Mimi Garza Love

Chair

Mimi Garza Love is a principal at Utile, with expertise ranging from complicated renovation projects to campus master plans. While her experience is broad, she has a particular interest in adaptive reuse projects that have complicated programmatic requirements. She is currently leading a campus master plan for Belmont Hill School and is the principal-in-charge of The Possible Project's Innovation Center in Boston. She led the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion on the Rose Kennedy Greenway and the Richard Ortner Studio Building for Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Mimi led an urban campus master plan for a tech company based in Kendall Square that will eventually occupy close to a million square feet of office space. Several phases of the expansion have been completed, and she is currently overseeing the interior fit-out of 300,000 SF of a new office tower. Prior to joining Utile, Mimi was an Associate at Machado Silvetti in Boston. Mimi co-authored Color Space Style, a reference book on interior design for Rockport Publications.

Linda Eastley, AICP

Co-chair

Linda Eastley is a Founding Principal and Managing Partner at Eastley + Partners, LLC, with 25 years of experience in campus planning and large-scale urban design. Ms. Eastley's project experience has included strategies for university systems, waterfront and urban district planning, complex development programming, and site analysis. She is active in the American Planning Association, the Society for College and University Planning, the Urban Land Institute, and the Women's Principal Group of the Boston Society of Architects. Ms. Eastley graduated from Cornell University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Shauna Gillies-Smith, ASLA

Shauna Gillies-Smith is the founding principal of GROUND and oversees the design direction of all the firm's projects. Active in both professional and academic spheres, Gillies-Smith has taught landscape architecture design studios and technical courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, RISD, UBC, RPI, and Tulane. Currently, Gillies-Smith is a Trustee of the Boston Architectural College and sits on the Advisory Board of the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts. She has held the role of Co-chair of the Urban Design Committee at the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA), a Contributing Editor and Editorial Board Member of Architecture Boston Magazine, and is the former Affiliate Director on the BSA Board. Her body of work balances innovative design, elegant detailing, and clever problem-solving to create evocative and welcoming urban spaces. Through her unique command of design and cross-disciplinary advocacy, Gillies-Smith has become a recognized national voice in landscape architecture.

David Hacin, FAIA

David J. Hacin, FAIA is the Founding Principal and Creative Director of Hacin, an interdisciplinary design firm that has received regional, national, and international recognition for its broad portfolio of architecture, interiors, graphics, and branding work. Mr. Hacin is active in civic, academic, and professional organizations,and has chaired and served on numerous boards and juries in Boston and across the country. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Hacin was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame and received the Boston Preservation Alliance’s Susan Park President’s Award for Excellence in 2022. Originally from Switzerland, Mr. Hacin graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and received his Masters in Architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Mikyoung Kim, FASLA

The founding principal of Mikyoung Kim Design, Mikyoung Kim is an international landscape architect and urban designer. This year, her firm has been awarded the prestigious Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum National Design Award, and she is the recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects National Design Medal. With a uniquely holistic approach, her firm's exceptional body of work has redefined the discipline of landscape architecture, inhabiting the intersection of art and science. From the art of ecology and restorative landscapes, Mikyoung Kim Design's work addresses the most pressing environmental and health-related issues while creating innovative and immersive human experiences. Their work has been highlighted in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Guardian Newspaper, National Geographic, Dwell Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. Mikyoung was named an AD innovator by Architectural Digest, and her firm has received numerous national awards from the ASLA, American Architecture Prize, AIA, and GSA. Her life's work is featured in the Smithsonian Museum American Voices Collection.

Kathy Kottaridis

Kathy Kottaridis joined Historic Boston Inc. (HBI) as its Executive Director in 2007. A patient investor in the redevelopment and reuse of endangered historic buildings, HBI is recognized by its partners and collaborators for high-quality projects that re-activate historic building projects for new uses. Under Kathy's leadership, HBI has undertaken $25 million in project investments, transforming eight abandoned historic structures into new mixed-use developments and leveraging considerable private investment. Among these are the rehabilitation of the city's oldest remaining firehouse for HBI's headquarters in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood and the redevelopment of architect H.H. Richardson's only remaining commercial building in Boston for mixed-use housing and retail development. She received her BA in History from the University of New Hampshire, an MA in Historic Preservation from Boston University, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Anne-Marie Lubenau, FAIA

Anne-Marie Lubenau is the director of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence at the Bruner Foundation in Cambridge, where she oversees a national design award program that recognizes transformative places that contribute to the economic, environmental, and social vitality of cities. Prior to joining the Bruner Foundation, she was President and CEO of the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh and worked in architectural firms in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She is vice chair of the Boston Society of Architects Foundation board of trustees and serves on the Harvard GSD Alumni Council and Wentworth Design Professionals Advisory Council. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon and was a 2011/2012 Harvard Loeb Fellow.

David Manfredi, FAIA

David Manfredi is a founding Principal of Elkus Manfredi Architects. He has worked to protect and rebuild urban places all across the United States, creating a thriving new generation of neighborhoods, academic campuses, and main streets that honor their heritage and environment while embracing the 21st century. Mr. Manfredi has worked with a variety of industry leaders from across the country on all types of building and planning projects and is nationally recognized for his master planning, urban design, and placemaking work. Prior to co-founding Elkus Manfredi, he was a vice president at The Architects Collaborative in Cambridge. Mr. Manfredi holds Bachelor's degrees in English and Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago.

Catherine T. Morris

Catherine T. Morris is the Director of Arts and Culture at the Boston Foundation and Executive Director of Boston Art & Music Soul (BAMS) Fest. Morris has spent her career supporting BIPOC artists by producing shows, creating platforms as well as mobilizing and engaging local audiences to experience the arts from a Black perspective. She is also the former Director of Public Programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where she diversified programming, led teams, and increased access and visibility for local and national BIPOC artists, collaborators, entertainers, and audiences. Catherine has deep roots in Boston, with more than 15 years of special event planning and community engagement.

Laura Solano, FASLA

Laura Solano is a registered Landscape Architect and Partner at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA). Solano's expertise in innovative technology and design is nationally recognized, and her work has been essential for advancing MVVA's design excellence alongside sustainable and resilient performance. For 25 years, she taught at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and was appointed the Trott Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University, her alma mater. Laura lectures nationwide at universities and professional associations. Her writings have been widely published, and she contributed to the soil section of the ASLA SITES initiative. She was on the editorial board of Architecture Boston magazine and an executive board member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF). Since 2016 she has been a Lead Facilitator for LAF's Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership. In 2022 she received the Design Medal from the ASLA.

Kirk Sykes

Kirk Sykes is Managing Director of Accordia Partners, LLC, a Boston-based real estate investment and development company. Accordia executes large-scale public-private real estate projects with the goal of financial and socially responsible investing success. Previously, Mr. Sykes was the head of Urban Strategy America Fund, L.P. Mr. Sykes currently serves on The Natixis Loomis Sayles Funds Board of Trustees, The Eastern Bank Board of Trustees & Risk Management Committee, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston External Diversity Advisory Board, Real Estate Executive Council (Chairman), and The Urban Land Institute's New England Advisory Board. He attended the Harvard University Business School, Owners, and Presidents Management Program, the MIT Center for Real Estate Development Commercial Development Executive Program, and the L'Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University.

Diana Fernandez Bibeau

Diana Fernandez Bibeau serves as the Planning Department's Deputy Chief of Urban Design. Her work elevates the importance of urban design, and champions the transformative power of sustainable and walkable communities for all ages and abilities. With over a decade of private practice experience, Diana has built a design portfolio that reassesses the policies that have perpetuated race, gender, environmental, and socioeconomic inequality and created design methodologies that can respond to and correct them. As part of her work at the Planning Department, Fernandez partners on the Mayor's Green New Deal agenda with the City departments, including the Boston Transportation Department, the Environment Department, Parks, Office of Housing, Public Works, Public Facilities, Boston Public Schools, and Boston Public Libraries, to align urban design efforts into a comprehensive vision for Boston.

Ted Schwartzberg

As the Assistant Deputy Director for Planning Review at the City of Boston, Ted Schwartzberg leads a team of city planning professionals dedicated to implementing zoning reforms and maintaining a steady pipeline of investment in Boston's built environment.

After completing MIT's Master of City Planning and MS in Real Estate Development degrees, Schwartzberg worked for over 15 years as a planner in a variety of urban, suburban, and rural settings. He is passionate about creating sustainable and equitable communities through innovative and collaborative approaches to urban planning.  Schwartzberg is committed to making Boston a more livable and resilient city, and to making its development process more predictable and efficient for community members and developers.