Building Types in Boston

Written by Jim Newman.

What resources do we put where to make the city more resilient?

Boston is an old city. Over 50% of Boston’s housing units were built before 1940 (MAPC, 2008, p . 3), with the highest proportion of pre-WWII housing among the major cities in the U.S. (Cox, 2013). Commercial buildings, on the other hand, saw a major surge of new construction after 1960 with over 25 million square feet added between 1960 and 1998.

The majority of buildings within the city are small-scale residential buildings. Large commercial and residential buildings are mostly clustered downtown, with mid-rise buildings distributed in neighborhood centers around the city.

The table below shows the distribution of building types, by total floor area in greater Boston.