PavlinicMartin_UDCcandidate_April2025 — File 25-0732

Pavlinić - Letter of Interest Martin Pavlinić February 12, 2025 Letter of Interest RE: City of Somerville Urban Design Commission - Member To Whom It May Concern: As a lifelong Somerville resident, and design professional currently working in Cambridge, I am pleased to submit my application for the open position on the Somerville Urban Design Comission. A Passion for Public Spaces and the Urban Fabric With over a decade of experience working in the landscape architecture and urban design fields, at MASS Design Group in Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, and Hargreaves Jones in Cambridge, I’ve dedicated my professional career to the premises that the public spaces we build shape the social fabric contained within. A municipality reveals, intentionally or not, its own values, principles, and priorities through the spaces it builds and maintains, and as someone who has lived in Somerville for most of my life, I can at once see how much its urban form shaped me, and how much potential the city has. My experience as both a student and designer of public landscapes and urban spaces gives me the perspective and the tools to be an active and enthusiastic member of the commission. As a designer and project manager, I have helped realize domestic and international projects and development efforts ranging from planning and conceptual design to construction administration. With MASS Design Group, I worked on site design for a number of award winning hospitals and schools in Rwanda and Liberia, as well as the Equal Justice Initiative’s widely acclaimed Memorial For Justice and Peace in Montgomery, Alabama. With Hargreaves Jones I have focused primarily on public landscape and urban design projects, including: Riverfront Park in Wilmington, NC, a regional waterfront park and event venue, receipient of the distinguished honor of Waterfront Alliance’s WEDG Verification; Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City, OK, a 70-acre urban park connecting downtown OKC to its river. I have also worked on some institutional and private urban-scale projects, including the public realm design for the Kendall / MIT Open Space, a transformation of parking lots into a treed and actively programmed public open space in Kendall Square, and Strathmore Square, a private transit-oriented development in North Bethesda, MD. My current project work includes the I-395 Underdeck, a 30-acre signature landscape open space below a reconstructed highway in Miami, FL, and The Market District Park, new public park centering a new urban development in Tallahassee, FL.

Pavlinić - Letter of Interest Civic Spaces & Uses Since moving to Somerville at age 10, I’ve spent the majority of my years here, including 4 years of undergraduate study at Tufts. The freedom I got from living a 10 minute walk from Davis Square allowed me to explore the city and the metro area by subway by age 12. I didn’t need to get my drivers license until I was 22, because the urban form I lived in allowed independence of movement without a car. It’s this independence and feeling like the city was available to me that ultimately led me to my career in landscape architecture, where I could approach public spaces at scale, with an urban framework in mind. I am passionate about mobility and transportation, welcoming and accessible public spaces for a diverse population, and sustainable infrastructure that is both functional and beautiful. The advancements the city has already made with its urban bicycle facilities is very encouraging, and I’m excited to learn more about different initiatives the city may be undertaking. I’m also encouraged by the move toward building more and varied residential buildings, as I’m deeply concerned about the housing crisis and its impacts on our city. Personal Commitment I’m looking forward to increased civic participation in Somerville, it has made me so many of the things I am. As a musician, I regularly performed at The Abbey Lounge, The Burren, Lily’s/608, Radio Bar, PA’s Lounge, among so many others, and I would love to see Somerville continue to be a city that is a haven for music. I loved being in a city that welcomed us and so many others, and stands firm in the face of those who wouldn’t have it that way. As a youth soccer coach, I deeply appreciate the facilities the city has, and how well it serves our kids. As a cyclist, I appreciate the commitment the city has already made to safe transportation, and would love to see it go even further. As a father, I treasure the fact that since she was 9 years old, my daughter could walk to the West Somerville Neighborhood School, and the community we have around the school. As a designer, I take inspiration from vibrant spaces already in place in Somerville, and am always looking at the city with an eye to how it can keep evolving and growing into the future. I’m looking forward to bringing all of these perspectives with me to the Urban Design Commission, and I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself for consideration. Sincerely, Martin Pavlinić

Page 1 Martin Pavlinic is a Senior Associate with Hargreaves Jones, where he has managed projects from master planning through site design and construction, with a focus on public landscapes that balance access and recreational use with ecological resilience. In this capacity, Martin has a multi-disciplinary approach toward creating urban landscapes, engaging communities, collaborating with stakeholders, and managing design and construction processes to see projects to completion. His recent public urban project experience includes Riverfront Park and Live Oak Bank Pavilion in Wilmington, NC, a regional waterfront park and event venue; the I-395 Underdeck in Miami, FL, a signature landscape open space below a reconstructed highway; Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City, a large urban park connecting downtown OKC to its river; The Market District Park in Tallahassee, FL, a public park and activity space in a new urban development. At MASS Design Group he was a landscape project manager for the Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, a six acre site and memorial to the victims of racial terror and lynching during Reconstruction, as well as a number of rural hospitals and schools in Rwanda and Liberia. A lifelong Somervillian, Martin is engaged in his civic community, with stints on the West Somerville Neighborhood School PTA, and as a volunteer soccer coach and uniform coordinator for Somerville Youth Soccer League. Martin holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and Bachelors of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Education Master of Landscape Architecture Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2014 Bachelor of Arts in English & Bachelor of Fine Arts Tufts University & The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 2002 Professional Experience Senior Associate Hargreaves Jones, Cambridge, MA 2017-Present Associate MASS Design Group, Boston, MA 2011-2014 Martin Pavlinić

Page 2 The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (with MASS Design Group) Montgomery, AL PROJECT TYPE Memorial Monument & Landscape SIZE 6 Acres CLIENT Equal Justice Initiative ROLE Landscape Designer / Project Manager The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is sited on 6 acres just outside of downtown Montgomery, Alabama. What started as a project by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to document the thousands of lynchings across the South during Reconstruction evolved into a collaboration between the organization and MASS Design Group, to make these findings a physical memorial. The structure suspends eight hundred Corten steel monuments to represent the counties in the United States where racial terror lynchings took place, each engraved with the names of its victims, and the landscape beyond duplicates these memorials in order allow the communities to claim their own monuments. Riverfront Park & Live Oak Bank Pavilion Wilmington, NC PROJECT TYPE Public Waterfront Park & Event Venue SIZE 6.6 Acres CLIENT City of Wilmington, North Carolina ROLE Project Manager Riverfront Park transforms a former industrial site into a public waterfront park and a world-class performance venue. Located on the banks of the North Cape Fear River, the site historically served as a lumber mill and way station for commodity storage. The sculpted waterfront edge deeply engages the water, replacing decaying riprap with a living shoreline that extends the native coastal marsh ecology into the site, while lifted lawns and plazas offer spectacular views to the river. A curving berm elevates an expansive performance lawn oriented towards a multi-use stage at the river’s edge, providing much needed flexible green space for both large events and day-to-day neighborhood use. Select Project Experience Martin Pavlinić

Page 3 MIT / Kendall Open Space Cambridge, MA PROJECT TYPE Open Space & Streetscapes SIZE 5 Acres CLIENT MITIMCo ROLE Designer (Sites 3/4/5) / Project Manager (Site 2) The Kendall Square Initiative is a vibrant mixed-use district featuring six new buildings on what were previously MIT- owned parking lots in the MIT East Campus/Kendall Square area. Nearly three acres of treed plazas, gardens, and open lawns offer destinations for varied events and programming, as well as daily respite for Kendall Square’s broad range of users. New and augmented pedestrian/bicycle networks and streetscapes further link the project into existing urban networks. Integration of adjacent buildings and ground- floor uses with the open space supports a fluid inside- outside experience, offering opportunities to showcase and support Kendall Square’s growing innovation district. I-395 Underdeck & Heritage Trail Miami, FL PROJECT TYPE Public Open Space SIZE 33 Acres CLIENT City of Miami, Florida ROLE Project Manager The ‘Underdeck’ is a 33-acre public open space located beneath Interstate Highway 395 in Miami. Woven between established and emerging neighborhoods – Overtown, Omni, Downtown, and the emerging Innovation District – the Underdeck will transform a former infrastructure corridor into a vibrant landscape and an active destination for residents, workers, and visitors. This project is a significant opportunity to re-stitch neighborhoods historically divided by the original I-395 construction in the 1960s . The project includes a continuous east-west ‘Heritage Trail’, pedestrian and bicycle connections, native urban gardens, flexible lawns, play areas, a dog park, community garden, and interactive water features. Select Project Experience Martin Pavlinić

Page 4 Strathmore Square North Bethesda, MD PROJECT TYPE TOD Public Realm & Streetscapes SIZE 7 Acres CLIENT Fivesquares Development ROLE Project Manager Located on the last undeveloped site on Metro’s Red Line, a vibrant new residential community is taking shape – a creative environment for engaged, inspired living where music, culture, nature, transit, and wellness meet. Through a unique partnership with Strathmore Music Center and WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority), this new community is surrounded by a world class performing arts center, Rock Creek Park, and Metro station. The 1.2 acre ‘Green’ is the heart of Strathmore Square, grounding the identity of this new community through a vibrant and restorative central open space and public realm. Shaker Square Public Realm Concept Plan Cleveland, OH PROJECT TYPE TOD Public Realm & Streetscapes SIZE 12 Acres CLIENT Cleveland Neighborhood Progress / LAND Studio ROLE Project Manager “This is Shaker Square” was a nine-month planning, design, and strategic implementation process to create an inclusive neighborhood vision, through intensive engagement with residents, merchants, stakeholders, and the general public. Shaker Square is the commercial centerpiece of Shaker Heights, one of the nation’s first transit-oriented developments (TOD), and a red-lining "seam" site. The project team worked with the community and a broad advisor group to evaluate opportunities to enhance the public realm of this historic landmark, and to strengthen connections with the diverse neighborhoods and amenities that surround it. Select Project Experience Martin Pavlinić

City of Somerville PLANNING, PRESERVATION, & ZONING DIVISION City Hall 3rd Floor, 93 Highland Avenue, Somerville MA 02143 1 April 3, 2025 To: The Honorable City Council Re: Candidates for the Urban Design Commission The Urban Design Commission (UDC) currently has vacancies for one full member position and two alternate positions. From an open call for volunteers, we received three applications. One candidate stood out as being extremely qualified. The Mayor would like to put Martin Pavlinic forward as a candidate for the Full Member position that was previously held by a landscape architect. As an experienced landscape architect, Mr. Pavlinic’s expertise is well suited to reviewing designs and considering the public realm. His application package includes samples of his impressive work for your review. Please let us know if we can provide additional information or if you would like to discuss the candidates. Sincerely, Sarah Lewis Senior Planner, recent UDC Board Coordinator cc: Lexie Payne, in-coming UDC Board Coordinator Kimberly Hutter, IGA