[this piece was originally published in Georgia Landscape Magazine by the University of Georgia]
In The Image of the City, 1960s era Boston is described as “a city of distinctive districts, and in most parts…one knows where one is simply by the general character…” Pulling from the wealth of interviews he conducted with the city’s inhabitants, Kevin Lynch continues, stating, “Here place is never in question. Yet this thematic vividness” was often contradicted by the “confusing arrangement” of connecting paths (Lynch, 22).
More than half a century later, these same observations are just as true, and they can often be overheard on Boston’s tourist-packed subway cars. Each of the metropolitan neighborhoods has a strong and consistent “general character.” In fact, the imageability of these districts is so remarkable that different sections of the city can be quickly recognized, even from a single photograph taken anywhere within a neighborhood.
