The June 1, 2011 tornadoes gave Springfield the closest thing to an urban planning blank slate it’s likely to get again in our lifetimes.
For decades, Springfield experienced internal political strife and discord. But beginning in the 1990s, the local business community, embodied by the late Peter Picknelly, chair of Peter Pan Bus, stepped into the gap. Through Picknelly Properties, established in 1993, he bought and sustained commercial real estate developments including Monarch Place.
And that spirit continues.
The Rebuild Springfield initiative, established after last year’s tornado damaged or destroyed dozens of historical buildings and residential properties, is an ambitious initiative that seeks to coalesce increased interest in community involvement after the storm.
Springfield’s political climate may often be tendentious, but its community heart is firmly in place.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is a case in point. While it doesn’t provide property and casualty insurance, it came through for the city and for its employees. Within 24 hours of the storm, MassMutual donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to provide short-term help to storm victims. It also accounted for all employees and offered them assistance such as free meals and hot showers at the company gym. Later that summer, it pledged $1.6 million for the Rebuild Springfield initiative.
The company has lent one of its key executives, Nicholas Fyntrikalis, to chair Rebuild Springfield. He keeps his day job, as vice president of community responsibility at the insurer.
The Rebuild Springfield initiative doesn’t stop at repairing storm damage. It gives the city an urban planning excuse, of sorts, to seek to remedy long-standing, locally based neighborhood ills including disinvestment and poor health and educational choices. It advocates for things like owner-occupied ‘infill’ housing in areas where infrastructure was flattened, and new educational and recreational facilities.
The effort was put together with the support of Concordia, Goody Clancy Architects, BNIM, and Project for Public Spaces. Fyntrilakis says full rebuilding is likely to be a three-to-five-year project.
