Boston and Cambridge
Way back in the 1970’s Bostonians lead the world in the redevelopment of their historic downtown harbour-side, and provided a blueprint that has now been copied throughout the western world. For example the redevelopment of Covent Garden in London was stimulated by the success of Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace, also called Quincy Market.
In the early '70s, demolition was a distinct possibility for the decrepit buildings. Fortunately, the idea that urban renewal was always best accomplished with a bulldozer was beginning to yield to the more progressive concept of reuse. With the participation of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, architect Benjamin Thompson planned a renovation of Quincy Market, and the Rouse Corporation of Baltimore
undertook its restoration, which was completed in 1976. The scheme represented the architect’s vision that the market buildings would become the urban centrepiece of a downtown regeneration project.
Boston is fortunate in having a wealth of antique buildings because of its position as the capital of New England, and the first real city in America to be founded. The first English immigrant to settle in Boston
was the Reverend William Blackstone. He came by himself in 1629, to a peninsula by a stream, called by the local Algonquin inhabitants, Shawmet. A year later, John Winthrop and his Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arrived to the north in Salem. Finding Salemless than desirable for a settlement, Blackstone invited Winthropto visit Shawmut. On September 17, 1630, Winthrop decided to make Shawmut a permanent settlement and renamed it Boston, after his hometown in Lincolnshire.
Over the next two centuries Boston developed as a centre for Puritan life. Early on, Boston began to emerge as an intellectual and educational centre with the arrival of noted theologians and statesmen, and the founding of Boston Latin School and Harvard University. The first printing press in the colonies was built in Cambridge by Stephen Daye in 1639. With its excellent harbour, Boston became the leading commercial centre in the colonies. Colonial Boston was a world leader in shipbuilding and the primary port of North America. However Boston's manufacturing went into a state of decline during the first decades of the 20th century, only reviving slightly during World War II, when the city became a centre for the munitions trade. Prosperity continued however with the development of service industries, banking, finance, retailing and wholesaling.
By the 1950's the Boston area emerged as a leader in the fledgling computer and high-tech industries. Many of these new business were created and staffed by graduates of MIT and the other colleges. The financial and service industries continued to expand. However the city recognised that to encourage a continued growth they must continue to attract the best brains to the universities and the best businesses to their commercial sector. The redevelopment of downtown was inspired by this.
Today, the Boston skyline is brimming with skyscrapers and office towers; a testament to Boston's achievements and its vitality.
I was keen to understand how important the Cambridge educational establishments had been to Boston
and to compare with those of Berkeley California, a suburb of San Francisco.
Harvard University is the United States oldest institution of higher education, founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims of Plymouth and 140 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Seven presidents of the United States
– John Adams, John Quincey Adams, Theodor Roosevelt, FD Roosevelt, Rutherford Hayes, JF Kennedy and George Bush all graduated from Harvard. Its faculties have produced 43 Nobel Laureates. Harvard’s buildings evoke the courtyards of Cambridge in England. (seen left) But Harvard is predominantly red brick and the columns are wooden, not as in Cambridge England which is predominantly built of stone.
Down the road, about a mile away from Harvard, is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
which opened it doors in 1865. A scientific university of equal reputation to Harvard it is housed in very different buildings. The science blocks hum as you pass them and modern buildings, like Frank Gehry’s Ray and Maria Stata Centre literally cascade into the public domain. Sixty-four current or former members of the MIT community have won the Nobel Prize. [1]
Streetscapes in the campus around MIT have recently been refurbished. Cycle lanes and soft separation are all excellent.
Note the emergency pole outside one of the research buildings.
Though first extensive computerised programme was developed here by Joel Moses between 1975 and 1982 (it was able to manipulate algebraic quantities and perform symbolic integration and differentiation.), The West Coast won the computing race and so it was at Berkeley, CALTEC, Silicon Valley and in Seattle that computing really developed.
Today with its expertise in genetic engineering, its history of medical breakthroughs like the artificial skin, in nano and bio-technology it may well be that the inventive impetus returns to the East Coast.
In the last 20 years, city employment continued to shift from traditional labour intensive manufacturing jobs to technology and service jobs. These jobs have been fueled to some extent by the specialisms of the education sector. But unlike San Francisco the economy of metropolitan Boston now primarily rests on a wider though admittedly less dynamic set of industries which include high technology but also cover finance, professional and business services, defence and medical institutions. The city's economy is more specialized in the financial, business and professional services and educational and medical sectors than the suburban economy, which is more specialized in high technology and the defence industry.
Like San Francisco Boston is one of the country's top 10 tourist attractions, focusing on the city's 62 historic sites, its nearly 2,000 restaurants, and its hundreds of hotels. Tourism is a year-round industry in Boston, which hosted 16.3 million visitors in 2004, spending $7.9 billion.
However wages and housing in Boston has been historically high – so only established business has been able to locate in Boston for many years. This contrasts with San Fransisco and Silicon Valley
where cheap accommodation was easy to come by and for many years of the 20th Century the living was cheap and the lifestyle laid-back.
Comparison of Boston's and San Fransisco's Economy - Click on image to enlarge
Source state economic data 2007
[1] web.mit.edu
[2] www.City-data.com
Thanks for sharing such a nice post!
Posted by: Tony Parker Jersey | April 25, 2012 at 02:56 AM
Great pictures and an interesting article, Boston is a great place to
live and study, no doubt about it. Harvard's graduated students have an open door all over the world.
Posted by: computer systems institute boston | October 04, 2012 at 11:33 AM