Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech

Rating:
Summary: The architecture of modern MIT
Review: continue to be seen as a lackluster urban university scattered among classrooms, office buildings, and dormitories in Boston's Back Bay section. The architect chosen for this unprecedented, highly-visible, and risky large-scale architectural undertaking was William Welles Bosworth, a MIT graduate in architecture recommended by John D. Rockefeller. Yet, Bosworth continually had to reckon with the influence of other prominent architects who had put forth their own visionary plans. Among these were Ralph Adams Cram, who had designed West Point's campus; Steven Child, a student of Frederick Law Olmstead; and the chairman of MIT's Dept. of Architecture, Desire Despradelle. Jarzombek tells the story of how Bosworth managed to remain true to his own plans rooted in his neoclassicism while accommodating the ideas of other architects and the preferences of the powerful patrons. This complex, historic project is followed with plentiful old photographs and architectural drawings from MIT's archives. The author, a professor in MIT's Dept. of Architecture, gives equal treatment to the diverse individuals who had a role in the shaping of the project, the architectural concepts of the time, and Bosworth's work and resolutions of issues along the way. Needless to say, the architectural project succeeded in putting MIT into the forefront of U. S. science and engineering universities. And Bosworth's cluster of impressive buildings continues to play a central role in MIT's staying in this position.


Rating:
Summary: urban architectural history
Review: This book about the architectural development of MIT should be interesting and informative to both academics, MIT alumuni as well as the casual individual interested in historic preservation. Designing MIT is both clearly written and wonderfully illustrated. I would rate is as a MUST BUY.