In Newbury Street, short buildings with narrow front faces give us a sense of human scale. In spite of high density of building and people, cozy places make human comfort. Peopl’s talking voice and food scents add the charm to this street. The volume of high-rise buildings contrasts the void of wide streets in Massachusetts Avenue. Large scale of building, noise of a street, and materiality such as metal, concrete, and glass creates monolitic city scape. Massachusetts Avenue always remains me Tokyo, my home town. Christian Science Plaza has most of all features of open space in city. I will compare this park and other two parks in open space section. Observation Sketches
Left: Moeko Hara, Master of Architecture student Right: Cheng Wei, Master of Architecture student
BUILT FORM Old building with Palimpsest Before attending City Lab Intensive class, I have never paid attention
SPRING 2016
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PRACTICE MAGAZINE
the palimpsest. All palimpsests I found were on brick buildings. One Get a glimpse into the sketches students created out in the tofield.
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new
The sketch left is the comparison of sensory experience between Newbury Street, Berklee college of music neighborhood, and Christian Science Park. From an architectural point of view, a scale, volume, and density of building drastically changes once stepping into another district. Character of each are also change in association with an occupancy.
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HEALTH & HUMAN CONFORT Observation from Newbury Street to Christian Science Plaza
building near North Station had an earlier form of stairs and floor slabs on the surface. These are the good source to know daily history of architecture in the city.
location in Boston to build relationships, push the comfort zone, and see the city in a new way.” In August 2014, a true game changer happened for CityLab with the hiring of a director for the program. Director of Foundation Instruction in Practice Beth Lundell Garver was brought on to develop and centralize CityLab’s curricular experience. Old building with Palimpsest, 280 Congress St. Building “Since joining the BAC, I have aimed to organize, refine, and evolve the course into a deeply impactful student experience— both geographically and pedagogically,” commented Beth. “CityLab serves the dual function of orienting students to past, present, and future Boston while simultaneously introducing them to foundational concepts of design thinking and practice.” Beth’s excitement for the program is unparalleled, and her impact is apparent. Describing it as a perfect fit, Beth revealed that in her graduate school application essay, she wrote about the power of utilizing the city as a laboratory. With a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and over eight years of professional practice, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the program. “Beth has truly captured the imagination of the rest of the school with her design of the intensive,” said Len Charney. “Her excitement is infectious, and it translates to her students and instructors.”
In contrast to Palimpsest, this is the example of the old building with a
new structure. addition of theby building creates beutiful interior a current event or publication. Recent Since August 2014, the course The hasnewbeen space. When thinking about sustainability of Boston as an architecture, to think about how to create comfortable environment without“Design, Health, and themes have included, expanded and refinedweinhave a variety of ways. losing the history and charm of this city. Not only creating new buildings, Urbanism, A main highlight includes the concentration preserving historic buildings is our important roll. ” “Practicing Inside Out,” and “Visionary Practices,” in direct response to of the geography of site explorations. In the Boston’s 2024 Olympic bid. The themes fall, when the weather is warmer, the course influence selected site explorations as well focuses on sites that are connected or indias guest speakers. Each intensive features a rectly affected by Boston’s Central Artery, Big panel of speakers that introduces students Dig, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to real world experiences from the profesprojects. Students explore areas from the Old building with Palimpsest sional industry. Past speakers include David West End, to the Zakim Bridge, to Chinatown, Manfredi, founding principal of Elkus Manfredi and more. In the spring, when the weather Architects, who spoke about his key role on is colder, students explore interior networks the Boston 2024 Olympic bid committee including the Prudential Center, Boston and their vision for underutilized areas like Public Library, the Museum of Fine Ar ts, Widett Circle, as well as Alex Krieger, proMassachusetts General Hospital, and more. fessor in practice of urban design at Harvard An impor tant element that is now woven GSD, BAC overseer, and principal at NBBJ, throughout each course assignment is apwho spoke about the history of urban deplying five CityLab lenses: health and human velopment in Boston with particular mencomfort, mobility, open space, built form, tion of the West End, Central Artery, and and cultural systems. These lenses are a way greenway projects. of simplifying and distilling complex overlapThe beauty of CityLab is that it has evolved, ping systems that occur around us all the and will continue to evolve, to give students time and should be considered as part of a unique introduction to both Boston and every design problem, regardless of its disthe BAC. As part of their course assigncipline. They serve as a common language ments, students use Instagram for site analfor architects, interior architects, landscape ysis documentation and georeferenced architects, and designers alike. data collection through the use of hashtag “As a licensed architect with a focus on urban #BACCityLab. The hashtag was launched in design, I know it can be overwhelming to abJanuary 2015, and there are currently 1,252 sorb and analyze a large, dynamic place at a posts on Instagram. Collectively, the images range of scales from an interior room to a capture the atmosphere and vividly share building, neighborhood, city, or region,” said the story of CityLab with the world. Beth. “Based on student evaluations, my in“CityLab’s future relies on the BAC’s ability troduction of the CityLab lenses has helped to iterate and learn from each course and students navigate this process.” evolve the experience every semester,” Each semester has a guiding topic inspired
“CityLab has provided us with a basic understanding and a knowing of our local surroundings to help us progress further academically and professionally to our desired goals.”
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“I learned that there is always a driving idea or concept behind every design.”