CITY ANNOUNCES "SOMERVILLE BY DESIGN" INITIATIVE

"In 2011, Somerville became the
only city in Massachusetts to receive funding under the Obama administration's
groundbreaking Sustainable Communities grant program.  The President's initiative breaks down
bureaucratic barriers between the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection
Agency, and invests in cities that take a holistic, inclusive approach to
growing the economy, modernizing transportation infrastructure, and improving
the environment,"  said Mayor Curtatone. "It's
no surprise that Somerville would be recognized as a model for urban policy,
and as a sound investment of federal resources."

In the first phase of Somerville
by Design, the City will lead a cutting-edge public engagement process around
three MBTA Green Line stations and the neighborhoods that will be served by
this new transit investment. The initiative will begin with a series of urban
design workshops to develop Neighborhood Plans in Ball Square, Gilman Square,
and the Lowell Street/Magoun Square neighborhoods.  Residents, business owners, and other interested
stakeholders will have a unique opportunity to share their ideas for
neighborhood preservation and improvement. The participation process for the Somerville by Design
neighborhood plans will be designed to generate consensus-based urban design
solutions without the need for a multi-year planning process.

The kickoff "visioning session"
for all three neighborhoods will be held at the Center for Arts at the Armory (191 Highland Avenue)
at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, October 17^th. This session will identify current
challenges and future visions for the Ball
Square, Gilman
Square, and the Lowell Street/Magoun Square
neighborhoods.  Subsequent design
workshops will be held in November, for which details will be made available.

Community members will work
directly with local and national experts in urban design, architecture, and
engineering in a hands-on format to see their ideas come to life via real-time
sketches and professional artist's renderings of neighborhood
improvements.  The sessions will be led
by OSPCD staff with design work coordinated by Jeff Speck, an author and
designer who is the former Director of Design for the National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA) and a pioneer in implementing the NEA's influential Mayor's
Institute on City Design. 

"During the groundbreaking
SomerVision Comprehensive Planning process, our residents consistently
identified a need to develop neighborhood-based plans around the future Green
Line stations," said Michael F. Glavin, Executive Director of the Mayor's
Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development.  "Each individual neighborhood is unique in
its needs, and I look forward to working with residents and the business
community to identify ways to maximize the benefit of the new transit service."

"All around the country, community
planning is focusing on urban design, because residents know what parts of the
physical environment work and what parts need improvement," said George
Proakis, Director of Planning for the City. 
"Whether a neighborhood needs better sidewalks, more open space, or
well-designed construction on vacant and underutilized lots, urban design and
physical planning has proven to be a great way to generate consensus among
community members."

A project schedule and materials
are available on the City's website at www.somervillema.gov/bydesign.