Boston's Original Genius Urban Planners

Boston's history of planning has been a drama of skulduggery.

1 minute read

August 25, 2001, 9:00 AM PDT

The Boston Herald features a story on the history of planning in Boston -- when Charles Bulfinch was America's first architect and Harrison Gray Otis was the biggest developer in town."[Otis] amassed a fortune by doing what the best developers have always done - he saw opportunities before anyone else, had the capital through a network of associates to get the projects built and added great value to both the public and private realm by getting Bulfinch to lay out the streets and design the buildings.Bulfinch not only had a genius for urban planning long before it became a profession, but his buildings like the State House, influenced by English neoclassicists, brought European city sophistication to a colonial town, where provincial-looking houses and shops were built of wood."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: The beginning of Boston's growth: Bulfinch-Otis alliance crafted town into city

Friday, August 24, 2001 in Boston Herald

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