As the housing affordability crisis intensifies and conventional growth patterns prove insufficient, the territory between the traditional city core and the so-called “first-ring” suburb emerges as a critical arena for reinvention. This lecture explores how mid-rise and high-rise residential development can transform these transitional districts into complete, walkable neighborhoods grounded in transit access, civic life, and environmental performance. Drawing from FXCollaborative’s work across the region and beyond, Dan Kaplan FAIA argues that the task is not simply to add housing units, but to reshape this urban–suburban interface into a vibrant, sustainable, and socially connected place to live. The future of regional growth will not be outward — but upward — and its success will depend on the design of neighborhoods, not just individual buildings.

About the Speaker

 Dan Kaplan, FAIA, Senior Partner, FXCollaborative Architects LLP

Dan Kaplan, FAIA, LEED AP, is a Senior Partner at FXCollaborative, a New York City-based architecture, interiors, and urban planning firm. Dan serves in a design leadership capacity for many of the firm’s complex, award-winning projects. Adept at creating large-scale, sustainable buildings and urban designs, he approaches every project with the mission that it must repair and elevate the larger urban, cultural, and natural contexts. Notable projects include 1 Willoughby Square (Brooklyn, USA), Allianz Tower (Istanbul, Turkey), Ministry of Taxation (Baku, Azerbaijan), 888 Boylston (Boston, USA), Fubon Financial Center (Fuzhou, China) and 3 Hudson Boulevard (New York, USA).