Architects and industry allies provide $78,000 in grants

Thirteen public education programs in Massachusetts received $78,000 in grants this month from the Massachusetts design and construction industry. Architects, contractors, engineers, civic leaders and allied professionals in the Boston-area building industry awarded this 16th annual round of grants through the Boston Foundation for Architecture and The Engineering Center Education Trust (TECET) to help underwrite public education programs in Massachusetts that focus on the built environment and environmental awareness.

This year, the BSA-created Foundation — in its second-annual collaboration with TECET — solicited proposals for programs that focused on "Investments in the Next Generation" and on ways in which communities throughout Massachusetts could strengthen public awareness among young people of "the importance of well-designed buildings, public spaces, cities and their infrastructures." Twenty-nine proposals were received from communities, community groups, and others throughout Massachusetts. The 13 grants totaling $78,000 are summarized here and include the names and telephone numbers of the individuals to call in each case for additional details:

Asian Community Development Corporation — $10,000 to support a participatory community art and planning study of Boston's Chinatown neighborhood and the forces that have shaped and continue to shape that neighborhood; the project — based on the metaphor of a Chinese banquet — includes curriculum development, a training program, an exhibit at Dreams of Freedom, and a walking tour linked to a Web-site. (Jeremy Liu, 617-482-2380x204)

Boston By Foot — $5,000 to help underwrite the cost of free architectural walking tours for 800 young people in underserved communities in Boston, Cambridge and beyond as part of an effort to introduce Boston's great buildings and spaces to young people. (Polly Flansburgh, 617-367-2345)

Building Materials Resource Center — $2,500 to help expand the educational services the Center offers to low-income and moderate-income homeowners, schools, churches, and other non-profit organizations to which the Center provides affordable, recycled building materials. (Matthew St.Onge, 617-442-8917)

Citizen Schools — $10,000 to support several dozen architecture-based apprenticeships for 9-14-year-old Boston schoolchildren based on projects that "add value to the community" such as walking tours of historic neighborhoods and buildings, new designs for public spaces, published material about interesting elements of the urban landscape, and partnerships with other organizations focusing on planning and design issues. (Anuradha Desai, 617-695-2300x112)

How We Live: A Civic Initiative for a Livable New England — $5,000 to support an extensive, three-year regional planning and design effort to develop tools and processes for integrated planning, regional development and implementation techniques for creating "livable communities". (Alexandra Lee, 617-951-1433x225\alee@architects.org)

James Michael Curley Elementary School — $6,264 to support the design and implementation of a model developmental curriculum unit for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders combining visual literacy, the language arts, math, environmental studies, and service learning; 150 students will learn how their environments are planned, designed, built and used and will be introduced to architectural sites around the world. (Lambros Alex Pappas, 617-635-8239)

Epiphany School — $10,000 to support a series of workshops designed to involve students and community residents in both hands-on involvement in the development of a design concept for exterior landscaping and community-benefit improvements around a new schoolhouse through collaboration with the design team, work with a local historian, work with a Web designer to document the project, work with a facilitator to develop a community review process and work with an artist to produce decorative elements for incorporation on the site. (John Finley, 617-822-9225)

Historic Neighborhoods Foundation — $5,000 to support a 12-16-week curriculum-enrichment program for Boston public high schools that introduces students to development, architecture, engineering and construction. (Dr. Nina Meyer, 617-426-1885)

Learning By Design in Massachusetts — $8,000 to support the development, piloting, and distribution of a learning environment curriculum shaped by schoolteachers and architects. (Jan Ham, 508-528-4517/aerc@norfolk-county.com)

Looking to Learn/ Massachusetts College of Art — $4,000 to support a program that helps urban students understand and think critically about contemporary art, architecture and design through classroom interaction and gallery exhibitions; the intent is to help students comprehend the role of art in their lives. (Sandy Weisman, 617-232-1555x484)

Society of Women Engineers — $2,200 to support a program designed to encourage middle- and high-school students in the Dartmouth, New Bedford, and Fall River areas to relate physical science and engineering concepts to the built environment through a series of hands-on workshops. (Renate Crawford, 508-999-8360)

William Monroe Trotter School — $5,000 to support the development and implementation of a two-year curriculum in architectural building history and personality biographies, research and cultural environment assessment within the community and the region. (Ellen Dunn, 617-635-8225)

WalkBoston — $5,000 to support the development and printing of a map, guiding text and enrichment materials and activities for a walking tour of the original Shawmut Peninsula for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders in Boston. (Susan Quateman, 617-451-1570)

The Foundation was established in 1984 by the Boston Society of Architects to help enhance public understanding of design and public awareness of citizens' crucial roles in shaping our environment. The Foundation is chaired by Cambridge architect Colin Smith FAIA (Architectural Resources Cambridge) and the Board of Trustees also includes civic leader and general contractor Jim Ansara (Shawmut Design and Construction), financial advisor Susan Leff (Keybank), community leader Robert Lewis Jr. (City Year), builder/developer John Macomber (Collaborative Structures), community leaders Kyra Montagu, Susan Paine and Rob Radloff, engineer Mysore Ravindra P.E. (LeMessurier Consultants), educational administrator Linda Snyder (Massachusetts State College Building Authority) and architects Robert Brannen FAIA (Jung/Brannen Associates), Richard Green FAIA (The Stubbins Associates), Peter Madsen FAIA (Pembroke Real Estate), Lisa Reindorf AIA (Goldman Reindorf Architects), and Homer Russell (Boston Redevelopment Authority). For more information on the Foundation, write/call rfitzgerald@ architects.org/617-951-1433x232.

The Engineering Center Education Trust, represented on the Foundation board by Ron Coler of Coler & Colantonio, fosters the education of engineers, surveyors and allied professionals with an emphasis on life-long learning. The Trust is sponsored by the American Consulting Engineers Council of Massachusetts, the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers. The Trust is particularly interested in programs that provide young people with opportunities for informed, first-hand observation of the extraordinary built environment in Boston and throughout the Commonwealth.

For more information on the Trust, call Coler at 413-665-5342. For more information on this grants program in general, write/call rfitzgerald@architects.org/617-951-1433x232.