History of Architecture in Boston

Brandeis University. Fine Arts Department Tuesdays & Fridays. 11:00-12:20 Prof. Talinn Grigor. tgrigor@brandeis.edu FA85a History of Architecture in Boston This course traces the history and underpinning politics of modern architecture and urbanism of Greater Boston from the 18 th to the 21 st centuries. Through lectures, case study presentations, site visits and on-site analysis, it traces the colonial strategies of building and urbanism in the 18 th -19 th centuries, the electicisms and revivlisms in the late 19 th century, the processes of modernization in the 20 th century, and the various architectural solutions devised by post-modern architects in dealing with Boston s histoical legacy in the 21 st century. The course examines the work of major architects who designed in grater Boston: Charles Bulfinch, William Price, Benjamin Thompson, Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Paul Rudolph, I. M. Pei, Philip Johnson, James Stirling, Steven Holl, Charles Correa, and Frank Gehry. While Boston has an old tradition of building, emphasis is placed in this class on the modern and the contemporary eras in its built history. Class lectures, class discussions, case study projects led by students, a model-building project, and five field trips will complement the interactive nature of this critical and analytic course. Active student participation and critical thinking during the various projects, pin ups, class discussions, and field trips are central to the experience and expectation of this course. Those students enrolled in the course must be able to walk long distances and find rides for the several Friday and weekend mandatory field trips. REQUIREMENTS Field Trips Exams Attendance Grading This course is designed and scheduled on the last slot of weekly courses so that Tuesday classes could be combined with Friday meetings as field trips. In addition, there will be longer filed trips on weekends that will take the place of two class meetings. Please take a look at the schedule of classes in this syllabus and decide if you would be able to make the meetings scheduled outside class hours. These are mandatory and are considered class meetings. This is the only way to have regular field trips to Boston and Cambridge as a part of the regular class meetings. Before you committee to this class, seriously consider this peculiarity in scheduling. The field trips require long hours of walking, sometimes in bad weather. At other instances, students will also need to secure car or bus rides to specific locations and pay the student entrance fees to the historical house visits. These are students responsibilities. For these too, seriously consider if you would like to take this course. Two exams divide the semester into two separate parts. Exams must be taken when scheduled: No make-ups, unless there is an emergency. Each exam will have four parts: identifications; comparisons; terminology; essay. We will have review sessions prior to each exam, during which details will be provided. Exams will cover all material from lectures, class discussions, readings, and field trips. Fieldtrips to Boston, Cambridge and other locals around Boston is mandatory and an important part of the course instruction. Your final grade will be affected by your attendance and participation in class, including all field trips. All grades will be posted on LATTE only. Grades cannot be passed out or discussed in public. See me in my office or email me if you have any questions. Grads will be passed out according to standard Brandeis Register s scale. 50% Exams 1 & 2 25% Model Project 25% Case Study Grigor. Syllabus 1

Readings Readings assigned in the syllabus must be done prior to or immediately after the class. Refer to your textbooks for most of the readings and your syllabus for the pages. Articles outside textbooks are posted on LATTE under the file Reading. All instructions, announcements, and assignments are also found on LATTE. Because of size and other considerations, lectures will not be posted on LATTE. You must attend the lectures in order to hear them. Required Textbook Douglass Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-2000 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1999) For recommended books see the select bibliography below. Brandeis bookstore was unable to acquire this book; please order it online or in a bookstore. The course is designed around the textbook, which is not easy to read. However, it is the only one that is comprehensive and complete enough to be used as a textbook. Tough it out! My Availability Office Hours: Fridays 12:30-2:30, in my office, Mandel Center 207. Make sure you let me know that you are coming before passing by [tgrigor@brandies.edu]. I will be in my office every week and available to answer your questions. We can also arrange an appointment. I also encourage you to speak to me right before and after lectures in class for short answer questions. If you think your question might interest other students, I also encourage you to ask it in class for the benefit of everyone. I will make time for in class discussions and questions. Miscellaneous I expect my students to abide by the academic honor code. I count on your integrity, honesty, and hard work to create a productive class environment. Students with special needs, see me. This syllabus, the schedule of courses, and requirements for the class will be followed; in the case of unforeseen exceptions, all these are subject to change at my discretion. SCHEDULE Jan 14 Jan 17 Jan 21 Here in Boston Boston in Context Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, Preface Settling in Boston: visiting lecturer Jeremy Stern Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 1 Send case study & model project group names to instructor Arrange for car rides to field trips Jan 24 Field Trip 1 Gore Place, Waltham, 1806 Tamar Agulian, Coordinator, 52 Gore Street, Waltham, MA 02452 (781) 894-2798, www.goreplace.org, $11 per student Jan 28 Boston before Bulfinch: visiting lecturer Jeremy Stern Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 2 Jan 31 Filed Trip 2 Stonehurst, H. H. Richardson, Waltham, 1886 Ann Clifford, Curator, Stonehurst, 100 Robert Treat Paine Dr., Waltham, MA 02452 (781) 314-3291, www.stonehurstwaltham.org, $5 per student Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 3 Grigor. Syllabus 2

Feb 2 H. H. Richardson s Boston Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 4 Feb 7 Case Study 1: The third Harrison Gray Otis House, Beacon Hill, 1808 Case Study 2: Haskell House, Newton, 1870 Case Study 3: Higginson House, H. H. Richardson, Back Bay, 1883 Student teams will present to the class the history of specific buildings and urban pockets listed in this syllabus. These will serve as case studies complementary to the lectures. Student teams will present to the class the history of the building that has been assigned to your group. You need to work together as a team to prepare a 15-20 minute PowerPoint presentation to be presented to the class introducing the building in all its aspects: history, architecture, structure, context, urban setting, interesting stories attached to the building, important figures associated with the building, introduction of architect, and any use of the structure in popular culture. The Powerpoint needs to be well done with rich illustrations (maps, floor plans, sections, elevations, old and new images of the building, photos of historical figures presented, etc.). You can show excerpts from films in which the building has appeared. You can use 3-D tools to present the building, etc. All team members need to equally participate in the planning and making of the presentation. Who will acutely present the talk to the class is a decision that the team can make. Feb 11 Charles McKim and the Classical Revival Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 6 Feb 14 Field Trip 3 Gropius Home, Walter Gropius, Lincoln, 1938 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, MA 01773-3105, (781) 259-8098, $8 per student Buck, Susan L., A Material Evaluation of the Gropius House: Planning to Preserve a Modern Masterpiece, APT Bulletin 28/4 (1997) 29-35 Colomina, Beatriz, The Media House, Assemblage 27 (Aug 1995) 55-66 Feb 18-21 Feb 25 University holiday Toward Gropius Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 10 Feb 28 Case Study 4: Haskell House, Newton, 1870 Case Study 5: United Shoe Machinery Building, Parker, Thomas, Rice, Boston, 1929 Case Study 6: BB Chemical/Polaroid Building, Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, Abbott, Cambridge, 1937 Mar 2 Sun Filed Trip 4 This is a walking tour of downtown Boston. It will take about 3 hours with a small coffee break near the Old Corner Bookstore. Come prepared for the weather and walking shoes. David Sears House/Somerset Club, Alexander Parris, Beacon Hill, 1819/1832 Harrison Gray Otis House, Charles Bulfinch, Beacon Hill, 1806 Massachusetts State House, Charles Bulfinch, Beacon Hill, 1798 Granary Burying Gate & Ground, Beacon Hill, 1660 King s Chapel, Peter Harrison, North End, 1749 Old Corner Bookstore, North End, 1712 Old South Meeting House, North End, 1729 Old State House & Boston Massacre Site, North End, 1711 Boston City Hall, Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles, North End, 1968 Faneuil Hall expansion, Charles Bulfinch, North End, 1762, 1805 Quincy Market, Alexander Parris, North End, 1826 [Paul Revere House, North End, 1684] Grigor. Syllabus 3

Mar 4 Exam 1 Review Mar 7 Field trip replacement Mar 11 Exam 1 Mar 14 Heroic Modernism Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 11 Mar 18 Mar 21 Field trip replacement The New Boston Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 12 Frampton, Kenneth. Towards a critical regionalism: six points for an architecture of resistance, in The Anti-aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. H. Foster (1998) 17-34 Mar 23 Sun Field Trip 5 [Boylston Tower Records, Frank Gehry, Back Bay, 1989] [Boylston Apple Store, Back Bay, 2008] Trinity Church, H. H. Richardson, Back Bay, 1877 Boston Public Library, McKim, Mead, and White, Back Bay, 1895 Copley Plaza Hotel, Henry Hardenberg, Back Bay, 1912 [Boston Art Club, William R. Emerson, Back Bay, 1881] Christian Science Center, I. M. Pei, Boston, 1974 Public Library Addition, Philip Johnson, Back Bay, 1969 Hancock Tower, I. M. Pei, Back Bay, 1977 [Burrage House/Boston Evening Clinic, Charles Brigham, Back Bay, 1899] Mar 25 The Post-Modern Reaction Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 13 Venturi, Robert, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas (Cambridge, 1977) 3-13, 87-103, 116-19, 155, 161-163 Mar 28 Case Study 7: New England Aquarium, Cambridge Seven Associates, Boston, 1967 Case Study 8: Louis Kahn, Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1972 Case Study 9: John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, IM Pei, Dorchester, 1977 Case Study 10: One Faneuil Hall Square, Graham Gund, North End, 1988 Weekend TBA Field Trip 6 Harvard s Sever Hall, H. H. Richardson, Cambridge, 1880 Harvard s Memorial Hall, Ware and Van Brunt, Cambridge, 1978 Harvard s Austin Hall, H. H. Richardson, Cambridge, 1884 Harvard s Biological Labs, Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, Abbott, Cambridge, 1930 Harvard Graduate Center, Walter Gropius, Cambridge, 1949 Harvard s Gund Hall, John Andrews, Cambridge, 1968-72 Harvard s Sackler Museum of Fine Arts, James Stirling, Cambridge, 1985 Harvard s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Le Corbusier, Cambridge, 1964 [MIT s Maclaurin Building, Welles Bosworth, Cambridge, 1913] [MIT s Alumni Swimming Pool, Anderson & Beckwith, Cambridge, 1940] MIT s Baker Dormitory, Alvar Aalto, Cambridge, 1947 MIT s Kresge Auditorium, Eero Saarinen, Cambridge, 1955 MIT s Kresge Chapel, Eero Saarinen, Cambridge, 1955 [MIT s Simmons Hall, Steven Holl, Cambridge, 2002] [MIT s Zesiger Sports Center, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, Cambridge, 2002] MIT s Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, Charles Correa, Cambridge, 2005 MIT s Stata Center, Frank Gehry, Cambridge, 2004 Grigor. Syllabus 4

Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston, ch. 14 Derrida, Jacques, Why Peter Eisenman writes such good books, in Rethinking Architecture, ed. N. Leach (London, 1997) 336-47, optional Apr 1-4 Apr 4 Apr 8 Apr 7-10 Model Project Student model will be presented in class in the format of architectural crit during class time. All models will be displayed during the Saivetz architectural symposium on April 4. A research paper (1,500 words), accompanied by a three-dimensional model will be displayed and examined in class. Each group will speak about its project and paper. Papers much be uploaded on LATTE on time. Models have to fit into a 20x20 inch format. You are free to choose the material. Handwritten, emailed, or incorrectly formatted papers will be given no grade. Sorabjee-Saivetz Architectural Symposium: Architectural Exchanges in South Asia 4:00-8:00 Admission s Building Lecture Hall Required of all students in class. Student models will be displayed. Exam 2 Review Mandel Lectures in the in the Humanities: Divine Spark of Syracuse Prof. Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame Mandel Auditorium, 4:30-6:00 Mandatory participation in two out of four lectures offered in this week Apr 11 & 25 Lecture & field trip replacement Apr 29 Exam 2 Grigor. Syllabus 5

Selected Bibliography Bunting Bainbridge, Harvard, an Architectural History, edited by Margaret Henderson Floyd. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985. Bunting Bainbridge, Houses of Boston's Back Bay; an Architectural History, 1840-1917. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967. Philip Bergen, Old Boston in Early Photographs, 1850-1918. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, Cityscapes of Boston. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992. Gropius, Ise. History of the Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Boston: SPNEA, 1977. Alexander von Hoffman, Local Attachments : the Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to 1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Alexander von Hoffman, Of Greater Lasting Consequence, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Fate of Franklin Park, Boston, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 47 (December 1988). Michael Holleran, Boston's "Changeful Times": Origins of Preservation and Planning in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Jane Holtz Kay, Lost Boston. Boston: Mariner-Houghton-Mifflin, 1999. Lawrence W. Kennedy, Planning the City Upon a Hill: Boston since 1630. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. Alex Krieger and David Cobb, with Amy Turner, eds., Mapping Boston. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999. Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. Naomi Miller and Keith Morgan, Boston Architecture, 1975-1990. New York: Prestel, 1990. Arnold Lewis and Keith Morgan, American Victorian Architecture, New York: Dover Publications, 1975. Roger G. Reed, Building Victorian Boston: the architecture of Gridley J.F. Bryant. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. Leland M. Roth, American Architecture: A History, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2001. Thomas H. O Cannor, Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal, 1950-1970. Boston: Northeastern, 1993. Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, Boston, A Century of Progress. Dover, New Hampshire: Arcadia, 1995. Nancy Seasholes, Gaining Ground: a History of Landmaking in Boston. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. Douglass Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston-City and Suburb, 1800-2000. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Susan and Michael Southworth, AIA Guide to Boston. Second Edition. Chester, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 1992. Sam Bass Warner, Jr., Streetcar Suburbs: the Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978. Walter Muir Whitehill, Boston - A Topographical History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1982. Grigor. Syllabus 6