The Christian Science Plaza now has a developer, and construction cranes will soon follow. Last week’s selection of Cambridge builder Carpenter & Co. as the plaza’s lead redeveloper marks a rare instance when a monumental urban renewal-style property will be dragged into the future by the High Spine, the dense building pattern that saved Boston from urban renewal. The redevelopment is a watershed moment for Boston, but it’s also likely to prove bittersweet. The city desperately needs to duplicate the type of work that will happen at the Christian Science Plaza, but it’s unlikely that will happen for some time to come.
The Christian Science Plaza distills a generation of Boston building into a 15-acre plot. It’s enormous, it’s encased in concrete, and it rose, by design, above the bones of the old, pre-war brick city. The 1960s-era plaza — a long reflecting pool, ringed by modernist office buildings — is a close cousin of the Government Center and West End urban renewal projects. These projects all tried to jump-start an economically listless city by paving under older structures in favor of sprawling concrete campuses.
Comments
The high spine also caused high winds. See the Prudential which had to be enclosed to be habitable. are Has anyone done a wind tunnel study of the effect of this project on the wind velocities and patterns in the area.
I'm excited to see a new building added to the skyline, but I completely agree with pnntfvr that a wind study must be done. That area is already hazardously windy, so hopefully some consideration is given to this issue.
The pool is a gathering place? When? I live across Huntington Ave. from it and walk through it nearly every day on the way to the stores on Mass. Avd. There are always a very people walking there--very few, most of them tourists taking pictures. I'm never very iompressed with McMorrow's articles, but this one is just stupid.