In the 1990s work began on what one of the most ambitious urban engineering projects in history: the burying of Boston's highway system to free its historic center from traffic, shadows, and unsightliness. Dubbed the "big dig" and lasting nearly twenty years, this mammoth project recast downtown Boston, returning its historical streets to the sun and transforming a curving swath of land into one of the best urban parks in the country.

During this tour with an architectural historian, we will use the Big Dig as a lens to look deeper into the history of the city and trace its evolution from the 17th century to the present. This is very much a "built environment" walk, in which we'll look at buildings, streets, and the fabric of the city in order to "read" Boston's history, often hidden in overlooked details.

We will begin by discussing the legacy of English architectural and town planning ideals as manifested in the Old Massachusetts State House and Fanueil Hall, two fundamental monuments in Boston. From here we'll pass by other notable buildings, including Quincy Market, the Custom House, and the nearby warehouse buildings of the Boston Granite School, which together trace the city’s physical expansion along the shoreline. Using historical maps for reference, we'll look at how topography and layout of the city have influenced its present form. We will see how successive styles of commercial buildings narrate the city’s economic development during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.