What matters to you.
0:00
0:00
NEXT UP:
 
Top

Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Designing Boston Series: Accessory Dwelling Units

In partnership with:
With support from: Lowell Institute
Date and time
Monday, June 25, 2018

Boston's Housing Committee hosts a discussion on Accessory Dwelling Units. It is part of the BSA’s Designing Boston Series, which looks at current issues and trends in architecture and design that could have a significant impact on the Greater Boston area or a particular neighborhood in the City. Two of the panelists are Marcy Ostberg, Director of the Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab and James Shen, Founding Partner of the People’s Architecture Office. Marcy will offer the perspective of a municipality that has launched an ADU Pilot Program. James will offer the perspective of an architect and how innovative projects like his Plugin House can provide an opportunity for infill of vacant areas and additions in backyards to address the housing crisis.

shen.jpg
**James Shen** is an architect, product designer, and founding partner of the People’s Architecture Office. Originally from Los Angeles, James Shen received his M. Arch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BSc in Product Design from California State University, Long Beach. He is a Visiting Lecturer at MIT and a Harvard Loeb Fellow. In 2010, James co-founded People's Architecture Office, a multi-disciplinary studio focused on social impact through design. People’s Architecture Office is the first architecture practice in Asia certified as a B-Corporation and serves as a model for social entrepreneurship. PAO engages in urban issues through designs that straddle architecture and product design. The studio’s award-winning works have been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Harvard Graduate School of Design and the London Design Museum. Photo: [The LOEB Fellowship 2018](https://loebfellowship.gsd.harvard.edu/fellows-alumni/fellows-search/james-shen/ "The LOEB Fellowship 2018 | James Shen")
ostberg.jpg
**Marcy Ostberg** is the director of the Housing Innovation Lab. She brings an eclectic background in civic innovation, urban policy and education to MONUM. She previously worked as a Strategic Project Manager advancing a question formulation strategy used for problem solving in innovation, critical thinking in education and self-advocacy in social services. Additionally, Marcy worked as a High School Biology Teacher at the Boston Day & Evening Academy, a Boston Public School where she developed experiential education and personalized learning modules. Her experiences as an urban educator drove her to explore innovative solutions to systemic and complex problems that face low-income families. These varied experiences influence how she thinks about creative solutions to ensuring Boston is affordable for all residents. Marcy holds a MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University, and an MEd from Franklin Pierce University. Photo: [New Urban Mechanics | Boston.gov](https://www.boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics/marcy-ostberg "Marcy Ostberg | Boston.gov")
0.jpeg
**Lily Canan Reynolds** is the Community Engagement Manager for Newton's Department of Planning and Development. She focuses on facilitating community-led solutions to the challenges facing our cities. Lily designs public processes for housing and transportation planning, as well as transformative streetscape renovations. Lily has been an ambassador for the AAUW Work Smart program in Boston since 2016. Previously, Lily served as a founding board member for Women Transforming Cities. Image: [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilycreynolds "Lily Canan Reynolds | LinkedIn")
Chris_Herbert.jpg
**Chris Herbert** is Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Dr. Herbert has extensive experience conducting research related to housing policy and urban development, both in the U.S. and abroad. A key focus of his research has been on the financial and demographic dimensions of homeownership, and the implications for homeownership policy of the recession, housing bust, and foreclosure crisis. Dr. Herbert was named managing director of the Joint Center in 2015. He is also a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the Department of Urban Planning and Design. Photo: [JCHS](http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/staff/chris-herbert "Chris Herbert | JCHS")
anthony_flint.jpg
Anthony Flint is Director of Public Affairs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a think-tank based in Cambridge, Mass., where he is engaged in writing and research about urbanism and development patterns. He is author of *Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder* and *Transformed the American City*. He has been a newspaper journalist for twenty years, primarily at *The Boston Globe*, where he covered urban planning, development, architecture and transportation, and had a weekly column on urban design and public space. He has also published papers on planning and transit for the Rappaport Institute of Greater Boston at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a chapter on planning in the book *Governing Greater Boston*. A graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he served in 2005-2006 as education director at the Office for Commonwealth Development, the Massachusetts agency coordinating housing, transportation, environment and energy.
Explore: