Evolution of the Prudential Center: 1954-1989

MIT museum seems to have recently digitized some of their Carr Lynch Hack & Sandell collection (including the PruPAC-era design concepts)

https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collectio...ers[1][field]=hasImage&filters[1][value]=true

prusouthgardenconcept.jpg
 
^^ There is SO MUCH in that collection... 138 images to be exact. It's like every bit of visual documentation from circa 1980-2000. What a great find!
 
One of these days an image of the 1993 Huntington Arcade will turn up (never has something so mundane been so mysterious and interesting to me)
 
That collection is a trip to refresh my memory of so many stores that have long departed the Pru mall. I wish there was a collection of mall directories covering its whole evolution.
 
Welp, there goes my morning. The photos from the mid-90s hit me right in the nostalgia - The Warner Brothers Store! Software Etc.! It's probably a function of my age and when I grew up, but I love these PoMo malls. I know people mock them, I know they're so overdesigned and pompous, but they were also such inviting and intriguing spaces. To see the transformation from this banality to the palace it became is utterly incredible, and it's a shame malls like Copley Place seem to have gone backwards in that regard. That one night render is so incredibly atmospheric. That's what we need more of to sell people on projects.
 
Just wanted to share a very small slice of what's available in this amazing collection. Let's start pre-renovation in the 1970s

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^ v Both the above and below shots showed things new to me... I never knew there were such big stairs on the Pru's west side or seen the modernist T headhouses on Huntington

54611087135_4d5f6eaecc_o.jpg


Late '80s renderings

54609906967_c7dba59502_o.jpg


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The South Plaza circa 1989

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And now 1993 with the Shops newly opened

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54609906977_9d3a6d5313_o.jpg


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If you liked this and haven't clicked the link already, then do yourself a favor and spend some time wandering through here: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collectio...ers[1][field]=hasImage&filters[1][value]=true
 
The original modernist Pru was designed without regard for the climate. It was a wasteland during anything other than spring or fall.
 
If anyone can pull up the original Thomas Crowne Affair, there are shots of the then two year old steps between the mall and an outdoor mezzanine l
kz1000ps said:
Just wanted to share a very small slice of what's available in this amazing collection. Let's start pre-renovation in the 1970s

54609907012_2427caa2b9_o.jpg


54610983514_73bac8809e_o.jpg


^ v Both the above and below shots showed things new to me... I never knew there were such big stairs on the Pru's west side or seen the modernist T headhouses on Huntington

54611087135_4d5f6eaecc_o.jpg


Late '80s renderings

54609906967_c7dba59502_o.jpg


54610996413_d1d762ce16_o.jpg


The South Plaza circa 1989

54611087065_2fbf1a2277_o.jpg


And now 1993 with the Shops newly opened

54610983479_c01e162140_o.jpg


54609906977_9d3a6d5313_o.jpg


54609906917_c245271585_o.jpg


If you liked this and haven't clicked the link already, then do yourself a favor and spend some time wandering through here: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collectio...ers[1][field]=hasImage&filters[1][value]=true
Click to expand...
Huge steps. If you watch the first Thomas Crown Affair, there are shots from the mall level up to this outdoor second level roughly where the Vineyard Vines store is now.
 
My favorite thing in the old Pru was Bank of New England in their branch had a very big original Salvador Dali painting. It was gone soon after the FDIC got the keys to the bank circa 1991.
 
squidman1 said:
MIT museum seems to have recently digitized some of their Carr Lynch Hack & Sandell collection (including the PruPAC-era design concepts)

https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collectio...ers[1][field]=hasImage&filters[1][value]=true

View attachment 64057
Click to expand...
Wow Ive never seen this super duper pomo version of 111 huntington with the pyramid on the roof! What a cool find. Its crazy all of the different possibilities that each skyline could have been compared to what they end up as. This would have given a completely different feel to the back bay skyline compared to what we got. The pyramid crown is always a great addition to a skyline, but the tower overall is much less iconic than what we got. Much more dallas or houston. Very cool to wonder what if with stuff like this.

IMG_2908.jpeg
 
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Anyone know when the South Garden / Plaza was refinished into its pre-111 Huntington form, as seen in the ~1989 photo above?
 
Arenacale said:
To see the transformation from this banality ...
Click to expand...

Oh, I remember that banality well. I worked at 101 Huntington in the 1980s. It really wasn't that bad -- in some corridors the ceiling panels were painted orange.

Another memory: Scenes from Spenser: For Hire were filmed at 101. One afternoon I and others looked out the 6th floor windows to see a crew filming Robert Urich driving his dark green Mustang into the drive outside 101. When I was leaving 101 that day, Urich was filming a scene in 101's lobby.

Spenser: For Hire is a good series to watch if you like to see old scenes from Boston. I view it, along with my 1980s memories of working in the Back Bay, as snapshots of the transition from "Dirty Old Boston" to where we are today.
 
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