SUSAN SILBERBERG
CIVICMOXIE
PLANNING
Susan is an accomplished city planner, urban designer, architect, author and MIT Lecturer. She is the Founder and Managing Director of CivicMoxie, LLC, a planning, urban design, and strategic placemaking group with experience in serving municipalities, not-for-profits, corporations, land owners, foundations, and community groups. Susan is sought after for her ability to identify savvy solutions for cities, businesses and communities facing complex challenges. She has a keen sense of the leadership and collaboration necessary to align the sometimes disparate needs and goals of many interests. Susan understands that gaining trust and buy-in from all players is as important as the ideas and energy brought to the project. This distinctive quality allows her to craft win-win solutions and create inspiring new possibilities for translating plans to action.
Susan’s efforts at creative placemaking benefits from her expertise in affordable artist space and artists’ engagement with community. As Associate Director of the MetLife Innovative Space Awards she worked with over 100 arts and cultural organizations across the country to identify best practices for creating affordable space, supporting artists and engaging with community to effect positive change. Susan also conducts research in security and public space, which has led to an extensive understanding of how counterterrorism concerns post 9/11 have shaped our public realm in the context of private and public sector pressures and motivations. Her most recent publication is “Pretext securitization of Boston’s public realm after 9/11: Motives, actors and a role for planners” in Policing Cities: Securitization and Regulation in a 21st Century World (Routledge, 2013). She rides her bike to teach at MIT, and has spent over ten years teaching graduate students how to revitalize urban commercial districts by exploring the nexus between economic development and urban design. In her professional work, she has led two Boston waterfront planning efforts that identify the unique challenges faced by developers and propose creative solutions that provide opportunities for cultural and public uses along the Harborwalk.
Susan has a Master’s degree in City Planning from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute. She studied architecture and planning in Copenhagen, Denmark and has conducted two on-site planning projects for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Roeros, Norway. She has also served as the Associate Director of the Northeast Mayors’ Institute on City Design. Susan is on the Board of Directors and Program Committee of Historic Boston, Inc., a non-profit developer of endangered historic properties. She also serves on the Board of The Joshua Bates Art Center in the South End of Boston. For more information please see the CivicMoxie site.
