Boston is changing more rapidly than at any other time in the last century. Working at Boston’s planning and development review agency, I have a front seat to seeing these conversions; rapid growth causes strains in existing neighborhoods while simultaneously creating entirely new neighborhoods. An Evolving City provides a glimpse into these changes, juxtaposing what is being lost—auto shops, warehouses, and parking garages— with the uses, forms, and textures of new urban development.
Cuba is awash in color, whether it’s the well-cared antique cars, or the vibrant paint on both well maintained and deteriorating buildings.
While the Arkansas River still flows by and trains still run through the heart of this Arkansas Delta city, Pine Bluff is a city for whom the “new south” has passed it by. The population peaked in the mid-1970s at over 57,000, but now the population is in free-fall, having declined to under 43,000 today.
The city’s downtown has felt the brunt of this decline and is now virtually abandoned. While attempts to revive the area are visible, there appears to be no way to truly revive this southern town.
While black and white photos would have highlighted the grittiness of the area, I use color to accentuate that this is the Pine Bluff of today, not the past.
Boston played an important role in “Brutalist” architecture. In 2015, the book Heroic highlighted these Boston buildings, seeking to reclaim these buildings from criticism. While an important survey of this period, it failed to show how these buildings appear to us today.
My work is intended to show us that after fifty years. most of these buildings are still heroic.
