New Lecture Series on "Place-Based Prosperity" Launches This Week

You never know where an idea will travel.

Since wrapping up "Imagining North Adams," we've heard from people as far away as British Columbia and Georgia who heard about the project and wanted advice for launching similar festivals of their own. Now the fun continues with an idea that traveled locally: from the festival's temporary storefront on Main Street to a classroom on Church Street at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Presented with a choice of themes for their spring Green Living Seminar Series, Professor Elena Traister's students chose to focus on the connection between a place's design and its sustainability. The resulting lecture series will kick off this Thursday with the first of twelve lectures on the theme of place-based prosperity.

Lectures are free and open to the public and feature such renowned speakers as Andrés Duany, founder of the New Urban movement, and Charles Marohn, Executive Director of the nationwide organization known as Strong Towns. Join us for an eye-opening view of the ways in which our decisions shape our city's environmental, economic and community well-being.

2013 Green Living Presentations

All seminars begin at 5:30 p.m. in Murdock Hall, Room 218, unless otherwise noted.

1/24/2013

The Return of Placecraft

Jennifer Krouse, founder of Steepletown Studios and Imagining North Adams
Ian Rasmussen, land-use attorney and founder of Urban Cartographics

1/31/2013

Strong Towns

Charles Marohn, Executive Director, Strong Towns

2/7/2013

Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change

Andrew Howard, Team Better Block

2/14/2013

Green Certification: The Sacred and the Profane

R. John Anderson, Principal at Anderson Kim Architecture & Urban Design
Stephanie Boyd, Director of the Williams College Zilkha Center

2/21/2013

The Original Green

Steve Mouzon, Principal, Mouzon Design

2/28/2013

The Agrarian City

Andres Duany, Principal of Duany Plater Zyberk & Company (via Skype)
Jennifer Munoz, Director of the Growing Healthy Garden Program

3/7/2013

The Environmental Argument for Smart Development

(This presentation will take place in Sullivan Lounge)
Lee Sobel, Real Estate Development and Finance Analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jon Ford, Principal of Morris Beacon Design

3/21/2013

Shared Space

Norman Garrick, University of Connecticut, Professor of Civil Engineering

3/28/2013

Legalizing Main Street

Caleb Racicot, Tunnel-Spangler-Walsh & Associates, Senior Principal

4/4/2013

Revitalizing Downtown

Russell Preston, Design Director at Principle Group; and Judy Grinnell, President of Hoosic River Revival

4/11/2013

Mobility

Aurash Khawarzad, Associate at The Project for Public Spaces and Founder of Change Administration and TrafficCOM

4/25/2013

Panel Discussion: Place-Based Prosperity and the Future of North Adams

Padraic Steinschneider, President of Gotham Design & Community Development Ltd.
Mayor Richard Alcombright, City of North Adams
Representative Gailanne Cariddi, Massachusetts State House
Wendy McWeeny, Executive Director of the Partnership for North Adams