Town for all, gown for all : a framework for equitable university-led urban development

Abstract

Universities and the cities they are located in often have contentious relationships. As anchor institutions, urban universities provide significant employment and educational benefits, though their success and expansion often leads to rising housing costs and displacement in surrounding communities. In this project, I set out to understand how two urban universities, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, balance development and expansion with community needs. Through studying these two universities and their successes and failures within the realms of development, housing, and community engagement, I developed a framework for equitable development that centers university development and investment around the goal of affordable housing and equitable communities. This framework aims to meet the needs of both the university and the community, providing affordable housing and public amenities alongside real estate assets and a return on investment for the university. This framework is then applied to a site in Cambridge, illustrating how the principles outlined in this thesis can drive physical and programmatic development in a way that expands housing affordability, provides public amenities, and meets the spatial and financial needs of the university.