Boston looks like a European city? To what degree? (Cambridge: how much, houses)
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Boston looks like a European city? To what degree?
Parts of BOSTON are gorgeously beautiful. No doubt about it.
I'm thinking purely in architectural terms, walkability, pedestrian-friendly.
Architecture-wise...I see many beautiful, beautiful buildings.
On the other hand, Massachusetts has a ton of the regular american style Single-Family-Homes, or those New England triple-decker style housing.
Just curious HOW MUCH of Boston would you say has that 'European' style, and what percentage has just a lot of the triple-decker or single-family home style.
ALSO, how about the suburbs and the peripheries...mostly SFH or Triple-decker type stuff...or are there some european-like looking streets...?
What do you mean, "European style?" Boston has the density of a European city at the core, but it looks nothing like Paris, Prague, Amsterdam (though both rely on brick heavily), etc. There is no singular European style. In fact, most European cities are quite different from each other. It's hard to peg just one European style.
Personally, I think central Boston and Cambridge share a lot of urban fabric with London. Obviously, London is a much larger city and a much more significant city. However, the architectural styling of Boston (particularly the Federalist style), the extensive use of brick, the crooked street grid, and the blend of modern structures and historic structures at each city's core makes for some serious resemblance. Both cities are cities of "sqaures" or neighborhood centers. This is one of the things I love about both of them. Downtown is great, but both cities have smaller "downtown" areas within the outer neighborhoods. We're used to this here, but it's not common in much of the U.S. Boston's central park (the "Common") is designed based upon the public "Green" of a typical British city.
Make no mistake about it, Boston is NOT London. However, history (Boston was founded by English settlers, after all) and climate have helped Boston grow with some similarities to that big city across the pond. Walking through the Blackstone Block isn't very different from walking through some of London's historic streets. Boston also has a little influence from Ireland too. Bits of Dublin can be seen about town.
As far as the extent of how Boston is "European" is debatable. You aptly pointed out that metro Boston has many single family homes and three deckers that are uniquely American. This is true. Still, Boston's metro area still shares some similarities with metro areas in the British Isles. Don't forget, London and other UK cities do have their share of single family, auto-centric suburbs. One needs only to watch a little Harry Potter to get a great glimpse of that. Still, the similarities go beyond that. Suburban Boston incorporates a lot of smaller historic cities and towns (complete with walkable historic town centers) just like metropolitan London or Dublin (or Glasgow, Manchester, etc). Furthermore, like those cities, Boston has and extensive commuter rail network to connect the hub of the metropolis to those suburban cities. Cities like Marblehead, Newburyport, Rockport, Gloucester, Ipswich, Salem, Hingham, etc. all share some common ground with the villages surrounding larger cities in the British Isles that have since been absorbed into growing metro areas.
Boston is an American city. There's no debating that. It shares some (perhaps a lot) of similarities with a few cities across the pond (specifically, the British Isles), but is still very much an American city. "European" is just too vague of a description. San Francisco feels decidedly Mediterranean while New Orleans has a bit of French influence. Quebec City is by far the most "European" city (heavily French influenced) in North America and Boston bears little phyisical resemblance to any of those. Still, Boston looks more like a British or Irish city than Quebec, New Orleans or San Francisco. I guess it depends on what you consider "European."
Of pure European style, there's not that much. In the suburbs, you wouldn't find much that would strike you as particularly European except perhaps someplace like Marblehead or Newburyport. Even that is not exactly like Europe, though those towns have quaint winding streets and homes from the 1700s. It looks colonial.
That said, the overall look of many Boston-area towns is very different from "typical American." I've been in a lot of places in the US, and there aren't that many places that look anything like Greater Boston, although Boston does have some strip mall/auto dealer strips like everywhere else.
As I recall you're from Michigan. The Boston suburbs, even if they don't look European, look very different from the Detroit suburbs.
LRFox and Holden are pretty much right, but I'd disagree about suburbs. I think there is a tendency in America to view the suburb as uniquely American, but much of that is due to the fact that we don't visit suburbs when we travel. I have seen single family residential neighborhoods in Austria, Germany, and Sweden, for example. And I'm sure they exist elsewhere in Europe, too. What makes Boston look European in my opinion, is that it is a very old city. A newer American city like Phoenix, won't look European, because nothing in Europe was built so recently*.
* The exception is re-built cities post World War II, but they were built to fill the existing urban foot print, so they didn't cause the sort of sprawl pattern you'll find in Phoenix or Houston.
I have seen single family residential neighborhoods in Austria, Germany, and Sweden, for example. And I'm sure they exist elsewhere in Europe, too.
True. But every European suburb I've seen is still a bit different from the US version. The houses are smaller and often are designed to match the older buildings you'd see in cities or older farmhouses (with varying degrees of success). They also tend to be more compact, less sprawling. At the Munich airport, half an hour out of the city, there's only small villages in the fields.
I'd disagree about suburbs. I think there is a tendency in America to view the suburb as uniquely American, but much of that is due to the fact that we don't visit suburbs when we travel. I have seen single family residential neighborhoods in Austria, Germany, and Sweden, for example. And I'm sure they exist elsewhere in Europe, too.
Perhaps it's just what I've seen, but most of the European suburbs I've seen are a bit higher density. Around London, they seemed to be right on top of each other. They were more similar (in terms of density, not architecture) to Bay Area or LA suburbs than they were to Boston's. Boston's suburbs (with the exception of old street car suburbs) are decidedly low density. Many towns enact laws to ensure that suburban communities maintain large minimum lot sizes (1/2 acre or so) to make our suburbs "appear" to uphold the character of the historic villages they are popping up alongside. I didn't see nearly as much of this in Europe (I've spent a good amount of time in Madrid, London, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam) where the suburbs were much higher density than what we have.
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Originally Posted by HenryAlan
* The exception is re-built cities post World War II, but they were built to fill the existing urban foot print, so they didn't cause the sort of sprawl pattern you'll find in Phoenix or Houston.
I'd agree there is no European version of McMansion. I'm thinking more along the lines of Belmont or Arlington -- residential neighborhoods with small lots containing detached 1 or 2 unit buildings, with walking distance amenities.
The main difference with Europe can be traced to the past 50 years, when development patterns became tied in this country to the Interstate Highway system and agriculture subsidies. Our farm subsidies favored consolidation in the highest productive regions, forcing out the small farmer in places like New England. Coincidental with this was the development of car infrastructure making prior farming communities accessible for mass auto commuting patterns. All that land was just sitting fallow, waiting for developers to make inefficient but profitable use. Europe took the opposite approach, subsidizing the smaller, less efficient farmer, rather than the industrial behemoth. Had we done so, we'd still have lots of open farmland between town centers rather than sprawl. You are absolutely right that Europe has nothing similar, but the older suburbs do resemble those found in Europe.
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re: Hamburg, not sure what's going on there.
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re: Hamburg, not sure what's going on there.
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Sorry, I should have elaborated. HafenCity is a major, high density urban redevelopment project in Hamburg's Harbor. It's everything the so-called "Innovation District" (Seaport District) should strive for. Modern urbanism. REAL urbanism.
Hamburg was completely leveled early on in WW2. They had the unfortunate fate of being THE closest city to the RAF bases, so to put a twisted positive spin on it, the had the opportunity to completely rethink their urban design. The port was especially hit hard as it was pretty much a spawning ground for the German Navy.
Regarding European suburbs, I noticed while flying over France that instead of sprawl I observed hamlets. It made sense to me that given the density of Europe, it is wise and perhaps a necessity that populations must be condensed to preserve as much acreage as possible for agriculture. It's impressive actually. I assume that is how they sustain the dietary requirements - not to mention all that wine - of 65 million people squeezed into the area of Texas. It's pretty too. I makes me think that it may be that 2000 years of history does indeed make a society wise - at least in some ways.
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