PENSACOLA, Fla. (WKRG) — Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves is participating in the 78th National Session of the Mayors’ Institute of City Design in Boston this week, according to the City of Pensacola.

Reeves is one of eight mayors across the United States to be selected for the session, and he is the first-ever Pensacola mayor to be invited, according to a city spokesperson.

The topic of discussion will be critical design challenges in municipal projects.

Reeves will present Pensacola’s Hollice T. Williams Greenway project to mayors and national design leaders. The program runs from Wednesday through Friday.

“It’s an honor to present a transformational project that means so much to our city to a group of such distinguished mayors and world-renowned designers,” Reeves said. “I appreciate MICD recognizing this as a vital project for Pensacola and for helping us achieve our goal of creating a generational asset to the surrounding neighborhood and the city as a whole. This is an opportunity to ensure this project creates generational change.”

MICD also selected Reeves to attend the Just City Mayoral Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design this spring where he also presented the Hollice T. Williams Greenway project.

The Hollice T. Williams Greenway is a 1.3-mile stretch under Interstate I-110 that will function as a stormwater park and an amenity.

This project has been discussed since 2004, but the city was awarded $30 million in grants for its first significant funding. More grant applications are under review.

Eight mayors attending the MICD 78th National Session include:

• Mayor Michelle Wu, Boston, Mass. (Host)
• Mayor Tim Kelly, Chattanooga, Tenn.
• Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit, Mich. 
• Mayor Harvey Ward, Jr., Gainesville, Fla. 
• Mayor Rex Richardson, Long Beach, Calif.
• Mayor Sheng Thoa, Oakland, Calif.
• Mayor D.C. Reeves, Pensacola, Fla. 
• Mayor Helen Tran, San Bernardino, Calif.
• Mayor Kenneth Welch, St. Petersburg, Fla.