An the center of Lyme’s Kendall Square development was to be a center for public arts, the vision is being fulfilled many years later by BioMed Realty Trust and CBT Architects, with the completion of 585 Kendall.
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It wasn’t a real city council hearing. It’s a play called “No Recombination Without Representation” — a historical recreation of a pivotal momentthat happened in this same room, 50 years ago, which paved the way for Cambridge to become the world’s hub of biotechnology research.
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Who gets to decide the boundaries of scientific discovery? Fifty years later, step back in time with an immersive theatrical experience staged in the very same Cambridge City Hall hearing room where this conversation took place. Relive the tension, the debate, and the moment that turned local politics into a worldwide reckoning and that formed the Kendall Square that we know today.
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Marking fifty years since the 1976 Cambridge recombinant DNA debate, this symposium convenes historians, scientists, policymakers, and journalists. Together, they will examine how emerging technologies have been identified, debated, and governed, from the recombinant DNA discussions of the 1970s to current conversations around AI and synthetic biology.
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The Commonwealth Catalyst Award recognizes outstanding efforts over time to spur economic activity in Massachusetts. Commonwealth Catalyst awardees have been significantly involved in economic development activities, working in and across public, private, and non-profit sectors to propel economic growth. This award celebrates the spirit of transformation.
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On a warm, late-June evening in 1976, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, City Council gathered to contemplate the unprecedented act of banning a scientific technique. Spectators packed its halls as eminent scientists from Harvard, MIT, and the National Institutes of Health answered pointed questions from councilors regarding the safety of recombinant DNA, a core technology of the modern biotechnology industry. One councilor, David Clem, skewered the gathered scientists for proposing to conduct this research in a heavily populated city…
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Whitehead Institute partners with Kendall Square Association to bring together real estate developer David Clem, whose early and sustained investments helped shape Kendall Square’s rise, and Robin Wolfe Scheffler, MIT historian and author of David Clem: Building Genetown. Together, Clem and Scheffler offer an insider’s look at the choices, risks, partnerships, and moments of chance that turned overlooked industrial space into the densest biotechnology cluster in the world and a model emulated globally. Whether you care about development, discovery, history, or the future of science-driven cities, this program offers a rare opportunity to understand how Kendall Square became what it is today and why it matters.
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An overview of the River Park development and associated community development efforts that Lyme Properties had been spearheading from 2019-2023. The City revoked the 1 River Park Building Permit two weeks later.
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In 1986 the property that the iconic Fox & Tishman Diner sat on in Kendall Square was sold to make way for the Red Line T Station. The F&T was a neighborhood institution, having served East Cambridge since the 1920s, but Kendall Square was transforming. David Clem purchased the Diner and all remaining assets of the F&T, with the plan to re-locate it to the One Kendall Square property. The Dining car was too far gone to preserve, but the porcelain cladded sign, restaurant booths, hand-painted signs, and many, many boxes of F&T history were saved and protected in hopes of one day returning the F&T to Kendall Square.
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Cambridge’s Kendall Square might never have become the world’s life science capital if a New Hampshire timber company hadn’t decided to diversify some of its investments into commercial real estate.
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Chet Clem of Lyme Properties was invited to give the Keynote address at the 2022 Southern Vermont Economy Conference hosted at Mt. Snow. The theme of the conference was “Cultivate Change.”
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Chet Clem was invited to speak at the Lebanon Economic Development Commission on March 23, 2022 to discuss West Lebanon Revitalization efforts and Lyme has has continued to envision River Park West Lebanon as a catalyst for Economic Development and Public Recreational Improvements despite a decade of delays.
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The 2021 West Lebanon Revitalization Advisory Committee (WLRAC) created the Action Plan For West Leb, compiling decades of planning efforts and studies into an actionable 10-step plan for West Leb. It was unanimously supported by the Lebanon City Council. Chet Clem of Lyme Properties served as Vice Chair of the WLRAC and prepared the Action Plan.
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Prepared for the 2021 visit by US Senator Maggie Hassen, as River Park was building a coalition approach to economic development in West Lebanon, working with local/state/federal government leaders and local/regional/federal non-profit organizations to align with the Biden-Buttigieg Build Back Better infrastructure plan. View PDF of Presentation Book.
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Chet Clem was invited to give the Keynote address at the 2021 Vermont Community Development Association (VCDA) conference on “Reimagining Our Public Spaces”
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A presentation at the Proud Places conference by Chet Clem of Lyme Properties, discussing how to bring creativity and humor into the downtown redevelopment process to break through decades of studies and good intentions, but no identity, attitude, or outcome for your struggling downtown.
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Lyme Properties acquired the old West Lebanon library and blended its complete restoration with the development of the River Park Project. By completing that task, they honored Lebanon’s past while ensuring controlled future growth.
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On September 9th the Lebanon Planning Board voted 5-2 to approve the improved River Park Phasing Plan, which expedites the construction of the already approved 125,125 SF multi-family residential building (Building 8) to meet the growing housing demand in the Upper Valley. The updated phasing also allows for the concurrent construction of Building 3 (95,800 SF of office and retail) along Route 10, which will better establish the entrance to River Park and achieve true “mixed-use” earlier in the phased development.
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Lyme Properties held an official groundbreaking at the River Park West Lebanon site on September 24, 2015. Many thanks to New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan who has been an ardent supporter of the project, and helped announce the groundbreaking. Also in attendance was award-winning Architect Howard Elkus who designed the first building. We are pleased to announce the design of 100 River Park Drive, a 48,000 SF life-science/office/retail building that will be the entrance to River Park.
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