City Science: Performance Follows Form by Ramon Gras

Ramon Gras will be in conversation with Serena McIntosh and Gregory Haley to celebrate the inaugural book from Aretian Urban Analytics and Design. They will discuss the Aretian team's city science methodology for evaluating the relationship between city form and urban performance, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

Can't attend? Order your signed copy here (please specify that you would like it signed in the comments box at checkout).

The Aretian team, a spin off company from the Harvard Innovation Lab, has developed a city science methodology to evaluate the relationship between city form and urban performance. This book illuminates the relationship between a city’s spatial design and quality of life it affords for the general population. By measuring innovation economies to design Innovation Districts, social networks and patterns to help form organization patterns, and city topology, morphology, entropy and scale to create 15 Minute Cities are some of the frameworks presented in this volume.

Therefore, urban designers, architects and engineers will be able to successfully tackle complex urban design challenges by using the authors’ frameworks and findings in their own work. Case studies help to present key insights from advanced, data-driven geospatial analyses of cities around the world in an illustrative manner. This inaugural book by Aretian Urban Analytics and Design will give readers a new set of tools to learn from, expand, and develop for the healthy growth of cities and regions around the world.

Ramon Gras is a City and Infrastructure Researcher and Designer from Barcelona, working on the urban innovation space. At Harvard, Ramon graduated from the inaugural cohort of the Harvard MDE program, where he developed research around design criteria for innovation districts operating in synergy with logistics hubs. Prior to developing his joint thesis with Jeremy at Harvard, Ramon worked at Ferrovial’s Innovation office in London, where he led design and technology projects at the London Heathrow Airport and the London Underground. Ramon developed at MIT urban design projects for the Kendall Square expansion and Somerville Innovation Districts in the Boston Area. Ramon’s thesis at MIT addressed the consolidation problem in air freight transportation by designing an advanced Business Intelligence platform. He expanded his training at MIT after working as a designer in major infrastructure projects involving bridge design, maritime infrastructure, high speed rail, and architectural design (a Richard Rogers project). Ramon’s early research at BarcelonaTech focused on bridge design, high performance materials, and nanotechnology applications for structural engineering. Ramon is interested in enhancing innovation around Cities, Technology and Infrastructure, by designing creative and rigorous interdisciplinary solutions to address large, complex challenges facing the cities of the future.

Serena McIntosh joined Bloomberg Associates in June 2022. She works to help cities build their media and digital portfolios through strategic engagement. She comes to the organization with 10 years of data and analytics experience in the transportation and housing sectors. Her background in municipal data strategy and policy is key to sharing best practices on technology and digital operations in cities around the world.

Prior to joining Bloomberg Associates, Serena worked as a Deputy Director for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) under the de Blasio and Adams administrations. At HPD, she led the agency’s internal and external data strategy, contributing to the city’s open data policies agencywide, new tool development and collaboration for enhancing the agency’s data practices.

A native New Yorker, Serena has a Masters in Environmental Policy from Bard College, and a B.A. in International Policy from American University in Washington, D.C.

Gregory Haley AIA AICP LEED AP is an Associate Principal with Henning Larsen. Based in NYC, he has over 20 years of experience in architecture and urban design, He has taught architectural design studios at NJIT, NYIT, and the Boston Architectural Center, and remains active as a guest critic or lecturer at a variety of schools. Gregory received his Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, and his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Minnesota. He is the board president of the Harvard Alumni Architectural and Urban Society, co-chair of the Global Dialogues committee of AIANY ,and co-chair of the Urban Design committee of the APA NY Metro Chapter. He is a fellow of the Urban Design Forum and a design resource team member for the Mayors' Institute on City Design.