The Charles River Parklands:
Reclaiming The Legacy
Saturday, November 9

Symposium Panelists and Speakers

Christopher Lydon (Moderator) has been a distinctive voice in print and broadcast journalism for more than 30 years. He covered presidential politics for The New York Times in the 1970s. He hosted "The Ten O'Clock News" on WGBH, public television in Boston, through the 1980s. And he founded "The Connection," widely cited as the best smart talk show on public radio, in the 1990s.

Jarrett Barrios (Keynote) is a member of the Massachusetts House, representing the City of Cambridge in the 28th Middlesex legislative district. In the House his committee assignments include Steering, Policy and Scheduling; Banking; and Housing and Urban Development. He is a long-term advocate for greenspace and the Community Preservation Act. In the Charles River Parklands he has worked on behalf of Magazine Beach, which is slated for major renewal under the MDC master plan.

Steve Belmont (Panelist) has practiced architecture for 25 years in New York City and Minneapolis, where he has worked with planners, developers, and community development agencies in a commitment to recapture the rich life of city neighborhoods. Steve is the President of Belmont Architecture, Inc., Minneapolis and President and founder of the Great Cities Alliance. He is also the author of Cities in Full: Recognizing and Realizing the Great Potential of Urban America. In his research for Cities in Full, Belmont interviewed planning officials and studied neighborhoods, central business districts, and transit systems in more than 30 North American and European cities.

Robert Campbell (Panelist) is a writer and architect. In 1996 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism for his work as architecture critic of The Boston Globe. He has published more than 80 feature articles in national periodicals, and is a contributing editor to the magazines Architectural Record (for which he writes a bimonthly column) and Preservation. He is co-author with photographer Peter Vanderwarker of Cityscapes of Boston: An American City Through Time. Mr. Campbell has been in private practice as an architect since 1975 and is an urban design consultant to numerous cities, including the City of San Francisco. Mr. Campbell is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has been a recipient of the AIA's Medal for Criticism, as well as the Commonwealth Award of the Boston Society of Architects.

Betsy Shure Gross (Panelist) is special assistant to Secretary Robert Durand in the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A long-time leader and advocate of parklands and historic preservation initiative, Betsy's affiliations numerous to list in full, but include: Historic Massachusetts, Inc., Chair, Board of Directors; Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Inc.; Town of Brookline Board of Selectmen Designee; Vice President, Board of Directors, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; Board of Directors; Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University; The Trustees of Reservations, Inc., Corporate Trustee; Brookline Conservation Commission, Chair.

Karl Haglund (Panelist) is the author of Inventing the Charles River (MIT Press, 2002) and Project Manager for the New Charles River Basin on behalf of the Metropolitan District Commission since 1987. In this position he organized and convened the New Basin Citizens Advisory Committee and represented the MDC on the state Bridge Design Review Committee to evaluate alternatives for the Central Artery Charles River bridges. In the past he has been a Guest Critic in Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and State Architectural Historian for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. Karl holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Julia O'Brien (Panelist) is Director of Planning for the Metropolitan District Commission with responsibility for short and long range plans for the preservation and enhancement of the MDC park system. Previously in her tenure with the MDC Julia was loaned to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs as project manager for the development of water supply policy for the Commonwealth. In 1994 she was named "Public Servant of the Year" by the Environmental League of Massachusetts and was awarded the LaGasse Medal of the American Society of Landscape Architects for contributions in the field.

Bruce Schwoegler (Recognition luncheon host) is founder and chairman of MySky, a real-time weather service. Elsewhere, he is widely recognized for his role as a meteorologist and journalist. While with WBZ television he won New England's first Emmy Award for Outstanding Meteorologist and is the recipient of numerous honors including the prestigious Ohio State Award for a prime time special on the Greenhouse Effect. The American Meteorological Society cited Bruce with the 1994 National Outstanding Broadcast Meteorologist Service Award. Previously, Bruce was an environmental columnist at United Press International, following his tenure in a similar post for the Associated Press. Bruce is the author of Weather and Energy, published by McGraw-Hill.