Class Schedule and Readings
All required readings are on reserve at the Rotch Library and are available at the MIT Coop. The cities of Boston, Cambridge, and others in the region are also primary texts.
Readings are also available on Stellar for those registered in the class.
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I. Reading the City Required Reading: Grady Clay, Close-Up: How to Read the American City (Chicago, 1980) |
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| February 7 |
How Can Cities Be Read and Why |
| February 12 | The Once and Future City: Processes That Shape |
| February 14 | Reading and Writing the City |
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February 20 |
Perspectives on Boston Sites |
| February 20 | Project Assignment #1 Due: Select a Site |
| February 21 | Workshop: Designing Your Website |
| February 26 | Guides to Reading and Writing Boston |
| March 2 | Assignment #1 Due Online |
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II. City and Nature: Natural Processes as Agents of Change Required Reading: Anne Whiston Spirn, The Granite Garden (Basic Books, 1984); James Elkins, How to Use Your Eyes (Routledge, 2000): "Preface," "How to Look at a Culvert," "How to Look at Pavement," "How to Look at a Twig." |
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| February 28 |
The Granite Garden: Boston, A Natural Environment Transformed |
| March 5 | Earth and Water |
| March 7 | Air and Life |
| March 9 | Project Assignment #2 Due: Your Site and Natural Processes |
| March 12 | Boston Sites: What Patterns Emerged? |
III. City and Society: Social Processes as Agents of Change Required Reading: Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Oxford, 1985); Sam Bass Warner, in Mapping Boston, edited by Alex Krieger. |
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| March 14 | Looking at Maps |
| March 19 | Technology, Innovation, and Change |
| March 21 | Economics, Politics, and Change |
| March 26-30 | SPRING VACATION |
| April 2 | Culture, Fashion, and Change |
| April 4 | Boston in Historical Context |
| April 6 | Project Assignment #3 Due: Your Site Through Time |
| April 9 | Boston Sites: What Patterns Emerged? |
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IV. Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Envisioning and Shaping Future Cities Required Reading: Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities; Spirn, "The Yellowwood and the Forgotten Creek"; The West Philadelphia Landscape Project website. |
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| April 11 |
Looking Back, Looking Ahead |
| April 16 |
PATRIOTS DAY HOLIDAY |
| April 18 | Shaping Future Cities |
| April 23 | Shaping Future Cities |
| April 25 | Shaping Future Cities |
| April 20 |
Project Assignment #4 Due: Artifacts, Layers, Traces, and Trends |
| April 30 | Top-Down/Bottom-Up: Frameworks for Action |
| May 2 | Workshop: Writing, Editing, Revising |
| V. Boston Sites: Where Have They Been, Where Are They Headed Required Reading: 2006 Boston Sites |
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| May 7 | Presentation and Discussion of Sites |
| May 9 | Presentation and Discussion of Sites |
| May 14 | Presentation and Discussion of Sites |
| May 16 | Presentation and Discussion of Sites |
| May 11 | |