Upon winning the prestigious Rotch Travelling Scholarship in 2008, Joshua Simoneau spent approximately one year in Western Europe, examining many of the world’s greatest cities. Building upon Louis Kahn’s notion that “the center is the cathedral of the city,” Joshua’s research focuses on how the city center should not only be accessible, allowing expression and an equal sense of belonging to all participants, but also be socially relevant, transcendental, and concerned with everyday life in matters of both the individual and collective group. This book illustrates Joshua’s investigation of European civic spaces and how lessons learned from these places might be applied to improve Boston’s civic realm.
