About
Design 4 Drupal, Boston is a 3-day conference devoted to design, UX and front-end development for Drupal websites, as well as the business and process challenges facing Drupal teams. This year, we're moving back to our former home at MIT's Stata Center, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge MA. A short 5-minute walk from the Kendall T stop, we'll have classrooms for sessions, workshops, and plenty of chairs and desks for BoFs and one-on-one discussions.
Venue
Design 4 Drupal, Boston will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Ray and Maria Stata Center. The Stata Center is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts across the Charles River from Boston and adjacent to Cambridge’s Kendall Square.
Hotels
The Kendall Hotel at the Engine 7 Firehouse
350 Main Street
Cambridge MA 02142
781.844.0638 cell
617-577-1300 hotel
www.kendallhotel.com
We have negotiated a rate starting at $249 per night. To secure reservations at the Kendall Hotel at the discounted rate, please call the hotel directly at 1-866-566-1300 and ask for the Drupal Design Room block or go on-line at www.kendallhotel.com reservations and under the code is D4D17 – the group will be ready to book live tomorrow and guests will have until May 5th to reserve
Cambridge Marriott Hotel
2 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: (617) 494-6600
Toll-Free: (800) 228-9290
Residence Inn by Marriott
6 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: (617) 494-1885
Toll-Free: (800) 331-3131
All listed hotels are within five minutes walking distance to the Stata Center.
Directions
Getting here by public transportation
We strongly encourage those staying locally or coming from the greater Boston area to use public transportation to attend Design 4 Drupal. Public transit in Boston is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and the MIT area is easily accessible from the Red Line as well as several bus lines. Public transit also gives you a terrific opportunity to experience the beauty of the Boston area in midsummer; take a walk around the Public Garden while you're here!
The Stata Center is Building 32, located at 32 Vassar Street. View map for Stata Center.
By MBTA subway aka "The T"
The nearest T stop is Kendall/MIT on the Red Line. The Kendall/MIT Station is on the eastern side of campus, and as soon as you come up from the T, you walk in opposite direction to the large bridge you will see crossing Charles River to Boston.
You can also use the Central Square Station on the Red Line. The walk from Central Square takes about 10 minutes via Massachusetts Avenue.
Third nearest is Lechmere Station on the Green Line, a 15-minute walk from the venue.
By bus
The #1 or Dudley/Harvard Station bus stops at MIT on Massachusetts Avenue and provides transportation to Central Square and Harvard Square (Northbound), and Boston (Southbound). The MIT stop is at a large crosswalk with a stoplight. On one side of the street are steps leading up to large Ionic columns and the small dome of MIT; on the other side of the street is the Stratton Student Center and Kresge Oval (an open, grass-covered area).
The CT1 (Crosstown bus) stops at the MIT stop on Massachusetts Avenue
The CT2 bus stops on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar St. as well as Kendall Square T Station.
Getting here from Logan Airport
Taxi fare from the airport is about $30-$35. Outside of rush hour, the taxi ride will take about 15 minutes. During rush hours (typically 7:30-9am and 3–7pm on weekdays), the ride could take 30 minutes or more.
The MBTA is slower but much cheaper. From any terminal at Logan Airport, take the Silver Line bus to South Station. At South Station, change to the Red Line subway to Kendall/MIT (inbound toward Alewife). Under normal conditions, the ride will take about one-half hour and the fare is $2 or less.
Parking suggestions
On evenings and weekends, the Hayward lot at MIT, located a 5-minute walk away, often has spaces available for short-term (read: non-overnight) parking.
Paid parking is available at the Marriott Hotel, Kendall Square.
If you’re lucky (and arriving early!), there are sometimes spots on Memorial Drive, as well as Albany Street, which is a block or two away from Vassar Street (about a 5-10 minute walk from the Stata Center. Check out a map of the area on Google Maps.
On Sundays, parking meters are free in Massachusetts; many are located on Ames St. and Main St.
There is metered parking on Vassar St. Public Parking at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street, Marriott Parking Garage on Ames St. and Broadway.
History
At DrupalCon DC 2009, an unexpected event happened. While sessions centered on development, performance, business and the Drupal community were making up the majority of the conference’s content, Drupal designers and themers were connecting behind the scenes like never before. This connection started over Twitter and in small Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions. It ended with a passionate group of designers and themers taking over a room for the last two days of DrupalCon. In that room, tucked away in the back, some dreaming happened. People talked about different techniques for theming, the lack of designers in Drupal, usability features they’d like to see in Drupal 7, and much, much more. Angie Byron (webchick) picked their brains, plans were made to keep up the energy of change, and people started to connect with each other.
Design for Drupal dedicated events
The energy of the group started to turn to Drupal design camps. The first camp with a major design and theme presence was DrupalCamp Copenhagen in 2009 founded by Morten DK, where a third of the camp was dedicated to theming. The next camp, founded by Susan MacPhee, Design 4 Drupal, Boston 2009, was the first Drupal camp to be entirely dedicated to design.
Thanks to our generous sponsors, help from individual contributors and an army of wonderful volunteers, we are able to charge a minimal fee for Design 4 Drupal, Boston. Sponsorships are immensely appreciated and all contributions go directly towards funding conference operation costs.
The Design 4 Drupal Group (Groups.Drupal.org)
One of the last tasks for this group was to create a group on groups.drupal.org where this new movement could keep going. That's when the Design 4 Drupal (or D4D) group started. In the early weeks of the group, a #drupal-design channel was created on IRC and designers and themers were taught how to use it. A videocast was put together to teach designers about CVS (a constant barrier to entry for posting themes to drupal.org). A new "needs design review" tag was also added to Drupal issues.