the Collaborative: A reliable and supportive friend to our company

the Collaborative founders (left to right) Joe Brevard and Ed Shoucair

Date Published: January 4, 2021
Author: Julie Jervis

A lot goes on behind the scenes with running a successful studio—those activities away from Hollywood that allow a company like Riveting River to run smoothly and powerfully. The Collaborative has proven invaluable in supporting Riveting River from its inception with office space, advice, personnel, and more. The Collaborative began as an outgrowth of Wallace Floyd Associates, a firm founded with Buckminster Fuller to design and build such signature projects as Epcot Center and the United States Pavilion at Expo 67. They subscribe to Fuller’s view of a world rich with connections. This unified and systematic approach, again and again, leads to the most appropriate and elegant ideas and solutions. MIT-trained city planners Joe Brevard and Ed Shoucair started the Collaborative to help make a positive change in the world. We continually look to both of them for invaluable advice and support.

Ed Shoucair is an accomplished master planner with over 40 years of experience leading projects involving place-making, community development, resource management, and proactive community engagement. His work includes creating neighborhood and downtown redevelopment plans, small-area plans, site plans, park and trail plans, and comprehensive municipal plans. A former documentary filmmaker, Ed serves as the Creative Director of the firm’s Emmy Award-winning Communications Group. Before the Collaborative, Ed served as Senior Planner for Wallace, Floyd Associates, Community Planner in Durham, NC., and he founded the Massachusetts Riverways Program under the former Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Currently writing a book, Big Truth, Ideas for Uniting a Divided World, Ed’s essays on urban planning and the environment have appeared in the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Medium. Ed holds a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Duke University.

Joe Brevard is a leading urban planner, author, and community leader. With degrees in engineering and city planning, Joe is known for bringing a rigorous analytical approach to his work. His areas of focus include community development, capital facilities planning, environmental justice, and transportation. In his book, Capital Facilities Planning, published by the American Planning Association, Joe shares his approach to planning public facilities in a resource-limited decision environment under conditions of demand uncertainty. In addition, Joe brings to all of his projects highly relevant experience in designing and facilitating community involvement programs that ensure the engagement of individuals and organizations in shaping planning projects. Beyond the work done by the firm, Joe is personally committed to improving urban communities and the environment. His board leadership positions include Chairman, Community Advisory Board, WGBH; Board Member, Conservation Law Foundation; Board Member, Massachusetts Audubon Society; Board Member, The Boston Harbor Association; Board Member, The Trustees; and Executive Committee Member, Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Joe holds a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.