Election Results: Library wins

New use for an old fire door: Kookoo Cafe, Brookline

Many thanks to everyone that voted on a community space for Union Crossing. The votes from the display at Our House and the online poll below have been tallied, and the options for community spaces that the Committee could create have been discussed at our last meeting on November 19th. After much deliberation, the Committee overwhelmingly voted the library to be the subject of their efforts leading up to occupancy of the building. Upon completion of this project, the Committee voted to move on to the second and third priority projects which were: an indoor playspace for children, and a lounge with a tv. The next fundraising event will be a game night at Our House, sometime in the early part of next year. In the meantime, have a good holiday!

Vote today: choose an idea for each common space near the elevator on all three of the residential floors in Building 9

The Union Crossing Committee is in the process of planning and fundraising for the construction of common areas in Building 9. The ideas for the spaces adjacent to the elevators on the residential floors they have come up with are listed below. Every person gets three votes that can be distributed to any or one of the ideas. If you have a new idea, write it in. Some ideas like a fitness center, business incubator space, and computer room, are being implemented through other fundraising sources and will be located in one of the many other common areas throughout the building. The goal of this brainstorming and voting exercise is to narrow the options down to a few that are popular and achievable with our Committee’s resources. On November 19th, the online votes will be tallied with the sticker-ballot votes in LCW’s Our House Center for Design and Technology.

Residential Floor Plan

Detail of Residential Floor Plan Highlighting Common Area

FREE Movie Night in the Mill!

Please join us for a free screening of “The Greening of Southie” on September 24th at 6:00pm at 50 Island Street, Building 9. A tour of the buildings will occur beforehand at 5:30pm, and we’ll have a discussion after the film, which documents the construction of Boston’s first residential “green” building and the surprising way in which it brings together an entire community. We’ll also have a bake sale during the show as a fundraiser for the community spaces at Union Crossing. If you’d like to contribute something to the sale, please let us know. So come with your picnic blankets and chairs, and enjoy the show!

For more information, or to receive a copy of the flyer for distribution, please contact Dan Koff at dkoff@lcworks.org.

UC History Exhibit at the Heritage State Park

Representatives from the Lawrence History Center, Southwick, and Union Crossing enjoy the exhibit

Lawrence CommunityWorks has been working with our partners at the Lawrence History Center, the Heritage State Park, and Southwick (Brooks Brothers) to create a new exhibit that will be open throughout the summer at the Heritage State Park Visitors Center. June 25, 2009 was the Grand Opening of the Lawrence History Center ‘s summer exhibit ~ Made in America. Curated by Leah and Claire Russell, “Made in America ~ Story of Southwick / Union Crossing ~ People, Place and Product” tracks the 100 plus year history of the Union Crossing site – from manufacturing textiles, shoes, clothing (Grieco and Southwick), to creating this vibrant new Lawrence community (Union Crossing). Focusing on themes of “People, Place and Product” the exhibit highlights transformations that took place in the complex and celebrates the spirit of community throughout the site’s history. The exhibit features materials from the manufacturing facility, photographs, historic maps, and quotes from the recent interviews that Movement City and Groundwork Green Team youth conducted with factory employees. Made in America will run through the last weekend in August at the Lawrence Heritage State Park, 1 Jackson Street, Lawrence, MA.

Curator Leah Russell is taught how to press a sleeve by a former Southwick employee

Historic Tax Credits Awarded to Project

We are pleased to share the good news that the Union Crossing project recently received a $300,000 Historic Tax Credit award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission! This funding, in addition to the $800,000 awarded to the project by MHC in an earlier rounds, represents a vital piece of financing for the project and will support the creation of healthy, energy-efficient and affordable housing for working families as well as a new day care center and commercial space. Special thanks go out to Rep. William Lantigua, Senator Sue Tucker, Rep. David Torrisi and Rep. Barry Finegold for their steadfast support on this and so many other aspects of the Union Crossing project.

Union Crossing in FIVE news publications

Board President, Sandra Mouzon, gives the keynote address to the LCW membership at the Annual Convention

Union Crossing was featured in multiple local and Boston news publications recently: Rumbo, The Globe, The Herald, and Architectural Boston.

Rumbo featured a cover article complete with a photograph of Maggie, the Governor, and Jim Barnes for their article about the Governor’s announcement.

AB dedicated their entire summer edition to Gateway Cities. In one of the articles entitled “Hidden Assets,” the author interviewed our own Project Director, Maggie Super-Church.

The Globe’s story discussed the Governor’s announcement of $1M for Lawrence and Lowell, to fund the East Island Bridge.

The Herald featured two stories, one on how “Reinvented Lawrence has a bright future.” The other story was about how “Entrepreneurial brothers act locally, run Global firm.” Congratulations to the Yepez brothers for an excellent job!

While we’re discussing news articles about Union Crossing, you may want to see how Lawrence’s local paper, The Eagle Tribune broke the story last April with their article Mill City Makeover. That same Sunday, they also featured Union Crossing amongst Ten Projects that Promise New Business, Jobs, and Revenue.  The E-Trib then followed up on these stories with an an editorial on how “Union Crossing Holds Great Promise”.

More recently, the E-Trib discussed the funding boost from the Fireman Foundation and other sources that are propelling us towards closing.

Let’s keep up the good news!

MIT students final presentation May 6th

Danielle Martin, Teaching Assistant for the class, speaks at the Expo

Graduate students in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) will be giving their final presentation on their ideas for documenting and displaying the stories embedded in Union Crossing. The class is considering three interventions, or ways to tell the story: on-site displays, a web presence, and through events. The meeting will be held in Our House, Room 1, at 5:30pm. All are welcome to participate and partake in the provided yummy food.

SBA Honors UC Commercial Partners, Yepez Family, for Outstanding Disaster Recovery

Juan Yepez with Governor Patrick and State Representative Lantigua

“Their display of resilience and ingenuity as they rose above the challenge of overcoming a three-month shutdown [from the 2006 Lawrence floods], while still managing to flourish in the midst of an economic downturn have earned Juan and Luis Yepez the 2009 Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery.”

Read the full article in Forbes here:

UC story part II: manufacturing jobs remain in the area

Mr. Del Vecchio and the Governor at the Southwick Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Before making the announcement in Lawrence, Governor Patrick visited the new Southwick suit facility in Haverhill that replaced their old facility in the soon-to-be Union Crossing buildings. The Eagle Tribune wrote a story about the whole event. We, the UC team, including our partners at the Lawrence History Center and MIT have been working with students at Movement City and Groundwork Lawrence’s Green Team to document what it was like for these employees to manufacture textiles in the hundred year old buildings. The interviews will be available for this summer’s exhibition at the Heritage State Park: Made in America.

MIT@Lawrence 10 Year Expo

Jim Barnes speaks at the Expo

MIT@Lawrence celebrated 10 years of its partnership with a networking reception yesterday at the Heritage State Park. Serenated by a live jazz band, members of the community mingled with students to hear about their projects ranging from foreclosure mapping, youth programs, UC storytelling, and more. Visit their site to see an awesome short documentary on the partnership’s history: M@L Story Project