ULI Fall Meeting, Boston (October 2018)

Our Monday night inaugural WDC Leadership workshop was a big success! Many thanks to Perkins+Will for hosting us and to Carol Murray (WDC Leadership Chair and Principal at The Lifework Institute) and other WDC members who worked to design our highly interactive session. We explored how to develop the two core skills that are most highly correlated to leadership effectiveness according to recent research– working with "vision and purpose" and "fostering teamwork."

Our Thursday afternoon tour led us through Boston’s South End to Rollins Square Apartments, with a special extended stop at Dahlia’s Gallery--a wonderful studio and weaving shop featuring local, women-made artisan products and owned by Dahlia Popovits. Our evening continued with dinner at CinqueCento just down the street, where Pam Goodman (CEO) and Dara Kovel (incoming President) at Beacon Communities shared their perspectives on leading one of Boston’s largest residential real estate firms, which has as its core mission “Living Well by Design.”

Boston developer Sarah Barnat of Barnat Development led our Friday morning Innovation and Inspiration Tour of projects in East Boston. Along with Rebecca Herst, Director of Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston, Sarah led us along projects fostering sustainability, resilience, affordable housing, transit-oriented development and waterfront revitalization (including Boston East Apartments where we met with Abby Goldenfarb, VP of Development at Trinity Financial). Our tour concluded in East Boston Shipyard with a WDC Leadership Lunch Discussion at D’Parma’s Restaurant. WDC members who didn't have to run to catch an afternoon flight had the opportunity to tour the ICA/Boston’s Watershed, which has transformed a 15,000-square-foot, formerly condemned space into a new civic and cultural asset. Anmahian Winton Architects designed the project from an abandoned copper pipe factory, and Project Manager Aaron Bruckerhoff met us at The Watershed for a back-of-house tour and to learn about about the early stages of the project and its design elements.