Boston’s Second-Annual Architecture Festival Is This Weekend

Photos courtesy of Common Boston

Boston’s hodgepodge of architectural styles—Brutalist, Federal, old, new—is worth celebrating every day, but this weekend, Boston architecture gets its own festival. Common Boston 2017, the city’s second-annual architecture and design celebration, will open an eclectic mix of buildings for tours on June 3 and 4.

Hosted by the Boston Society of Architects, the open-house-style festival is meant to encourage Bostonians (and tourists!) to think about why design matters, and to shed light on some of the Greater Boston’s hidden architectural gems.

Common Boston will provide unrestricted access to dozens of architecturally, culturally, and historically significant buildings in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline. More than 50 sites will be open for visitors to explore, ranging from 300-year-old homes and rooftop gardens to sleek, modern buildings and sacred spaces. Don’t miss Commonwealth Avenue’s Ayer Mansion, the Le Corbusier-designed Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard, Trinity Church, and more. You can check out a handy map of all of the sites—conveniently color-coded by category—here.

All of Common Boston’s events are free and open to the public, except for the festival’s launch party on June 2. Dubbed the “dParty,” the Friday night festivity will celebrate all things design at BSA Space, complete with utopian dreamscapes and an inflatable lounge courtesy of The New Inflatable Movement exhibition that’s on display. Tickets for the dParty are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

The weekend festival is set up in an open house format, meaning dozens of venues are open at once. See the calendar here, and start making a list of the places you’ve been meaning to check out.

Common Boston 2017, June 3 and 4, times and schedules vary, see commonboston.org for more information. dParty tickets are available here.