Boston’s Longwood Medical and Academic Area Service Provider rebrands itself, focuses on transit
MASCO was founded 50 years ago today, but ask any of its stakeholders and local leaders what the organization does or what it represents and you may keep scratching your head.
President and CEO Dave Sweeney said the non-profit organization — which for the record provides programs and services to Boston’s bustling Longwood medical and academic area — is all aware of the confusion surrounding its name, and is officially But rebranding itself.
MASCO, or the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization, is no longer there, Sweeney said, and “we will from now on refer to ourselves as the Longwood Collective.”
“Our intention was to create a brand that enhances our reputation as a problem solver and thought leader, committed to making Longwood the most desirable place in the world to work, learn and heal, and a Creating an identity that matches the brands of our iconic pioneers and organizations we represent,” Sweeney said.
The newly rebranded Longwood Collective includes its member organizations including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, Simons University and Wentworth Institute of Technology.
According to Sweeney, the LMA Healthcare and Economic Center employs 68,000 people, educates 27,000 students, and treats 2.8 million patients each year. It drives $30 million in annual business revenue and $18 million of gross state product, he said.
However, he added that the region’s “transportation ecosystem” poses complex challenges, consisting of simultaneously, but competing requirements for limited road space.
Longwood Collective has released two documents, one detailing the successes of its transit mode shift, a collective effort by its member organizations to get people out of their private cars and areas by walking, biking, carpooling instead. You have to choose to come in. or taking public transportation.
The second is a transportation framework that recommends evaluating project proposals for the area based on their impact on mobility within and around the 213-acre LMA.
About half of its workforce is commuted via public transportation, but the LMA is challenged by being located outside the city’s central business district and the core of the MBTA system, according to Tom Yardley, vice president of area planning and development.
He said that the focus should be on increasing the public transport capacity, so as to accommodate the developments that have taken place or planned in the area.
“What we hope to express with the release of these two materials, while looking to the future of mobility at LMA, is that our transportation challenges are immediate and we must acknowledge the complexity of mobility in LMA and not act intentionally. Should damage,” Sweeney said.
