February 2023: In collaboration with design team member Ground Inc, USQ took advantage of a work holiday to tour Architectural Design students from Cushing Academy throughout the 50 Prospect building site. Their program exposes students to the most innovative and sustainable building projects in Boston, and we are thankful we could be their first stop.

January 2023: USQ released a call for artists, developed in coordination with the Somerville Arts Council, to design and install a 450 square foot public art piece on the southern façade of the 10 Prospect project. The designated mural area was defined as a public art opportunity during the public review process for the building project and aims to enhance the public realm through the celebration of ‘place’, to promote a positive and welcoming environment.

December 2022: WBUR’s first live event since before the pandemic included representatives from the City of Somerville, Community Action Agency of Somerville, local businesses and US2. The forum discussed different perspectives on the Union Square Redevelopment project, its new commercial space and plan for a thousand new units of housing.

December 2022 - USQ's 2nd Annual Holiday Give to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition, which fights homelessness and food insecurity in our community.

November 2022: For the second year in a row, USQ was a proud sponsor of Bow Market’s Small Business Saturday on November 29th. The event brought together over 60 small businesses from Bow Market and beyond. Consistent promotion of the event saw a record turnout of 5,500 shoppers. As part of its sponsorship, USQ hosted a hot chocolate and hot cocoa cart for the first 200 guests.

October 2022: As a continuation of in-class learning held in June, USQ scheduled a field trip ‘learning lab’ session to tour the 10 Prospect Street construction site. Somerville High School seniors enrolled in the Center for Career and Technical Education programmed observed the connection between design and construction with a hard-hat tour of the active project site led by USQ and Gilbane Building Company.

October 2022: US2 sponsored Somerville Homeless Coalition’s 27th Annual 5k run through Somerville. Over 350 participants took to the street in support of SHC’s mission to raise awareness and support those experiencing homelessness, eviction and food insecurity in Somerville.

September 2022: USQ Sponsored the Fluff Festival for the 9th year running and contributed to the year’s festivities by hosting a custom prize wheel. The ‘all-spins-win’ wheel offered festival goers the opportunity to win Union Square-centric prizes including gift cards to local businesses, Green Line Passes, tote bags, viewfinders, and more to elevate and promote activity and participation in what our great neighborhood has to offer.

August 2022: To celebrate National Coloring Book Day, US2 provided 100 coloring books to pre-k, kindergarten and first graders in East Somerville Public Schools’ Summer Adventure program. The ‘Somerville Scenes’ coloring book is a collaboration with local artist Dave Ortega who provided the illustrations.

June 2022: Union Square Main Streets announces the inaugural annual partnership through their June Newsletter, a collaboration to help make their place keeping-focused economic empowerment work possible.

May 2022 - Local Union Square small business, CultureHouse has a mission to “improve livability in local communities by transforming underutilized spaces into social infrastructure.” In partnering with US2, this mission meant the transformation of the pedestrian access route to and from the Union Square Station into a celebration of the square’s Past, Present and Future.

April 2022 - US2 successfully opened for service a new MBTA Elevator to provide better accessibility to the MBTA service area south of the Station. To support the addition, US2 modified the design of the public plaza to accommodate the circulation element and provided an accompanying stair. To commemorate the event, US2 invited members of the Union Square Neighborhood Council to be the new elevator’s first riders.

March 2022 - With a vision for growing Union Square into an accessible, vibrant and transit-oriented neighborhood, US2 completed improvements that directly supported the new MBTA Green Line Station’s celebrated opening.

February 2022 - This enormous retention tank will capture the stormwater and control its rate of release to the City’s storm sewer. This controlled release will improve local climate resilience by acting as a mitigant against area flooding. In the future, the ground above will be improved as a neighborhood park.

January 2022 - The new CBA payment is associated with the building permit for the D2.1 (10 Prospect Street). With this payment, US2 has officially made a total of $622,000 in community benefits contributions payments. US2 is committed to providing community benefits for the Union Square neighborhood, and has agreed to contribute more than $3.6 million in community benefits funds over the course of project implementation. Contributions will be made to this fund as building permits and certificates of occupancy are achieved for each building.

December 2021 - US2 hosted its first annual USQ Holiday Give Event in December 2021. In this collaboration of Union Square Businesses, $5,400 and 2,300 food and toiletry items were donated to the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Nine organizations participated by collecting donations over a two-week period. Many thanks are due to those who made it happen: @greentownlabs, @bow.market, @somernova, @somervillemediacenter, @somervillecommunity, Right Hand Robotics, @somervillecity, @gilbanebuilding, Cranshaw Construction.

December 2021 - Tufts University students get a behind-the-scenes look at the USQ project during a December site visit. US2, Gilbane and Keller hosted Dr. Lucy Jen and structural engineering students.

December 2021 - We're excited to announce a new event that we’ve planned this holiday season: USQ's 1st Annual Holiday Give to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition, which fights homelessness and food insecurity in our community.

December 2021 - US2 continued its commitment to supporting Union Square local businesses by sponsoring USMS’s seventh annual Holiday Stroll. This is the fifth year USQ has been involved in the event. Dozens of locally-owned businesses lined the streets with local art, food, and stocking stuffers for residents to purchase for the holiday season.

November 2021 - Somerville has no shortage of unique and interesting small businesses, and USQ wanted to play its part in highlighting what these groups have to offer. Last November, USQ teamed up with Bow Market for their Small Business Saturday Event. Somerville residents got to shop locally for their holiday gifts at the more than 60 small businesses participating in the event. This included over 30 local vendors and the over 20 amazing businesses that already called Bow Market home! USQ also had a branded cart at the event in which attendees had the chance to win $250 worth of gifts personally curated by Bow!

November 2021- In collaboration with @unionsquarems and our partners at @graffitosp, USQ hosted a preview of our retail leasing opportunities to the small local business community. With a strong turnout, we were able to connect local retailers and restauranteurs, allowing them to expand the resources available to them and learn about project implementation and chances to grow in their respective markets. Graffito SP produced the retail marketing materials for D2 in English, Portuguese and Spanish to make the opportunities more accessible to a range of interested parties.

October 2021 - This month, substantial completion of the Somerville Avenue streetscape and utility improvements project was achieved, marking a milestone several years in the making. This City-led project moves Union Square infrastructure toward the future, addressing legacy stormwater management challenges and repositioning the streetscape to a mobility-focused future. The project delivers raised bicycle cycle tracks, green infrastructure, floating bus stops, new sidewalks, street furnishings, and 55 new street trees. Below the surface, the project incorporated 2,000 linear feet of new drainage through a 24’ x 6’ culvert, 4,000 feet of new water mains, 6,000 feet of sewer linings, and new storm drainage.

September 2021 - Onwards and Fluffward! USQ joins in a weekend of celebration through sponsorship of this year’s Fluff Festival. The multi-day event commemorates the invention of marshmallow fluff in Union Square, and through collaboration with independently-owned businesses, seeks to elevate Somerville’s proud tradition of innovation with live music, food, events, and more!

August 2021 - This month, USQ installed the steel for the the MBTA elevator on the 20-50 Prospect Street site. The elevator will provide critical vertical transportation from the Propsect Street bridge to Station Plaza and the MBTA station that was identified as a important community priority during D2 planning and CBA discussions. The elevator is anticipated to be completed in Q1 2022.

May 2021 - US2 and its development team partners continued our collaboration with the Somerville High School Career and Technical Education program and hosted the third “Learning Lab” session with Somerville High School Seniors this month. The goal of the program is to introduce Somerville High School to the real estate, design and construction industry through exposure to the Union Square Revitalization Project.

May 2021 - We were very excited that Union Square Main Streets (USMS) was able to bring Michael Robles on board to serve as the Small Business Liaison at the end of May. Welcome aboard, Michael!

April 2021 - As part of its commitment to providing community benefits for the Union Square neighborhood through the Union Square Revitalization, USQ agreed to contribute more than $3.6 million in community benefits funds over the course of project implementation. Contributions will be made to this fund as building permits and certificates of occupancy are achieved for each building. With the start of the 20 – 50 Prospect project (D2.2-D2.3), US2 has contributed a total of $467,000 in community benefits monies to date to the City of Somerville stabilization fund.

April 2021 - US2 hosted a virtual Construction Jobs Fair in conjunction with Somerville Community Corporation – First Source (SCC) and its general contractors in April 2021 in an effort to get local Somerville residents involved in the construction industry and the USQ project.

February 2021 - In February, US2 convened the first Construction Mitigation Task Force meeting. The meeting included representatives from Union Square Main Streets, the City and US2.  The parties discussed upcoming construction activities and efforts to mitigate impacts to small businesses.

August 2020 - Somerville Community Corporation’s First Source workforce development program received a $100,000 grant this month to advance it’s workforce development goals. The grant was underwritten by pre-funded US2 community benefits funds from the USQ project.