Building Downtown and Suburban Metropolis
Figure 1: Copley Square
The development of the Copley Square was a spontaneous creation that attracted a number of institutions seeking to rebuild after the Great Fire of 1872. In the late 19th century, Boston planners were struggling to plan for public spaces but sought its new home near Copley Square. With the construction of Huntington Avenue in 1872, buildings soon emerged in Copley Square. The first development was Trinity Church and slowly came the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Public Library. The firm of McKim, Mead, and White, who designed the structure to exhibit the Italian Renaissance style, developed the Boston Public Library. As developments continued to emerge, Copley Square began to attract residential hotels seeking to serve visitors and upper income clientele. Most vacant lots were own by private owners which the City of Boston beat the real estate developers to buying the parcels from key landowners in hopes of creating a new public space for Copley Square. With the lack of urban planners, the City of Boston struggled to design the public space of Copley Square and the project was overshadowed to a bigger issue during this period.
The biggest challenge Boston was facing was the expansion of Boston, which included the additional towns of Dorchester, Brighton, Roxbury, West Roxbury, and Charlestown. Due to the undeveloped planning organization and lack of land use laws, the developments of these towns were determined by institutions, individual investors and homeowners, who were not limited or bound by any land use regulations. Despite the vision the City of Boston sought to have, the suburbs mirrored the cookie cutter model and produced a homogenous community. The development of homogenous neighborhoods in the suburbs created segregation by income and race. With the annexation of towns, Boston saw a growth in streetcar uses with the help of Boston’s government developing streets. The rapid growth and challenges made it difficult for Boston’s government to evaluate plans set out by developers thus most plans were haphazard but most were approved. In the late 19th century, Boston embraced new technology and engineering methods to solve municipal problems. It was then that the City of Boston took on the responsibility putting in water lines, sewage systems, paving roads, and setting up gas lines. As the City of Boston adopted these new responsibility, public planning slowly became an acknowledged practice.
Reference:
Figure 1: Abdalian, Leon H. Copley Square and Trinity Church, Boylston Street. c. 1920. Wikipedia. Web. 28 Feb 2013.
Figure 2: Boston Suburb. Wikipedia. Web. 4 Mar 2013.
Reference:
Figure 1: Abdalian, Leon H. Copley Square and Trinity Church, Boylston Street. c. 1920. Wikipedia. Web. 28 Feb 2013.
Figure 2: Boston Suburb. Wikipedia. Web. 4 Mar 2013.