LYNN — Mayor Thomas M. McGee has been selected as an inaugural participant in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) Alumni Technical Assistance (ATA) program.
The MICD program includes 12 selected mayors and 27 design professionals and brings candid, concrete and expert advice to a virtual audience, as in-person sessions are on hold.
ATA matches mayors with nationally renowned design experts to assist with either a continuation of its original MICD case study project or a new project focused on racial justice in the built environment.
McGee will be working on a 2018 MICD Lynnway case study project that he presented to the conference in Anchorage, Alaska in 2018. The case study focuses on utilizing the Lynnway to connect the downtown and adjacent residential neighborhoods with the waterfront.
The MICD technical assistance team will assist McGee in creating a baseline for reimagining the Lynnway into a walkable urban environment.
“I am honored to be selected to participate in the MICD Alumni Technical Assistance program to develop new ideas on how to reimagine the Lynnway to act as a bridge rather than a barrier to our current and future waterfront development,” McGee said. “The goal will be to ensure the public has easy access to the amenities planned for the waterfront and ultimately realize well-designed, walkable, transit-oriented development for Lynn’s waterfront.
The resource team will work with the mayor, city staff and stakeholders over a six-week period to develop concrete solutions to the city’s challenges. The ATA program matches each alumni mayor with two or three resource team members to collaborate on recommendations for their project.
MICD Alumni Technical Assistance is offered at no cost to participating cities and the MICD compensates participating design professionals directly. Mayors included in the program come from 10 states across the country in communities with populations ranging from 13,000 to 305,000 residents.
Project topics include visioning for multi-purpose parks in flood-prone, underserved neighborhoods, connecting residents to transit hubs and economic opportunity through urban design and developing vacant city-owned parcels in overlooked neighborhoods. It also includes making overdue investments in streetscape improvements and reviving main streets to bring walkability, economic opportunity, and a shared sense of community.
Participating resource team members come from across the country and work in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, transportation planning, creative placemaking, economic development, real estate development, and more.
MICD said that it is honored to connect city design experts with local leaders to advance projects that will bring greater equity, opportunity, safety and well-being to communities across the country.
