Urban Growth & Citizenship Machines

Join the Initiative on Cities for a conversation with Boston University Professor Daniel Abramson, who will share insights from his forthcoming book, Designing Citizens. Abramson’s work explores postwar federal government complexes – from Boston to Honolulu – through the intersecting lenses of architecture, politics, and urban history. Designing Citizens reveals how these modernist buildings tell a bigger story about American life, touching on everything from federal power and urban renewal to how our built environment shapes ideas of citizenship.

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion that builds on the book’s themes, reflecting on Boston’s own City Hall and its newly renovated plaza, and what these civic spaces mean for cities today with Lauren Mattioli, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston University, Anne Gatling Haynes, Lecturer and Practitioner in Residence, Metropolitan College City Planning and Urban Affairs Program, and Billy Dean Thomas, Director of City Hall Plaza Engagement, City of Boston.