Description and Analysis of the Boston Area - Essay Example

The Districts behind Historic Boston Culture Throughout the history of the United s, each and every that has gained entry into the union has possessed a unique history to it. The same thing may easily be said about the cities within those states. One such example of a city with its own unique history and grouping of individuals within it would be the city of Boston. Located within the commonwealth of Massachusetts, as the capital city, Boston would remain the central hub of activity that would flow within the general populous that would call it, along with the commonwealth itself, home. The aspects located within the city center that become part of the cities foundation and influence the culture that would exist within its boundaries. Many locales are rich with history and composition that not only influence their own surroundings but also feed into the rest of the nation and in the case if Boston, it too would have its own rich history and citizens to go along with it. A history that, at closer examination, would be filled with the very things that would come to be known as being some of the more central aspects of the city itself and its people. In the reading by Bainbridge Bunting, titled ‘The Plan Of The Back Bay Area In Boston’, the author describes a prominent district within the city of Boston that would appear to be home for many of Boston’s citizenry. In terms of its ramifications for the design of other city neighborhoods, or districts, within other cities, “The Back Bay district, Boston’s well-known residential area, represents a significant chapter in the history of city planning in nineteenth century America. The importance of this development lies in its spacious and monumental plan, the comprehensive building regulations which insured the area’s handsome residential character and in the far-seeing policy adopted by its sponsors of developing it as a civic and cultural center,” (Bunting, p. 19). In the case of this creation, the architects would strive to have it be a unifying force within the cultural landscape of the community, through its design approach and intended use by the greater community base as a center of cultural exchange and engagement. From a historical standpoint, it would be essential to observe the geographic nature of the region and how it would serve to influence the creation of things utilized by the community center. In this case, “This original Boston peninsula contained but 783 acres, slightly more than a square mile. Of its original shore line not one foot remains exposed today, and one historian of Boston topographical changes has estimated that from the entire harbor area almost 2000 acres have been filled in to accommodate the modern city,” (Bunting, p.19). The geographical history of Boston would form the basis for further understanding the landscape surrounding the very creations, such as the cultural center erected that would ultimately influence the link between the culture of Boston and the culture surrounding it amongst the people of the area. What would spur such growth in the production of dwellings would be the sharp increase in the populous that would be seen. The area surrounding the town, most notably the hills surrounding the city, would have since been occupied to its maximum capacity, so the sudden influx of individuals, would require building to occur in the new area in question. In order to build in the new area, filling material would need to be brought in and as such, in order to do so, there would have to be a mode of transportation for such a practice to be successful. There would also be the erecting of a dam that would still exist below a prominent Boston street. The culture of Boston would vastly be built upon the notion of continued building and tapping of resources. Also important to mention, “The homogeneous residential character of the Black Bay district was no happenstance nor was its ornamental, spacious character achieved without considerable financial sacrifice. Of the Commonwealth’s total Black Bay holdings 43 percent was devoted to streets and parks, another 8 percent was allocated to public institutions and but 49 percent sold for private building purposes,” (Bunting, p. 22). Further consideration would be given to the attraction of places to the district that would serve the purpose of aiding the public in whatever manner. The culture would later evolve into an area that would consist of institutions of higher education, regular schools, not one but two dwellings that would hold artifacts of history, or what many would label as being a museum. Lastly, there would also be the inclusion of the public library within the area. The only thing that would not take on the establishment within a public area, or land, would have been the churches. With the presence as of late of the law that would serve to separate the church from the state, it would only seem to be understood that in the point in time where state land was being donated for various goods and services, such donations would not occur to institutions of religion in that the donations themselves, would be seen as an act of giving approval to such activities. One of the other aspects mentioned by the author, would be the dominance within the community of those residents that would attend private institutions of education and in light of that, the community designers would fail to include public institutions, being that no one within the community at the time, would have sent their loved ones to one. Another cultural aspect would have been the initial lack of a specific shopping area, where individuals would be able to buy goods and services. This would be due to the reliance upon materials being delivered by means of wagon travel. Traditions remain prominent within the history of Boston and this would also be the case for the planning of the general area. For this design, there would be a specific city center street that would act as the unifying element between the primary points within the city and its surrounding culture. “Clearly the streets of the Back Bay area were conceived as street-corridors. Five parallel axes are formed by the main streets; the central axis is long banks of houses whose facades built parallel to the streets have the appearance of corridor walls,” (Bunting, p. 23). Culturally speaking, as the citizen within the vast grouping of united individuals, it can at times, become easy to be swayed from the real purpose and underlying nature of the community that draws everyone together. For the designers of this area that would have been a consideration for them in this instance, where relevance would have been given to the psyche of the general bystander, as they viewed the city and its culture around them. “Thus the coincidence of great spatial corridors, lines of traffic, the long banks of houses and an extended perspective of uniform cornice lines, all tend to reinforce each other, thereby creating a sense of unity so compelling that the pedestrian is aware of the total street-corridor rather than the single house,” (Bunting, p. 23). Creating the culture that would facilitate unity amongst its people and its infrastructure. Boston, with all of its internal components and inhabitants, aid its continued status of being a unique city. A city filled with rich culture and a larger community that would owe its existence to such a culture being present. The variance in structure types, yet concrete foundation line, would go to further lengths in terms of defining the city as a whole and how it would fall into place in terms of serving those within the commonwealth and how it would serve to move the culture, as well as the community itself, forward into future generations. Reference Bunting, Bainbridge. “The Plan of the Back Bay Area in Boston”. The Journal of Architectural Historians. Vol. 13, No. 2 (May, 1954), pp. 19-24. Published: Society of Architectural Historians. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/987686 Read More