The built environment is shaped by a city’s economics, culture and values. As these elements evolve, so must the built environment, creating a physical “strata” defining the periods of the city’s history.
In Boston in recent years, we have been fortunate to experience low unemployment, positive job growth and residents’ increasing desire to live downtown, which has allowed for the creation and absorption of more than 10,000 new units of housing and millions of square feet of new office, retail and lab buildings. In an era where new real estate is increasingly designed, engineered and traded as a commodity, we must consider what this period of growth will say about us.