What Defines a 'Place'?

It's been more than 50 years since Boston's old West End was demolished, so why does the neighborhood still have its own newspaper, museum, and weekly gatherings?

1 minute read

January 13, 2012, 10:00 AM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Robert Campbell writes about this truly unique "place", and the myriad lessons it can provide for architects and city planners.

"We forget that to experience a building or a neighborhood richly, we need to hear it, smell it, taste it (even the air has a taste, a humidity, a temperature), touch it (as we move our hands over the rough surfaces of old buildings), and experience it spatially as we move through it. The old West End was a feast for all the senses."

"If the old West End was anything, it was such a memory palace. The tightly packed streets and buildings were rich with incident and detail. There were lots of hooks on which to hang your memories. The neighborhood's intricacy supplied a zillion clues. You didn't have to consciously memorize, of course. You couldn't help remembering."

Sunday, January 8, 2012 in The Boston Globe

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