Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing was “an attack on public space,” writes architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. But that doesn’t mean we should respond by closing off the sidewalks and streets the bombers targeted.
Unlike the September 11, 2001 attacks, which targeted architecture itself, the Marathon bombs went after the city’s streets, what Louis Kahn called “room[s] of agreement.” If the long-term effects of Monday’s attack include reversing the contemporary revival of public space, the community-building aspects of urban space celebrated by Kahn and others will suffer damage.
“It is at times like these that the idea of the open, urban and democratic street . . . is more vulnerable and more valuable than ever,” Hawthorne argues.
Read the full story: Keeping the idea of city streets safe in Boston Marathon aftermath
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