Paul's House Diary

Hello and welcome to my House Diary! I’m Paul, and this is my blog, focused loosely on all things urban development–specifically in Boston. 

A few years back–like all of us–I realized I needed something other than drinking to distract me during COVID lockdowns. While I had a great apartment and a tried-and-true flatmate, I could see things getting dark fast if I didn’t find healthier distractions than the beer, wine and vodka we’d hoarded as soon as WFH turned into a long-term prospect. 

Unfortunately, for much of my 20s, drinking was my top hobby and pastime. I’d built a career in marketing that leveraged my training as a journalist, and I was already in the habit of hitting about 20K steps a day walking between my Fort Point office and apartment back in Brighton. But for a very long time, rather than go to the gym or engage with my intellectual interests, I’d found myself in a rhythm where if I wasn’t “on-the-clock,” I’d be with a drink–whether partying with friends or just reading a book.

While that way of being was never healthy or tenable, the pandemic literally gave me no choice but to clean up my act: There was no way I could just be drunk 24/7, as much as world events really tempted me. 

So I embarked on some soul searching, and with the pink haze of new sobriety all around me, took a hard look at the things that really brought me joy in life.

Turns out, those things all fell under the umbrella of “urban design.”

Lifelong (self-guided) education in urban planning

I’ve always been an architecture and design buff, going all the way back to following Skyscraperguy.com–a now defunct, Boston-focused architecture forum–back when I had braces and my only internet access was on the family desktop, circa 200ish.

On that website, a charismatic blogger would post regular “Photo of the Day’ updates of architectural highlights or construction in and around Greater Boston, while a forum he had built (which would eventually morph into the venerable ArchBoston.org) was the best source for construction and planning updates. As a native of the immediate Boston suburbs, visiting Skyscraperguy was a way to feel involved in ‘city living’ as I’d always imagined it; a bustling, evolving landscape that was more dynamic (and as I now realize, more accepting) than my suburban reality. 

Of course, there’s much to unpack in trying to root out the source of my life-long interest in urban design, but I think it was initially rooted in the inferiority complex that inherently nags at lots of native Bostonians. 

A version of the age-old “Why was New York City the center of everything when Boston is the Hub of the Universe?” question had me digging deep into the nascent internet to suss out where Boston stacked up on the world’s stage–initially a defensive exercise to prompt “well did you know?” sorts of rebuttals that were riddled with caveats, ala:

“Did you know the Hancock Building was the tallest glass tower in the world [when it was completed, and for about a year]?”

“Did you know when the Pru was finished it was the tallest building [outside of NYC, but just in the Western Hemisphere]?”

As Skyscraperguy faded and ArchBoston.org emerged in its wake, my interests became less about ‘chest thumping’ for The Hub’s tallest buildings (and longing for a supertall skyscraper proposal) and more about understanding why city living appealed to me and how cities evolve. 

I’m now in 36, and as my siblings can attest, I’ve been keeping tabs on Boston’s streets and skyline for almost 25 years–never missing an ArchBoston post or update, even at the height of my vodka-drenched 20s. What changed with the pandemic was my commitment to exploring this passion with clear eyes, and without my Boston bias.

Books, walks and Instagram

That’s when I created the Paul’s House Diary Instagram. As I would go on my masked walks during the pandemic, I started snapping pictures of the houses (and eventually all forms of architecture) that caught my visual interest.

Simultaneously, I’d make treks out to construction sites around the city to capture updates that I could post on Flickr and share with my fellow urban enthusiasts on ArchBoston.

Outside of my walks and camera, I also started buying lots of books, and filling my downtime with a crash-course on all things urban planning.

While picture posting has ebbed-and-flowed, my library has grown immensely, thanks in large part to Amazon recs (sorry!) but primarily to the Urban Studies shelves at the Brookline Booksmith. I ended up perusing all manner of textbook, data dump and even coffee table books on the subject.

On this blog, along with re-engaging with my photography of the built environment and providing updates on new construction and just a rolling roster of urban delights, I’m also going to share my recommendations and reviews of some of the great books I’ve read on urban planning. 

Much of this is for my own well-being–I’m a writer by training and trade, and am never happier than when I’m being productive. But I hope fellow urban enthusiasts will find this site and hopefully appreciate my perspective, if not my amateur photography.

I’m hoping to keep this exercise more consistent going forward than I have in the past, and ideally I won’t be the sole contributor here in the future (depending on what form this takes). 

Thanks for visiting and please reach out with any questions or inspiration!