Call for Orientation Tour Ideas

Ideas Needed for 2011 APA Conference Orientation Tour

As part of the organizing for the 2011 American Planning Association conference in Boston next April, an Orientation Tour subcommittee is  working on plans for a 2.5-hour tour that will highlight significant locations of planning interest, including neighborhoods, historic sites, transportation projects, unique architecture, systems of parks, etc.  Ideas circulated to date are too numerous to list in total, and there is no possible way to include every idea in such a limited tour, but we wanted to solicit your ideas to make sure that we were at least starting with the full range of great opportunities available.

These orientation sessions are designed to be bus tours that will leave the convention site at Copley Square.  Based upon the limited time, we are anticipating that the route would likely only be able to include Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline (and even this would be too much to fit in).  A few of the ideas included so far are:

• In Boston: the Central Artery Project (above and below ground), Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the West End, North End, Downtown Waterfront, Financial District, South Boston Seaport, the ICA, South Boston, Newmarket, South End, Washington Street gateway, Chinatown, UMass Boston/Kennedy Library, Lower Roxbury, Dudley Square, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Southwest Corridor, Fenway, Longwood Medical Area, Boston University, Sullivan Square, City Square, Bunker Hill Community College

• In Brookline: Longwood, Coolidge Corner, Beacon Street, Cottage Farm
• In Cambridge: Cambridgeport, Central Square, Harvard Square, Inman Square, East Cambridge, Lechmere, Kendall Square, MIT
• In Somerville: Union Square, Assembly Square, Inner Belt, Green Line extension

Please send your ideas to Mark Racicot (mracicot@mapc.org) and Mary Knasas (mary.knasas.bra@cityofboston.gov) for future discussion by the committee. THANK YOU for your input.