Utile Principal Tim Love argues that architects should play a much larger role in the development of public policy in a new essay published in Harvard Design Magazine. The piece, “Why Policy Needs Architects,” draws on three Utile research and planning projects to demonstrate how specialized architectural knowledge can be essential to evaluating and improving the likely effectiveness of policy interventions.
Love traces a through-line from Utile’s landmark report Legalizing Mid-Rise Single-Stair Housing in Massachusetts, co-produced with Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Boston Indicators, to the firm’s Newton village center zoning work, to a GIS-based analysis of office-to-residential conversion candidates in Downtown Boston that helped make the case for the city’s tax-abatement program.
The essay is a natural expression of Utile’s broader approach to practice — working fluidly across scales from the building to the city, and leveraging architectural and design expertise to shape the policies and regulatory frameworks that determine how communities grow and change.
