Bracing for Impact  - Resilience Strategies for Coastal Communities and Working Waterfronts throughout Northern New England

Schedule of Events: 

• 2:45 PM - Doors open - arrival, registration
• 3:00 - 4:00 PM -  Virtual Panel -  Announcements from the SMPS Chapter Leadership,  introductions to speakers and panel discussion with Q&A 
• 4:15 - 6:00 PM - refreshments + networking 

Urgent issues related to coastal infrastructure and building design along working waterfronts are of particular interest to the AEC industry. Our panelists will discuss what today's AEC companies are doing to support infrastructure and their clients, including digital solutions for proactive planning, building materials and best practices. The discussion will also cover what makes a valuable Design Team collaboration with the city, how firms can prepare to manage and lead this work for coastal resiliency in their regions, and the value of the design process for developers. Additionally, the discussion will focus on challenges that firms face when renovating or adapting historic structures in preparation for rising sea levels, and how firms can use marketing strategies to recognize vulnerabilities and outline adaptation strategies through storytelling. 

This is a great opportunity for AEC professionals to learn about the latest trends and solutions related to coastal infrastructure and building design, as well as network with other industry experts. It is also a rare event in that panelist Carole Wedge, former President and CEO at Shepley Bulfinch, just recently retired after almost 40 years and will be sharing her time and deep knowledge on this subject with us all. 

Our esteemed panelists include:

• Carole Wedge, FAIA, LEED AP, former President and CEO, Shepley Bulfinch
• William (Bill) Needelman, Waterfront Coordinator, City of Portland, Maine
• Nicole Holmes, PE, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Project Manager, Nitsch Engineering
• Matt Pitzer, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Project Manager, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
• Chris Osgood, Senior Advisor for Infrastructure, City of Boston, Massachusetts 
• Moderator: Mike Swenson, CCP, CEM, LEED AP BD+C,  Senior Associate, Commissioning and Sustainable Design at BR+A Consulting Engineers

Given the regional coverage of our chapter partnership and recognizing that we strengthen our SMPS relationships when we can come together in person, we are offering a hybrid event for all attendees. Please consider joining us at one of three locations to collectively watch the panelist discussion and stay to engage in networking opportunities after the event.

This event has been approved for 1 AIA LU.  

Registering for a Watch Party Location

You can select the location most convenient for you through our registration process by following these steps:

• If you are an SMPS Boston Chapter Member, or your preferred location to attend a watch party is at the Boston location. Please register on this page.
• If you are an SMPS Northern New England Chapter Member, or your preferred location to attend a watch party is the NH or Portland, ME locations. Please visit https://smpsnne.org/ to register.

Boston, MA - CDM Smith

75 State Street, Suite 701, Boston, MA 02109

Portland, ME - Thornton Tomasetti
14 York Street, 2nd Floor, Portland, ME 

Bedford, NH - VHB
2 Bedford Farms Drive, Suite 200, Bedford, NH

Speaker Bios

Nicole has a strong passion for environmental protection and technical problem-solving. As a Senior Project Manager in Nitsch Engineering’s Resilience Planning and Design department, she combines these passions for innovative stormwater management and green infrastructure planning and design to promote more sustainable and resilient communities. Nicole specializes in working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary design teams to integrate stormwater design solutions into the landscape.

Nicole’s key projects have included innovative stormwater master planning services at the Harvard Business School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Virginia. She has been working as a stormwater planning consultant for Princeton University for over a decade, contributing to two significant campus planning efforts and several major implementation projects. Nicole is currently leading a flood resilience planning project at Yale University. Her experience also includes urban green infrastructure design and planning projects such as the Kennedy Street Green Infrastructure project in Washington DC, and a variety of green infrastructure streetscape projects in Boston through an on-call contract with Boston Water and Sewer Commission.

Bill is the City of Portland’s first Waterfront Coordinator, starting this position in 2014 after working for 14 years with the City’s Planning and Urban Development Department.  Housed within the Economic Development Department, the Waterfront Coordinator provides project management, technical support, community relations, inter-agency coordination, and communications for waterfront projects and planning processes.  Bill’s portfolio includes serving as Vice President of the Portland Fish Exchange Board of Directors, providing administrative support to the Portland Fish Pier Authority, representing the city on state-side marine boards and committees, planning for offshore wind generation, harbor dredging, infrastructure planning, project funding, public/private partnerships, policy development, land-use regulation, climate change planning, transportation planning and open space development for marine and land-based projects at all scales. Bill has a B.S. in Geology from Boston College and a M.S. in Community Planning and Development from the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine.  

Chris Osgood serves as Mayor Michelle Wu’s Senior Advisor for Infrastructure.  In this role, Chris supports the Administration on advancing cross-cabinet and long-term infrastructure investments so that those investments best deliver for the people of Boston. Chris first joined the City of Boston team in 2006, serving in a range of roles since then.  Those include Mayoral Advisor, Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, Chief of Streets, and Chief of Staff.  Across all of these roles, Chris has enjoyed collaborating with colleagues and constituents to deliver tangible benefits to the public.  A resident of Jamaica Plain, Chris is an alum of City Year, Haverford College and the Harvard Business School.

Matthew is an Architect and Senior Project Manager at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH) and a member of the Building Technology Group in Waltham, MA. He has experience in the design, investigation, evaluation, restoration, and construction administration of historic and contemporary buildings. He specializes in the investigation and evaluation of existing building-envelope systems, including historic and contemporary masonry, waterproofing, cladding systems, windows and curtain walls, and roofing.  

Mike Swenson is a Senior Associate at BR+A Consulting Engineers.  His work focuses on the energy planning ranging from energy/carbon/fossil fuel free master planning to vetting of energy conservation measures in design to commissioning of building systems in construction to post-occupancy measurement and verification. Prior to joining the firm, he lead Green Building Services at Harvard University providing sustainable design consulting, commissioning, energy auditing, and measurement and verification services to the University.

Carole the former President and CEO of Shepley Bulfinch, a national design firm with offices in Boston, Durham, Hartford, Houston, and Phoenix. Throughout her career in architecture and advocacy in the wider community, Carole has sought to challenge conventions and incite organizations to become more transparent and diverse. Her dynamic and collaborative leadership has powerfully impacted cornerstone institutions—from higher education and civic organizations to the architectural industry. In 2009, she was selected as one of seven women from the Boston Women Principals Group to pilot the AIA Women’s Leadership Summit, which is now in its 10th year. In 2012, Carole won the Boston Society of Architects’ Women in Design Award. Since 2017, she has served as the chair of AIA’s Large Firm Round Table, a committee of the 60 largest firms in the country. Among her many leadership positions, Carole is a member of Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission, The Architects Foundation Board, a Trustee Emeriti of the Boston Architectural College and a former Trustee of Wentworth Institute of Technology. She is the recipient of 2020 Edward C. Kemper Award, which is granted to an AIA member for continued and significant service to the AIA.

Event Sponsors

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Cancellation Policy: If you can no longer attend an event, we encourage you to find a substitution; substitutions are welcome at any time. Full refunds will be granted if cancellation is made 72 hours before the event’s start time. No refunds will be made for no-shows. Email [email protected] for substitution or refund requests.