Where Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub

by Robert Buderi

The evolution of the most innovative square mile on the the endless cycles of change and reinvention that created today’s Kendall Square.

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” It’s a life science hub, hosting Biogen, Moderna, Pfizer, Takeda, and others. It’s a major tech center, with Google, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple all occupying big chunks of pricey office space. Kendall Square also boasts a dense concentration of startups, with leading venture capital firms conveniently located nearby. And of course, MIT is just down the block. In Where Futures Converge , Robert Buderi offers the first detailed account of the unique ecosystem that is Kendall Square, chronicling the endless cycles of change and reinvention that have driven its evolution.

Buderi, who himself has worked in Kendall Square for the past twenty years, tells fascinating stories of great innovators and their innovations that stretch back two centuries. Before biotech and artificial intelligence, there was railroad car innovation, the first long-distance telephone call, the Polaroid camera, MIT’s once secret, now famous Radiation Laboratory, and much more. Buderi takes readers on a walking tour of the square and talks to dozens of innovators, entrepreneurs, urban planners, historians, and others. He considers Kendall Square’s limitations—it’s “gentrification gone rogue,” by one description, with little affordable housing, no pharmacy, and a scarce middle class—and its the “human collisions” that spur innovation.

What’s next for Kendall Square? Buderi speculates about the next big innovative enterprises and outlines lessons for aspiring innovation districts. More important, he asks how Kendall Square can be both an innovation hub and diversity, equity, and inclusion hub. There’s a lot of work still to do.

400 pages, Hardcover

Published May 10, 2022

Reviews

[Kate Durant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read and wrote a paper on this book in my Graduate Urban Affairs, Global Cities Class. Interesting history of Kendall Square. Overly detailed at times because that's it purpose as an academic based factual account of history.

It was neat to learn Kendall Square history, innovation and ultimately it's (guaranteed) future success. It's a book that explains Kendall Square as a theory, a make believe place, a commodity that continued and still continues to change, innovate and foresee the future.

Kendall Square will invent something, then continue to invent or innovate to solve the problems of the first invention. AI was invented and MIT instituted a college ASAP to work on solving the (known and unknown) challenges that AI will cause. The MIT licensing office, allows tech to be licensed and sold, thus always having it's origin story at the heart of Kendall Square giving it ties to the past and it's continued future.

I love learning about the local lure and if tech and innovation and feeling like you're in the future- Kendall Square is a neat little place to visit.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whete futures do converge!

I worked in Kendall Square for the past 6 years and always sounded so exhilarating to walk around the streets and have coffee at Tatte there’s so many brilliant people are always sharing ideas. It is a special place and I can’t wait to come and visit and see all of the changes based on the construction that is taking place.

[Anders Hoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nok lidt flere datoer og name-drops end jeg havde brug for, men måske alligevel for at give en indføring i Kendall Square og de sidste kapitler med refleksioner over hvordan der er lykkedes og hvad der skal ske er virkelig spændende …