Synopses & Reviews
This latest volume in the Society of Architectural Historians'Buildings of the United States series analyzes the architecture, landscape, andplanning patterns of the capital of Massachusetts and forty surrounding cities andtowns that fan out from Boston Harbor. The term metropolitan here emphasizes boththe range of the project and the importance of this area in introducing regionalplanning to the United States. Extensively illustrated with photographs and maps, and supplemented with a glossary and bibliography, the book assesses built form frominitial colonial settlement in the 1630s through twenty-first-century additions tothe Boston area landscape. The authors selected both exemplary and representativebuildings and sites for inclusion. Here are structures of international reputationand buildings that characterize the vernacular housing patterns of the region.Because of the exceptional importance of the Boston area to the history of landscapearchitecture and city planning, those issues have been addressed in both thenarrative introduction and the 640 entries. In contrast to other existingarchitectural guides, which do not move beyond central Boston and Cambridge, TheBuildings of Massachusetts: Metro Boston canvasses the twelve sections of centralBoston, its eight annexed neighborhoods, five sections of Cambridge (the district'ssecond largest municipality), and forty surrounding communities have been examined.This volume has been designed to complement a second guidebook in the Buildings ofthe United States series that will focus on the buildings of Massachusetts from CapeCod to the Berkshires.