CultureNOW - Boston Architectural College: Ashley Myer and Associates and Peter Vanderwarker

Boston Architectural College

Architect
Ashley Myer and Associates

Dates

Constructed, 1967

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Description

ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
"An old Newbury Street carriage house disappears to make way for the Boston Architectural Center in these two photos.

We can date the older photo to about 1964, because the Prudential Tower, rising in the background, is shown under construction. It looks at least slightly more interesting that way than it does today, in its finished state. The old carriage house in the left foreground is at the comer of Newbury and Hereford streets. It originally housed the horses, carriages, and grooms of one or more Back Bay households.

In 1967 a new building for the Boston Architectural Center, a night school of architecture, opened on the carriage house’s old site. Designed by the architectural firm of Ashley, Myer (now Arrowstreet), the BAC is an example of the architectural style known to historians as Brutalism, of which the most notable Boston example is the City Hall of 1968. Influenced by the late work of the French architect Le Corbusier, Brutalism enjoyed a vogue in the 1960s and left a legacy of ruggedly handsome, boldly sculpted buildings made, usually, out of solid concrete.

In 1977 the BAC’s west wall, which had been left blank and windowless because it was on a property line, was enlivened by a remarkable mural painted by New York artist Richard Haas. A delightful architectural fantasy, the mural has done more than anything else to make the BAC a Boston landmark. Last year the BAC grew once again, acquiring the small carriage house next door and converting it to classrooms.

The BAC began life in 1889 as a tiny atelier where members of the Boston Architectural Club gave drawing lessons to deserving youth. This fall it celebrates its 100th anniversary as an accredited school of more than 700 students, most of whom work days and study nights.

Standing in front of the BAC in the 1989 photo are three of its leaders: Bernard P. Spring, president (at left); Elsie Hurst, director of administration; and Archangelo Cascieri, who was graduated from the BAC in 1926 and has been the school’s dean for more than half its life."

-Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Newbury Street: Carriage Trade," Boston Globe, 24 September 1989

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Location

320 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115
United States

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