Greater Boston includes a wide variety of award-winning and historic architecture. From early in its history to contemporary times, the city has inspired innovative and challenging building design and construction, as it quickly grew into an internationally recognized economic and cultural hub. Boston's leading architects have often been at the forefront of current design trends, and the city has produced a number of successful architects. As can be seen in Contemporary Boston Architects, today's architects, like those from previous generations, continue the tradition of quality and innovative home design. Discover a wealth of ideas and design strategies from over 20 architectural firms that will help you understand design processes, methods, and techniques in new ways. See how Boston's leading talent integrates classic architecture into modern living spaces by viewing over 400 beautiful images showcasing their works.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, designed by Diller + Scofidio (now Diller Scofidio + Renfro), was the first new art museum to be built in Boston in a century. Opened in December 2006, the ICA is located on a small parcel of land on Boston Harbor and this is the 25th location for the museum in its 75 year history and its first, permanent, free-standing home. "The ICA's decision to hire Diller + Scofidio reflected our belief in the firm's vision that architecture can shape as well as reflect contemporary experience," stated Jill Medvedow, director of ICA. The architects balanced use of cool and transparent glass with the warmth of wood and the energy of light, as well as their design of spare, flexible spaces for presenting contemporary art, was a revelation for a city and an architectural community. ''Their brilliant and beautiful design of the ICA was a harbinger of change: edgy, bold and breathtaking, transforming the landscape for contemporary art and culture in Boston and for the artists, art and ideas of our time," Medvedow has said. ILLUSTRATIONS Colour
Often problematically labeled as “Brutalist” architecture, the concrete buildings that transformed Boston during 1960s and 1970s were conceived with progressive-minded intentions by some of the world’s most influential designers, including Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, I. M. Pei, Henry Cobb, Araldo Cossutta, Gerhard Kallmann and Michael McKinnell, Paul Rudolph, Josep Lluís Sert, and The Architects Collaborative. As a worldwide phenomenon, building with concrete represents one of the major architectural movements of the postwar years, but in Boston it was deployed in more numerous and diverse civic, cultural, and academic projects than in any other major U.S. city. After decades of stagnation and corrupt leadership, public investment in Boston in the 1960s catalyzed enormous growth, resulting in a generation of bold buildings that shared a vocabulary of concrete modernism. The period from the 1960 arrival of Edward J. Logue as the powerful and often controversial director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority to the reopening of Quincy Market in 1976 saw Boston as an urban laboratory for the exploration of concrete’s structural and sculptural qualities. What emerged was a vision for the city’s widespread revitalization often referred to as the “New Boston.” Today, when concrete buildings across the nation are in danger of insensitive renovation or demolition, Heroic presents the concrete structures that defined Boston during this remarkable period—from the well-known (Boston City Hall, New England Aquarium, and cornerstones of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University) to the already lost (Mary Otis Stevens and Thomas F. McNulty’s concrete Lincoln House and Studio; Sert, Jackson & Associates’ Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School)—with hundreds of images; essays by architectural historians Joan Ockman, Lizabeth Cohen, Keith N. Morgan, and Douglass Shand-Tucci; and interviews with a number of the architects themselves. The product of 8 years of research and advocacy, Heroic surveys the intentions and aspirations of this period and considers anew its legacies—both troubled and inspired.
A comprehensive record of an important exhibition of modern art, featuring works by leading artists of the early 20th century. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
