Copley Square

BarbaricManchurian said:
What's a "miss" about Copley Square now? And how would you improve it?
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I'd start by getting rid of that idiotic lawn. Then I would redesign the square to express it's original configuration, with Huntington running through to Boylston, thus restoring Trinity's very specific intended relationship with its site. I wouldn't necessarily open it to traffic, but the diagonal would be clearly expressed.
 
I don't know about completely getting rid of the lawn, but I agree it needs to at least be made smaller.

My idea would be to run a paved path down along Huntington's original right-of-way. Plant trees and put in street lamps along it so as to give it a defined, processional, and Important feel, load it up with benches and chess tables, and make sure it aligns with Huntington so it can be perfectly understood why it exists.

In the triangular space created in between the path and St. James Ave would go benches built into the sides of large planters, like what's along the south side of the Christian Science Center's pool, but with a healthy dose of trees too so as to make it shaded like the north side of Copley Square. That way the area would be a balanced mix between hardscape and vegetation, and would create enough of a barrier between the new path and the St. James Ave sidewalk to give each area separate characters without completely cutting them off from eachother. Also, this triangular semi-plaza would stretch further back towards Trinity Church so as to activate the much-too-vast plaza sitting at its front door.

The remaining part of the lawn would remain a lawn, having been reduced in size by about 40%.

picture2y.jpg
 
Anything done to Copley Square in the future should take into consideration two functions that its current configuration seems to serve well: the farmer's market, and live concerts.

I personally don't see a problem with the lawn. It is well used during warm weather.
 
Now that they've installed a new lawn and a sprinkler system to help maintain it properly, I think the park is perfect just as it is. Leave well enough alone.
 
Padre Mike said:
Forget the fence! I'm tired of skipping around the potholes on the Boylston St. sidewalk. Maybe the city is waiting for someone to break an ankle on the disintegrated triangular slate blocks some brilliant designer installed for "color and texture contrast" before they replace them with granite (more likely asphalt)?
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HOORAY, the rotting triangular pavers have been replaced with much better bluestone. Maybe someone was reading....
 
sidewalks said:
Now that they've installed a new lawn and a sprinkler system to help maintain it properly, I think the park is perfect just as it is. Leave well enough alone.
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agreed. Fix the Tremont Street edge of the common or the crumbling hardscape. Replace--patch, even--some of the 1940s asphalt in Franklin Park.
Put some curbcuts in along the Emerald Necklace bike trails. Build retail kiosks along the greenway.

Copley Square is one of the few public spaces in this city that doesn't need overhauling.
 
Copley Square's Boylston Street Side is Ugly, But Necessary
By John Keith
Patch contributor

Copley Square is the location of several beautiful, historic buildings, but the ugly stretch of stores and shops is where the traffic is.

This week, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens its brand new Arts of the America wing. The museum has been in its current 100 Huntington Ave. home since 1909 but spent its first 33 years located in a building on what is now the site of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, in Copley Square.

Three historic buildings are currently located around three sides of the square: Trinity Church, consecrated in 1877, the main branch of the Boston Public Library, completed in 1895, and the Copley Plaza Hotel, which opened in 1912.

The fourth side is another story. At the corners of Dartmouth and Boylston streets is a building that pretty much no one likes, the green building with Citizen's Bank at street-level. Further down there are several plain buildings where once stood Victorian-style townhouses. At Clarendon and Boylston streets are twin mid-rises that are by no means impressive.

This side square has always bothered people, and for good reason. Back in the late 1800's, there were several distinct buildings on this block, but, during the 20th-century, these were replaced by the existing, non-descript buildings.

People often wish that this side of the square would be replaced with a building of the same grandeur of the Boston Public Library or Trinity Church. However, the importance of this stretch, as-is, cannot be overstated. Without retail at street-level and small offices above, this side of the block would be as dead as the next block, the one between Clarendon and Berkeley streets.

While the buildings on the fourth side of the Square may not be aesthetically-pleasing, they matter. Citizens Bank, the CVS, the restaurants, even the liquor store, bring activity and movement where there would otherwise be none. (If you can avoid the annoying non-profit workers pleading for donations, it can almost be pleasant.)

Despite their distinction, the library and Trinity Church do little to generate traffic. The area in front of the library gets a fair amount of tourists taking photos, but most visitors enter through the Johnson wing on Boylston Street. Likewise, the Copley Plaza Hotel moved their main entrance onto Dartmouth Street. There are always people on tours taking photos of the Trinity Church, but once they get back on the bus there's little else going on. (The farmers' market inside the square gives it a new-found vibrancy; the critique here is on the borders, not the interior.)

Therefore, the responsibility for "urbanity" falls on the Boylston side. We can imagine a new block made up of one or two "significant" buildings, but there should always be retail shops and restaurants on at least the first floors. Too often we see "dead zones" in the city. We don't want one here.
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http://backbay.patch.com/articles/copley-squares-boylston-street-side-is-ugly-but-necessary

** Editor mistake: MFA is at 465 Huntington Ave, not 100 Huntington Ave.
 
An interesting answer to a question no one asked, with a tenuous MFA connection.
 
"Ugly stretch"? I think the only ugly buildings on that side of the square are the two closest to Clarendon St and maybe the CVS building, the ugliest, in my opinion, being that bland brick mid-rise, the second one in from Clarendon. The other buildings add a bit of variety. They remind me of books in a bookshelf. I even find the Citizens Bank to be fine. It's a product of its time and is not trying to mock the other buildings in the area, as the brick one at the other end of the block does. All-in-all I think that side, sans the two at the Clarendon end works well.
 
Copley Square from back in the day.

From the Boston Public Library flickr photostream.

5475895321_2af48b6de6.jpg
 
Ahhhh! No!

From the Boston Public Library flickr photostream.

5476491778_3017d06cb9.jpg
 
I think of all of the various incarnations of the Copley area -- I like the current one best

Perhaps it could use some fine tuning and then the Copley Place has much untapped potential but the Park and most of the surroundings are superb -- well OK the Johnson wing of the BPL needs de-bunker-ing!

And contrary to some's views I like the Minimalist isolation of the Hancock as it serves admirably to reflect the surroundings with constantly changing views depending on your location, time of day, weather, sky activity, etc.
 
I agree that the Square is very nice the way it is. A minor tweak would be a longer bus-stand along St. James. It's an important spot for transit and there's always (when I'm there waiting for a bus, at least) many more people than can fit under the little 9X5 glass structure.
 
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