Exhibit Design

Building Blocks: Boston Stories from Urban Atlases

Exhibition Design Translating Historic Urban Atlases for Public Audiences

Building Blocks examines Boston’s urban transformation from the Civil War through World War II using historic urban atlases from the Leventhal Map & Education Center. Originally created for fire insurance and real estate, these maps document buildings, streets, and property at a granular scale. The exhibition pairs cartographic detail with archival objects and personal histories to make change visible at the level of blocks, buildings, and everyday life.

  • Summary

    Sole exhibition graphic designer and design lead

  • Studio

    Joelle Riffle

  • Collaborators

    Laura Schmidt (Guest Curator), Garrett Dash Nelson and Emily Bowe (LMEC), Print House (Fabricator)

  • Deliverables

    Exhibition graphic system, interpretive labels and wall text, maps and annotated graphics, timelines and object labels, spatial wayfinding and titles

  • Client

    The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library is one of the nation’s most significant centers for the public study of historical geography.
  • View the Project

Graphic design and coordination for a free exhibition at the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library. The exhibition examines how Boston’s built environment has changed over time through maps, atlases, and archival materials.

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CaptFlorida Ruffin Ridley appears throughout the exhibition as a recurring figure, anchoring the story of Boston’s development within Black history and lived experience.ion

The exhibition design system spans across labels on cases and large wall "canvasses" that contain information, objects, and media.

Circles, crops, and annotations highlight changes in blocks and buildings across time. Postcards, photographs, and ephemera extend the narrative beyond maps and place viewers within earlier versions of the city.

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The color system is drawn from the vivid blocks used in historic urban atlases, translating cartographic color into a contemporary exhibition palette.

Exhibition titling combines slab serif, condensed sans serif, and wide grotesque typefaces. The mix references typographic styles found in urban atlases across different periods

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