"Dirty Old Boston"

parkave said:
Anybody have photos of what the Christian science plaza looked like before the I.M. Pei construction?
https://web.mit.edu/dayyash/www/thecity/site through time.html#:~:text=In 1887, the site was,development, for there were several.
This website is a good history of the site but there are no photos included
Click to expand...

This report has some photos, and maps.
Boston Landmarks Commission Study
Also;
A lot of the information about construction of the center appears to be archived by the Church in physical form so not much on line but I found a 1973 lawsuit against the Church and Others that listed all the Parcels that make up the surrounding area of the plaza. Link- Jones v. Lynn, 354 F. Supp. 433 (D. Mass. 1973) It looks like the Church bought up properties surrounding the original church site over a number of years prior to construction so I assume they purchased the Back Bay Theater at some point. It appears the church was responsible in part for the Colonnade Hotel and The Greenhouse apartments as well as the towers that flank Mass Ave at Huntington.
Excerpt
Parcel 11: An 11-story building has been constructed on this parcel by the United Company on land sold to it by the Church Realty Trust. The structure contains 508 units of housing, 515 closed parking spaces and approximately 60,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor level. This parcel is not subject to the relief sought by the plaintiffs in this action.

Found some picss
 

Attachments

  • Chickering Hall on Huntington Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue.jpg
    Chickering Hall on Huntington Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue.jpg
    169.6 KB · Views: 49
  • Huntington at mass ave 1950s.jpg
    Huntington at mass ave 1950s.jpg
    38.4 KB · Views: 44
  • mass ave at Clearway.png
    mass ave at Clearway.png
    514.5 KB · Views: 45
  • Mass Ave at Huntington.png
    Mass Ave at Huntington.png
    592.2 KB · Views: 45
  • mass ave block at the church.jpg
    mass ave block at the church.jpg
    360.2 KB · Views: 45
  • masss ave at St Stephan lower left.png
    masss ave at St Stephan lower left.png
    1.3 MB · Views: 47
  • original church at Norway and Falmouth.jpg
    original church at Norway and Falmouth.jpg
    212.1 KB · Views: 46
Last edited:
parkave said:
Anybody have photos of what the Christian science plaza looked like before the I.M. Pei construction?
https://web.mit.edu/dayyash/www/thecity/site through time.html#:~:text=In 1887, the site was,development, for there were several.
This website is a good history of the site but there are no photos included
Click to expand...
The maps here showing the reclaimed land over time in boston made me think of something I had never seen discussed or in any proposals before. We all know how much land has been reclaimed to get to where we are today, but does anybody know of any proposals that were in the works for more land reclamation that never got done?

Ive always wondered if there was ever any proposals to fill in the harbor around squantum in quincy between the scattered islands. There was already causeways created at some point from squantum to thompson island and moon island so if they had made a third causeway from thompson island to moon island it would have completely sealed off that large piece of harbor which could have then been filled in. You also have spectacle island and long island beyond them which could have created an even larger reclaimed land mass. This would have created a new landmass roughly equal in size to boston from downtown to the brookline border.

Outside of that theres not a ton of areas left that could have even been considered since mostly everything that could be filled in was. A few other options could have been the savin hill cove next to umass boston, dorchester bay basin next to savin hill, dorchester bay between the tank farm and umass boston creating a new neoponsit river bank, continuing south of that from the tank farm to neoponset/port norfolk. Besides that you have the winthrop passage around logan, the rumney marsh, belle isle marsh, and squantum marshes. Obviously none of this would fly today, but with how crazy they were going around the turn of the 20th century Id have to imagine some of these had to have been considered.
 
stick n move said:
The maps here showing the reclaimed land over time in boston made me think of something I had never seen discussed or in any proposals before. We all know how much land has been reclaimed to get to where we are today, but does anybody know of any proposals that were in the works for more land reclamation that never got done?

Ive always wondered if there was ever any proposals to fill in the harbor around squantum in quincy between the scattered islands. There was already causeways created at some point from squantum to thompson island and moon island so if they had made a third causeway from thompson island to moon island it would have completely sealed off that large piece of harbor which could have then been filled in. You also have spectacle island and long island beyond them which could have created an even larger reclaimed land mass. This would have created a new landmass roughly equal in size to boston from downtown to the brookline border.

Outside of that theres not a ton of areas left that could have even been considered since mostly everything that could be filled in was. A few other options could have been the savin hill cove next to umass boston, dorchester bay basin next to savin hill, dorchester bay between the tank farm and umass boston creating a new neoponsit river bank, continuing south of that from the tank farm to neoponset/port norfolk. Besides that you have the winthrop passage around logan, the rumney marsh, belle isle marsh, and squantum marshes. Obviously none of this would fly today, but with how crazy they were going around the turn of the 20th century Id have to imagine some of these had to have been considered.
Click to expand...
The only one I know of is the proposal for an island in the Charles River basin between the Back Bay and MIT.
 
Charlie_mta said:
The only one I know of is the proposal for an island in the Charles River basin between the Back Bay and MIT.
Click to expand...
Wow! Thats incredible, I had never heard about this before.

Some screenshots from the video.






This is probably my favorite proposal, this would have been an incredible neighborhood. Definitely has a very parisian feel to it.








Looking at stuff like this its interesting how reclamation projects across the us have been essentially stopped completely over the last half century. You had battery park city and sometimes people will propose extending manhattan, but it never goes anywhere. On the other hand looking at a country like china theyre doing the type of reclamation we did 100 years ago, today. Its pretty fun to watch big things like that still happening. Here there was an uproar over even putting a walkway out in the charles river by the throat even though the shoreline is 100% artificial. We went from one extreme to the other.

I wonder if there will ever be a time again in the future where we build big projects again. One of the most obvious and least invasive ones I can think of would be extending battery park city north up manhattan island. Maybe something like that will happen again. As far as boston land reclamation is what literally created the city, with climate change coming I wonder if there will be an appetite for some projects again.
 
Last edited:
stick n move said:
Wow! Thats incredible, I had never heard about this before.

Some screenshots from the video.






This is probably my favorite proposal, this would have been an incredible neighborhood. Definitely has a very parisian feel to it.








Looking at stuff like this its interesting how reclamation projects across the us have been essentially stopped completely over the last half century. You had battery park city and sometimes people will propose extending manhattan, but it never goes anywhere. On the other hand looking at a country like china theyre doing the type of reclamation we did 100 years ago, today. Its pretty fun to watch big things like that still happening. Here there was an uproar over even putting a walkway out in the charles river by the throat even though the shoreline is 100% artificial. We went from one extreme to the other.

I wonder if there will ever be a time again in the future where we build big projects again. One of the most obvious and least invasive ones I can think of would be extending battery park city north up manhattan island. Maybe something like that will happen again. As far as boston land reclamation is what literally created the city, with climate change coming I wonder if there will be an appetite for some projects again.
Click to expand...

Very obviously inspired by Ile de la Cite. Goddamn that would've been cool as hell.
 
BronsonShore said:
Very obviously inspired by Ile de la Cite. Goddamn that would've been cool as hell.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, especially since it was going to be an island taken up entirely by mit, it would have had some epic architecture. Judging by the mit main building which was built right after the island proposal didnt happen and the way that colleges are able to build entire campuses in their own style whether collegiate gothic or collegiate neoclassical it would have been probably one of the most stunning places in the entire city. Looking at the rendering you can imagine what that grand tree lined vista lined with neoclassical buildings would have looked like. I wish someone could model it today from street level that would be fun.

Imagine a boston today that hadnt demolished the west end, either didnt build city hall as it is or it was replaced by the proposal with the federal style domed brick building and italian style plaza/piazza, and had built this island in that neoclassical vision. Holy cow! This could have happened!
 
Last edited:
stick n move said:
Absolutely, especially since it was going to be an island taken up entirely by mit, it would have had some epic architecture. Judging by the mit main building which was built right after the island proposal didnt happen and the way that colleges are able to build entire campuses in their own style whether collegiate gothic or collegiate neoclassical it would have been probably one of the most stunning places in the entire city. Looking at the rendering you can imagine what that grand tree lined vista lined with neoclassical buildings would have looked like. I wish someone could model it today from street level that would be fun.

Imagine a boston today that hadnt demolished the west end, either didnt build city hall as it is or it was replaced by the proposal with the federal style domed brick building and italian style plaza/piazza, and had built this island in that neoclassical vision. Holy cow! This could have happened!
Click to expand...
I wish the island could be built today, but the strict environmental regs on filling into waterways would probably totally sink it (pun intended). Even just filling in the shoreline a few feet at the Throat area for the Mass Pike grounding proposal was problematic. For other projects, I worked on obtaining Army Corps 404 permits and on the related public/stakeholder involvement, and it is was extremely difficult to say the least.
 
Charlie_mta said:
I wish the island could be built today, but the strict environmental regs on filling into waterways would probably totally sink it (pun intended). Even just filling in the shoreline a few feet at the Throat area for the Mass Pike grounding proposal was problematic. For other projects, I worked on obtaining Army Corps 404 permits and on the related public/stakeholder involvement, and it is was extremely difficult to say the least.
Click to expand...
Yep and that shoreline is 100% artificial and created by fill and it was still a huge deal. Weve probably gone too far in the other direction on environmental regulations in some cases after how bad it got just like we did with zoning after urban renewal.
 
I forget that a little piece of Lincoln Square is (the surviving remnant of) Eliot Street.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top