine Boston 2030, which the BPDA board formally adopted in 2017.
In 2020, Golden announced the creation of the first ever Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI). Today that office is led by a director of DEI and supported by a team of community engagement managers.
“The board has seen firsthand the instrumental work Brian has led to support economic development and new housing opportunities that lift up our communities, while creating a more transparent, accountable BPDA that better serves the people of Boston,” said BPDA board chair, Priscilla Rojas. “On behalf of the board, I thank Brian for his many years of service to our city and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”
Brian Golden
Suffolk Encourages Next Generation
Boston – Suffolk announced it took a unique approach when installing fencing around its jobsite at 401 Park in Boston.
The project team decided the fence surrounding the project should generate warmth and inspiration for children at a nearby daycare center rather than serve as a barrier separating the project site from the community. The company wanted students at the Bright Horizons daycare center to feel engaged in the building process.
Suffolk hosted virtual classes for the children to spark their interest in construction and encouraged them to draw what they saw on site, right outside their windows. Using their artwork, the team designed custom scrim (the wrap on the fence) with lookout holes so students could have a sneak peek at the action happening inside.
From these classes and conversations, the kids also constructed their own buildings at Bright Horizons using wood and recycled materials.
PROCON Celebrates Groundbreaking
At the groundbreaking (l-r): Matt Mecum, chair of board of selectman, Town of Boylston; Kim Ames, chair of planning board, Town of Boylston; Adam Tominsky, general manager, Rand-Whitney Container; Nick Smith, president and CEO, Rand-Whitney Container; Christopher Harrigan, CFO, Rand-Whitney Container; Ted Fire, VP of construction and development, The Kraft Group; and from PROCON: Matt Wirth, SVP architecture; Phil Germain, SVP of preconstruction; Jen Stebbins Thomas, managing director; John Stebbins, managing director; Daniel Messier, SVP of construction operations; and Tom Haubrich, senior project manager.
Rendering of Rand-Whitney packaging facility in Boylston, Mass.
Boylston, MA – Rand-Whitney officials were joined by business leaders, Town of Boylston officials and their designbuilder, PROCON, for the groundbreaking ceremony of a 384,000sf packaging facility in Boylston.
The state-of-the-art facility represents the latest investment by the company in equipment and capacity to meet the significant growth in worldwide demand for packaging that was accelerated by the COVID pandemic. When fully operational, the new packaging facility will have the potential to manufacture 300 million boxes annually.
Operating in Massachusetts since 1938, Rand-Whitney chose to build the facility in Boylston due to its proximity to major transportation corridors and access to a skilled workforce. The sustainable facility will feature energy efficiencies and the industry’s most efficient robotics and automation equipment. Rand-Whitney’s vertical integration will allow the facility to manufacture packaging that uses a very high percentage of post-consumer waste, using 100% post-consumer waste linerboard produced in the company’s own mill in Connecticut.
Rand-Whitney is one of several companies owned by New England Patriots’ Owner Robert Kraft and is the largest independent corrugated packaging manufacturer in New England with areas of expertise in cost-saving package re-engineering and custom lean manufacturing programs. The company also produces and ships corrugated displays, shipping containers and folding cartons to a variety of industrial and consumer end-users. The Boylston facility is its fourth collaboration with PROCON.
“Working with the leadership at RandWhitney over the past decade has been incredible,” said John Stebbins, PROCON managing director. “The design and construction of the Boylston packaging facility will reflect that leadership by featuring innovation, energy efficiency, and cutting-edge automation.”
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Wilmington Development Tops Off
Lume Wilmington, MA – The Procopio Companies announced the official topping off of its multifamily development, located at 635 Main St. in Wilmington.
“We’re really excited about Lume. Wilmington hasn’t seen the development of new multifamily construction in over 10 years,” said Michael Procopio, CEO of The Procopio Companies. “With the life sciences boom expanding into the 128 belt, Lume’s location is prime for anyone working in the industry, as well as anyone looking for a convenient, luxury development outside of Boston to call home.”
Lume’s topping off marks the completion of the building’s vertical structure. The 74,000sf development includes a 3-story podium style apartment building with 39 garden style units and 10 additional luxury townhomes.
Community amenities include a fitness center with a dedicated yoga room, a club room, pet spa, outdoor patio area, and work-from-home rooms specifically designed for virtual meetings. The property is less than a mile to the Wilmington MBTA stop, as well as minutes from numerous local restaurants, parks, schools, and the new Yentile Farm Recreational Facility. The $20 million project began after a complex entitlement process, given the location directly abuts the MBTA Haverhill Line. Procopio has partnered with Peabody-based architecture firm, DMS Design, as architect of record for the exterior design, and with Ipswich-based Conant Design Group for interior design. Boston-based Charlesgate is handling property management and leasing. Construction began in July of 2021, and completion is expected this fall.
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Tavernier Place Breaks Ground
Acton, MA – Peabody Properties and Common Ground Development Corporation (CGDC), a nonprofit subsidiary of Community Teamwork, announced the groundbreaking for Tavernier Place, a new construction of 31 one-bedroom affordable rentals for seniors ages 62 and up and individuals with disabilities, located at 446 Massachusetts Ave. in Acton. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 25.
The ceremony also celebrated Acton resident, Nancy Tavernier, who has spent decades advocating for, and making possible, more affordable housing opportunities in Acton. Among the speakers who addressed Acton’s support for affordable housing and Nancy Tavernier’s dedication were Senator James Eldridge, Middlesex and Worcester; Representative Danillo Sena, 37th Middlesex District; a representative from the Office of Congresswoman Lori Trahan, Third Congressional District; David Martin, chair of the Acton Select Board; Clark Ziegler, executive director, Massachusetts Housing Partnership; Carl Howell, chief program officer of CTI; and Janet Adachi, chair of the Acton Community Housing Corp. Steven Joncas, director of real estate development for Common Ground Development Corp., emceed the event.
At the conclusion of the event, Tavernier spoke in gratitude of this recognition, and on the importance of enough affordable housing, especially for seniors.
The 3-story building will include an exercise room, community room, outdoor bicycle racks, on-site management, extra storage space, lobby area with a three-season screened-in porch and two elevators, as well as a robust service plan to address the needs of the elderly population, provided by Peabody Properties.
“We are honored to have been selected to manage another Acton community,” said Karen Fish-Will, principal and CEO of Peabody Properties, which also manages Old High School Commons. “We look forward to welcoming new residents soon, and providing another affordable option for our seniors.”
The project team for Tavernier Place also includes Maugel Architects, Inc., architect, and Dellbrook|JKS, construction. The project is expected to be completed later this year.
Nancy Tavernier
BTEA Northeast Holds Recovery Week
Boston – The Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) Northeast’s 2022 Building Trades National Recovery Week took place on April 25-29.
The mission of National Building Trades Recovery Week is to curtail substance use disorder (SUD) and the drug overdose crisis in the construction industry. It aims to break the stigma of addiction, educate the industry about viable recovery options and prevent increased fatalities.
An in-person ceremony was held on April 25 in Boston. From April 26-28, BTEA Northeast hosted live webinars featuring nationally recognized experts to educate, train and identify resources for both labor and management to make workplaces and job sites safer. On April, 29, a National Job Site Stand Down honored the lives lost to SUD. Workers stood down at jobsites to honor the 229 overdose deaths for every 100,000 building trades industry workers.
“The construction industry is disproportionately impacted by the drug crisis,” says Thomas S. Gunning, executive director of BTEA Northeast. “We are in the middle of a mental health crisis and it’s time we talk about it.”
Boston – On April 27, King Boston welcomed close to 500 community members and partners to break ground on a new historical monument dedicated to the racial justice legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.
The 22-foot-high monument, The Embrace, was inspired by a photograph of Dr. and Mrs. King’s entwined arms in the moments after Dr. King learned he had won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Designed by Hank Willis Thomas and Mass Design Group, the monument will be set on Boston Common, America’s first public park, linking the Common’s 400-year history as a gathering space to the age of a “New Boston” rooted in equity, healing, and well-being. The Embrace will be the centerpiece of the 1965 Freedom Plaza, where King Boston will highlight 65 of Greater Boston’s leaders during the civil rights movement, and it is scheduled to be unveiled on Martin Luther King weekend in 2023.
The groundbreaking, which took place on the 95th anniversary of Coretta Scott King’s birth, featured a number of speakers addressing the importance of the memorial as a symbol of a Boston transformed, and recognized as an inclusive, welcoming, and anti-racist city as it moves toward its 400th anniversary in 2030. The sculpture is also situated just yards from Parkman Bandstand, where
Rendering of “The Embrace” monument
Dr. King addressed a large crowd after his historic march in April 1965 from Roxbury to the Common.
Attendees of the groundbreaking included United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachael Rollins, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, Massachusetts State Senator Sonia Chang Diaz, King Boston co-chair Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, King Boston co-founder Paul English, Senior Pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church and King Boston co-founder Rev. Liz Walker, Former Massachusetts State Representative Marie St. Fleur, King Boston Executive Director Imari Paris Jeffries, Boston Foundation President and CEO Lee Pelton, philanthropists Demond and Kia Martin, Celtics player Grant Williams, and a number of Boston city councilors and other notable guests.
“The Embrace will be an important cultural symbol of equity and justice for Boston residents and all those who visit our city and region,” said Jeffries. “It will serve as a permanent monument representing the Kings’ time and powerful presence here in Boston, a time that helped shape their approach to an equitable society. This monument, and the tribute to 65 other civil rights icons, are critical elements of King Boston’s spatial justice efforts and will advance our collective work toward a ‘New Boston.’”
Imari Paris Jeffries gave an introduction at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu emphasized the importance of the memorial as a marker of a bold new vision for Boston and its inclusivity.
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