Redeveloping a Community Asset: The Essex Art Center in Lawrence, MA (IAP, Spring or Summer 2009)
- Client: Chet and Gary Sidell, Lawrence Mill Owners and Principals of Bell Tower Square Management
- Timing: IAP, Spring 2009, or Summer 2009
- Scope: Flexible, depending on interested student’s academic focus and time commitment; could range from a full MArch, MS-RED or MCP Thesis to a for-credit Independent Study Project (for an individual or group)
The Essex Art Center is a community asset located in the heart of the Mill District, a rapidly redeveloping historic area along the Merrimack River in downtown Lawrence. The building owners seek to preserve and enhance the building in the midst of its rapidly redeveloping context and to ensure its physical and financial viability for the future. As part of the project, students could assess design and programming options and the physical, financial and operational feasibility of each.
The 21,000 square foot building’s main tenant is the Essex Art Center, which has developed programs in art, photography, pottery, drawing and filmmaking since moving into the building in 1995. Their 13,200 square feet of space contains galleries, classrooms, a darkroom, a ceramics room, artist’s studios, a drawing studio and a media lab. A fencing studio and other artist’s studios inhabit the remainder of the building. While retaining these community-serving tenants, the building owners would like to explore the possibilities in changing the building’s configuration through renovation, new programming elements, and through re-imagining an adjacent alley as a festival and event space. Through this revitalization, they also seek to make strategic improvements to the building’s century-old structure to preserve its structural integrity.
The immediate context of the site is currently undergoing a massive transformation of four adjacent mill buildings into a vibrant mixed use neighborhood with over 150 units of housing, commercial space and new public park space and infrastructure, known collectively as the Union Crossing project.
The building owners, Chet and Gary Sidell, are dedicated Lawrence residents and business owners who have consistently worked for the revitalization in the city and for good jobs and community resources for its residents. Their ownership and management of the Essex Art Center and adjacent 168,000 square foot Bell Tower Square office building combines real estate and business acumen with a dedication to the important institutions and innovative firms that are their tenants, including Cambridge College, The Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board, Groundwork Lawrence and many others
Individual Development Account Program Evaluation: Comparative Study (Fall 2008 / Spring 2009)
- Client: Lawrence CommunityWorks
- Timing: IAP, Spring 2009, or Summer 2009
- Scope: Flexible, depending on interested student’s academic focus and time commitment; could range from a full MArch, MS-RED or MCP Thesis to a for-credit Independent Study Project (for an individual or group) or DUSP internship.
Lawrence CommunityWorks (LCW) is a nonprofit community development corporation working with over 3,500 resident and stakeholder members to transform the physical, economic, civic, and social landscape of Lawrence, a former mill City with a large immigrant and Latino population. We create a growing network of Lawrencians engaged in building family and community assets, providing each other with mutual support, and taking collective action to advance the revitalization of the City. Activities range from community organizing, to real estate development, to educational programs for youth and families.
For the past seven years, LCW has operated a successful Individual Development Account program providing matched savings, financial literacy training, and peer support to Lawrence residents pursuing homeownership, higher education, and small business development (see ida-fact-sheet). We are currently interested in finding out just how successful that program is in comparison with other IDA programs across the state and the nation.
We are seeking a Research Assistant to gather data from Lawrence CommunityWorks, the MIDAS Collaborative, the Corporation for Enterprise Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other sources, including specific other IDA programs. The RA would then perform a comparative analysis based on six or seven+ major indicators, including:
- Graduation Rates
- Percent of grads successfully purchasing assets
- Value of assets leveraged
- Asset retention rates
- Improvements in Credit Scores
- Increased / Continued Savings
- Improvements in Self-esteem
We would like the research to focus on broadly similar populations (urban, immigrant, women) across a variety of program designs (high-touch, low-touch, etc.).
Please contact Jessica Andors, 978.722.2604, with questions.
Create Your Own Project
MIT@Lawrence encourages students and student groups to create their own project. Projects should roughly fit into one of the three main MIT@Lawrence focus areas of affordable housing, asset-building, and youth development. Further, projects should have a clear beginning and end, focusing on developing capacity in Lawrence. Funding for project materials and transportation costs is available through the MIT@Lawrence Public Service Center. You should contact Alison Hynd at hynd@MIT.EDU for help developing your project.
