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

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” 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. 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 speculates about the next big innovative enterprises and outlines lessons for aspiring innovation districts.