In late 2012 Prudence Robinson shifted from work at the SENSEable City Lab, where she’d spent two years as a research fellow and a partner strategist, to help set up a new center within the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). Straddling the departments of Architecture and Urban Studies and Planning, the center was created to engage faculty around the design and planning of large-scale, complex, metropolitan environments in order to transform the quality of life throughout the urbanized world. Today, Pru is the executive director of the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU).
A native of England, Pru moved to the United States after earning her masters in Environmental Monitoring, Modeling, and Management from King’s College London. Although the expatriate is comfortably ensconced in the United States, she still seriously longs for decent fish and chips.
How did you end up on this side of the pond?
When I was at university, I worked at an all-girls summer camp in Maine for several summers. The second summer I met my future husband, Angelo, who is from the Boston area. After graduate studies in London, I moved here which is how I ended up in Boston.
How did you come to work at MIT?
My masters’ advisor had met Carlo Ratti (SENSEable City Lab director) at a conference and introduced us on the off-chance there might be an opportunity. That led to an interview and then a job. So, it was a lot of luck, quite frankly. The stars lined up!
What were the factors that had you move to the LCAU?
What really attracted me to the center is that it was more than one individual. It is multiple faculty, researchers, and students coming together, applying their talents to these large-scale, complex challenges. The center is about encouraging collaboration, trying to foster it and catalyze it. That has its challenges, and that work had great appeal to me.
What kinds of skills do you need to call upon in your role?
The center’s faculty director and affiliated faculty set the center’s intellectual mission. And then, in many ways, my work is operationalizing the mission and getting it done! There’s a toggling back and forth to make sure the day-to-day functions support the center’s goals and advance the mission, so there’s often a balancing of long-term projects or initiatives with the urgency of immediate demands.
I do a smorgasbord of different things—my role is part problem solver, part advisor, part strategic partner. On a daily basis, I could be working on the operations side, such as making sure we have the organizational structures in place to support research efforts, or working with external partners, or implementing more programmatic pieces. For example, the faculty directors have historically established multi-year research initiatives under which we will organize seed grants, conferences, exhibitions, workshops, and ongoing research. I work on everything and anything that needs to get done in order to support these. That includes organizing the Leventhal City Prize, which we do every three years. I also look for bridging opportunities that can help spur new collaborations, and support faculty with existing collaborations through the center.
We have a new doctoral concentration that started about three years ago. Our cohort is small—four students at the moment—with half from DUSP and half from Architecture. They’re a fantastic group. We also have undergraduate and other graduate students who engage in the center, usually with a specific research project.
Is there something you find most challenging or most tedious in your role? How do you contend with these?
Honestly, I think that one of the reasons I’ve stayed at MIT for so long is that “tedious” isn’t a word I associate with MIT. That’s one of the things I’ve really loved about the various positions I’ve had. I’m quite a generalist in my approach, and the fact is every day is literally different. That has kept my attention and been a good healthy challenge for me.
As for other challenges. . . I think that to navigate and grow in such a decentralized place, it’s important to have a strong network of collaborators you can turn to for advice. You need a diversity of opinions and responses. Having someone who’s going to agree with you all of the time is not healthy. Having people who are going to challenge you and push you—having that kind of diversity in your support network I’ve found incredibly helpful.
Is there anything you missed about working on campus during the year we were away?
The physical interaction with people. I feel like you miss certain “tells” or social cues when you’re over Zoom. Or just walking across campus, you bump into someone you meant to email and there’s some spontaneity to just get a coffee together.
MIT has been really good to me. There are a ton of opportunities here. One thing I’ve struggled with over the years has been carving time out for professional development, but I am getting better at making that a priority. I try to make a point of using the MIT tuition reimbursement. I encourage anyone who comes into the center to use that benefit. It’s phenomenal. I think as a person I’m pretty curious, and being able to continue to learn and develop my own professional knowledge has been incredibly helpful.
Is there anything in particular you miss about England?
Obviously, family is number one. Though living here hasn’t been such a culture shock. New Englanders have a touch of the Londoner about them, so I feel that I’ve fit into Boston pretty quickly. I used to run quite a lot and it was a good way to get out and familiarize myself with Boston.
I do struggle with the fact that I can’t find a good fish and chips. That is the one thing that still drives me nuts after all these years. It’s the certain foods that you miss. You can’t get proper double cream or clotted cream. It’s just terrible! Of course, you can find fish and chips—but I want GOOD fish and chips!
I should add this caveat: my husband is a chef and cooks phenomenal food. But there are still certain dishes that I haven’t been able to find replacements for!
By Maria Iacobo