One hundred and thirty years after Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace re-shaped our city, Boston 2024 has taken a fresh look at Boston’s public spaces—proposing new athletic facilities in several public parks and the completion of the Emerald Necklace as a part of the Olympic legacy. What are the possibilities for Boston’s public realm beyond 2024? What roles can landscape play in defining and activating the Boston of tomorrow? How can new environmental challenges, new forms of recreation and leisure, new technologies, and new ideas about public space and the public realm shape the contemporary city and the social spaces that make it work?
Anita Berrizbeitia is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Master in Landscape Architecture Degree Programs at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her research focuses on design theories of modern and contemporary landscape architecture, the productive aspects of landscapes, and Latin American cities and landscapes. She was awarded the 2005/2006 Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture.
J. Meejin Yoon is an architect, designer and educator. Yoon is currently Head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taught undergraduate and graduate architecture studios, interdisciplinary workshops and lecture courses at MIT for the past 14 years. She is the 2013 recipient of MIT’s Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement (and innovations) to Education.
A committed practitioner, teacher, critic, and writer, Gary is Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he has taught since 1990. His honors include Harvard University’s Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship, the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award with Douglas Reed, and the 2013 ASLA Firm of the Year award.
Gavin started practicing over 25 years ago and worked on the design of the 1988 World's Fair and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. His particular area of expertise is transforming challenging sites into valued cultural and natural places as evidenced in cities he worked for. His award winning work has led him to projects around the globe, contributing articles in the Urban Land Institute & Earth Pledge Foundation publications, speaking on landscape & urban design issues, judging excellence in development awards and as a studio instructor at Harvard's School of Design. McMillan has won the CMAA Award for Innovation in Masonry, the P. Behan Memorial Prize for Landscape Design, and the SGAP Prize for Landscape Design. Some of the projects McMillan's has been involved with include: Sydney Olympics 2000, Sydney, Australia Sydney International Athletic & Aquatic Centers, Sydney, Australia Gold Coast Commercial Centre and Marina, Hong Kong, China BMI City, Jakarta, Indonesia World's Fair 1988, Brisbane, Australia
Julie Crockford is responsible for all day-to-day operations, long- range planning and the fiscal health and well-being of the Emerald Necklace conservancy. She works with the board and staff to develop the budget, expand fundraising efforts, create programming and design strategies to further the organization’s mission to protect, restore and maintain parks of the Emerald Necklace designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.