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Book jacket design for Tomas Cizek's The Ruse
Coming from the Midwest, Boston gave the impression that the people running the place, and their graphics (retro even at that time), and their trolleys, were from an ancient time – the 1930s.
In 1954 the valuation and assessment for taxes of Boston’s properties was $400 million less that it was in 1930. The population of the city proper went from 800,000 in 1950 to under 700,000 in 1960.
It was an interesting time to be in the town as it was in the process of embarking on a renewal. For an architectural student this was a living seminar in itself.
The revitalization of a community is a process of revitalizing the people, the bricks and mortar are incidental.
There is a very good story of Boston’s renewal: Building a New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal 1950 to 1970. Thomas O‘Connor. 1993
Saint Charles Streetcar line.
Promotional Photos for University performance of “Hot l Baltimore.”
Many of the photos from Boston’s North end and Italy can be difficult to distinguish as being separate places.
When JRV left New England for southern climes, he missed the lower light of the Northern US, which he saw was more like central Europe compared to the sun coming almost straight down in the Summer in the South. Only recently did he look at a globe to see Boston on a latitude very near Florence, Italy’s.
Fedoras.
The City of Bellagio is an arrow-shaped peninsula on Lake Como. The main road through the town is an elongated loop, it is a very narrow and alternating one-way street. In its midsection the loop is bridged by a 400 foot stair/sidewalk that has a fall of 85 feet, some eight stories; the Salita Serbelloni. Commercial and residential activities are on the staired way.
These photos were taken while having lunch at a Salita Serbelloni cafe.
The top of the stair/sidewalk.
A short distance from town.
Sharing a pomegranate.
Paul Revere Mall after Sunday Mass.
Starting in the 18th Century, in 1904 someone could still claim “Mudlark” as profession, scavenging at low tide on the banks of rivers.
Note the early 1950s Riley’s front wheels resting on on ramps for a curbside repair. (In the country it would be on concrete blocks.)
Anne Frank House, looking up to the attic hatch.