New England power lies in its many cities and towns. This panel brings together representatives from four urban municipalities—Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts—to share lessons learned from engagement in their communities with public open space projects and community events. Panelists will present projects that required extensive public outreach and collaboration. They will illustrate how community engagement and participation influenced the project outcomes, design decisions, and long-term community support after construction.

Through real-world examples, speakers will highlight the outreach tools and engagement strategies they used, discussing what was effective and what was not. The panel will explore common challenges, including reaching all members of the communities to assure equitable representation, what is effective in promoting meetings and events, how to ensure all feedback is received, sustaining engagement throughout a project, handling high levels of participation at events, and growing large annual community programs. Attendees will gain practical insights into building trust and fostering meaningful participation in public-sector park and open space planning, community events, stewardship days, and long-term stewardship of public parks and open spaces.

Jon Bronenkant, ASLA, City of Sommerville 

Aaron Kraemer, Town of Brookline

Lauren Bryant, ASLA, City of Boston

Cortney Kirk, ASLA, City of Cambridge

What begins as a simple circle on a piece of paper ends with a living tree in the ground. That circle represents years of decisions most designers never see— and, possibly, a long list of problems that could have been avoided.

Early collaboration among designers, contractors, and growers leads to more resilient landscapes. Aligning design intent to supply realities can improve tree selection and communicating clear specifications can facilitate installation success.

We'll explore how improved planting practices and early interventions through monitoring protocols create healthier, more resilient sites: how to inspect root systems at delivery, recognize and advocate for trees with good structure, understand what planting depth really means, identify common installation issues and what to monitor for during plant establishment.

Christopher Miczek, Charbrook Nursery Manager

Leland Wheeler, arborist, STIMSON

Arlene Murphy, Horticultural consultant

Stephen Schneider, Northeastern University

Rarely is the way to save a garden to move it. Yet for Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden, that was precisely the challenge facing the team behind ‘Longwood Reimagined’. This session explores the conceptual and technical challenges met to relocate a living work of landscape architecture while elevating its presence within Longwood’s collection of conservatory gardens.

Despite its modest footprint in a repurposed greenhouse at Longwood Gardens’ conservatory complex, Roberto Burle Marx’s Cascade Garden, his only extant garden commission in North America, was identified as a critical asset in Longwoods’ collection of gardens created by notable landscape architects.  As part of ‘Longwood Reimagined’, the institution and its team of designers seized the opportunity to protect this landscape by rebuilding the garden —stone by stone, plant by plant— in a new location and in a modern greenhouse enclosure that provides the infrastructure to support its long-term health.  

Panelists will discuss the innovative planning that led to a defensible preservation strategy, as well as the intensive technical documentation process required to carefully disassemble and reconstruct the garden using both original and contemporary construction methods within a new, state-of-the-art enclosure. The conversation will also address how modern accessibility standards were integrated without compromising the garden’s defining spatial and experiential qualities, and how the reimagined Cascade Garden now contributes to the broader fabric of landscapes within the core of the new West Conservatory complex. 

Eric Kramer, Principal, Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture

Joshua D. Kiehl, AIA, John Milner Architects

Jeremy Martin, ASLA, Reed Hilderbrand

Employee-owned firms prioritize worker empowerment,democratic decision-making, and flexible business transitions. They differ from traditional businesses in that they give all employees, regardless of their role, a mechanism to become business owners, participate in profit-sharing, oversee day-to-day operations, and engage in long-term strategic planning.  

The speakers in this panel represent three companies and two different employee-owned business models. Regenerative Design Group (RDG), was founded in 2009 as an LLC with a mission of creating diverse, ecologically resilient, and productive landscapes. After a decade in business, the founders committed to their long-held goal of worker-ownership, and in 2021 RDG transitioned to a worker-owned cooperative. Since becoming worker-owned, RDG has grown its company, increased profits, and weathered significant staffing challenges. We attribute our ongoing strength in part to our collective refinement of the principles and practices that guide RDG’s governance, day-to-day operations, and studio culture. 

Diggers Cooperative was initially formed in 2012 as a fiscally sponsored project of Worcester roots project as a permaculture design and installation business. In 2020, Diggers moved to Acton, ME and incorporated as a Cooperative in 2020 as a worker-owned cooperative, with three founding worker-owners who are also soil nerds, climate optimists, and community oriented change makers.  

Tighe & Bond is a 100% employee-owned firm founded in 1911. Established in Holyoke, MA by an Irish immigrant as an engineering practice, the firm has grown into a 600+ person, multidisciplinary organization with offices throughout the Northeast.  Employee ownership began with a transfer of capital stock in 1956. Today, the company is 70% owned by its Stock Ownership Program (SOP), held by 158 employee members, and 30% by its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which includes all employees.

Genevieve Lawlor, Affil. ASLA, Regenerative Design Group

Rachel Lindsay, Affil. ASLA, Regenerative Design Group

Scott Guzman, Diggers Cooperative

Sean Ragan, ASLA, Halvorson | Tighe & Bond