Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 10, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 5 Framingham State names eighth president Framingham State University in December named Nancy Niemi as its eighth president, replacing outgoing President Javier Cevallos, who announced his retirement last March. She will start on July 1. Niemi is provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Md. Prior to that role, she was the inaugural director of faculty teaching initiatives at Yale University's Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. She has experience as professor and chair of the education department at the University of New Haven, Conn., and was an elected school board member and middle school English teacher "e values at Framingham State align with my own: we share a commitment to public, fiercely student-centered education with a strong emphasis on liberal arts," Niemi said in a statement. Revised proposal nearly halves plans for The Cove residential tower Less than a month aer closing on the purchase of the property, developer Churchill James has significantly reduced its plans for the redevelopment of e Cove residential tower in Worcester's Canal District. e project, located at the site of the former Cove Music Hall near Polar Park, has shrunk from a 13-story, 300-unit proposal to a seven-story, 173-unit development, according to a Dec. 17 letter to the Worcester Planning Board. e Cove is one of two proposed housing complexes in the area expected to help pay for the $160-million cost of building the Polar Park stadium. e architectural team of Gold Block Real Estate LLC, an affiliate of Worcester-based Churchill James, submitted the revised application. Gold Block finalized a purchase of the properties for about $3 million from the Worcester Redevelopment Authority in early December. e development will have 16,000 square feet of commercial space including a bowling alley. And once again, your Best Bank. Your local bank. Your community bank. Thank you for voting us Worcester's Best Bank for Business. Connecting all offices: 800.578.4270 • www.unibank.com Member FDIC/Member DIF Contact us at 508.849.4303, scan this code or visit unibank. com/business for all your business loan and deposit needs. OFFICIAL FOUNDING PARTNER OF THE WO R C E S T E R 3 0 0 Nancy Niemi B R I E FS A s part of WBJ's coverage of the 300th anniversary of Worcester's founding – which was officially June 14, 1722 – the publication has partnered with the Worcester Historical Museum to run a trivia contest. Readers should email their answers to the question below by Jan. 20 to WBJ Editor Brad Kane at bkane@wbjournal.com. ose with the most correct answers at the end of the year will win a special prize package. Messages on the Moon In addition to the development of the liquid-fueled rocket by Robert Goddard, Worcester contributed many inventions to NASA's Moon landing, including the David Clark Co. manufacturing communications headsets, Honematic Machine Corp. making the lunar lander's base legs, and Norton Co. contributing superinsulation. Less than a month before Apollo astronauts journeyed to the Moon, NASA asked Sprague Electric to develop a way to leave messages from world leaders behind on the lunar surface. Sprague designed a thin silicon disc about the size of a 50-cent piece, where all the messages would be imprinted and could be read under a microscope. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin le "e Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages" disc behind as he ascended the ladder to the lunar lander. n Trivia question: Sprague Electric is known by a new name today. What Central Massachusetts company is it? Worcester 300 trivia, part 1 W

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