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Boston Design Center

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1918, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; 1988, Earl R. Flansburgh and Associates; 1996, Stubbins Associates/Interior Design Group. 1 Design Center Pl.
  • Boston Design Center (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)

Once a gigantic military warehouse, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the structure has been rehabilitated as the center for the design and furnishing industry of New England. Part of the renewal plan of the waterfront, the building dominates the Boston Marine Industrial Park. From a stylistic perspective, the huge structure incorporates every postmodern cliché—from the colossal Doric pilasters to the semi-circular lunette within the split triangular pediment. The interior reception spaces continue this luxurious decoration—a composite of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts—but the long exterior facades still bear the gridded brick masonry of the original warehouse.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Manulife Financial Corporation
Independence Square
New England Fish Pier
World Trade Center Boston (Commonwealth Pier Five)
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Boston Design Center", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-SB11.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 225-226.

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