Boston Walking Tour (for the next 70-degree December day)

Prof. Larry Vale 11.001J/4.250J December 2001

IF it ever reopens, you should start your walk at the Observatory of the John Hancock building, entered from the southeast corner of Copley Square (Green Line T to Copley).

Observe the layout of the city and get some real perspective on MIT; pick out the Back Bay and South End grids and the bikeways and parks of the SW corridor, follow the network of greenspace (Olmsted's "emerald necklace"), compare the present-day waterfront to the outline of the tiny original Shawmut peninsula; see the way that the expressway (I- 93) separates the city from its waterfront, and notice how many different highways converge from the north (and south) to help cause the congestion of the Central Artery going through Boston; notice that the observatory does not afford a full 360- degree view -- which parts of the city are excluded? (hint: it's not the places where wealthy white people live and tourists congregate).

1. Descend to Copley Square; observe the way the latest design of the square follows William H. Whyte's ideas about good plazas (sittable space, food, etc.), and interacts with the streets and buildings that surround it; think back to when Copley Square was initially designed at the end of the 19th century, as a new home for Boston cultural institutions, distant from the immigrant neighborhoods nearer the downtown.

Cross Boylston Street, and head East 2 blocks along it.

2. When you reach Berkeley Street, the scene should look familiar-- it's the beginning of the "Walk Around the Block" we took with slides near the beginning of the term. Notice what happened to the closed bank shown in the 1991 photo... Revisit the "clues" about urban development-- sidewalk widths and patterns, building styles, tree sizes, all those different kinds of street lights...

Go 1 block north on Berkeley to Newbury street intersection. What is it about the design of Newbury Street that makes it feel different form Boylston street?

Continue another block north to Comm. Ave, and turn right.

3. Observe how Comm. Ave is constructed to provide public, semi- public, semi-private, and private spaces, and how the variations-on-a-theme architecture adds visual interest within a coherent framework.

Continue on east along Comm. Ave., cross Arlington street, and enter the Public Garden.

1 4. Observe the sign at the Public Garden entrance; do the posted rules match up with the behavior you see? What is it about the design of the Public Garden that contributes to its ambiance? Gates? paths? bench locations? statuary? plantings?, fencing? warnings? tree types? etc. etc.

Continue across the bridge, and out the other side of the Public Garden onto Charles Street.

5. Look across to the Boston Common. How does it differ from the Public Garden in form and function and use?

Turn left, and walk along Charles Street to the north (don't miss the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture on your left).

Cross Beacon street (note the presence of the bar that inspired the one on "Cheers" and still gets a huge tourist following, even though Ted Danson's name is the only one that everyone knows...) Continue walking on Charles Street to the corner of Mt. Vernon St.

6. You're on the edge of Beacon Hill here. (A block or so to the left is the former firehouse where the MTV "Real World" Boston series was filmed.) Notice how the signage is carefully controlled here (even that of chain stores); it's an excellent example of design regulation in a historic district. A good chance for a coffee break...

Turn right on Mt. Vernon St. and go up the hill to Louisburg Square.

7. Louisburg Square is the classic set piece of early 18th century Boston, and only the residents of the townhouses around it get keys to the private park at the center (under those circumstances, would you ever actually use it, even if you lived there?...) Several famous 19th century American writers lived on the square (notice the plaques), and Senator John Kerry is a newer arrival.

Continue up Mount Vernon Street; notice the wrought iron work on the townhouses, and the carriage houses on the right (which are now pretty pricey residences themselves).

8. Mount Vernon street takes you right under the rear addition to the Massachusetts State House (talk about government buildings that would be vulnerable to terrorist attack!) The little park on the other side was developed only in the last few years to replace a parking lot, and marks the site of the former summit of Beacon Hill and the site of its "beacon"; once the state house was built in the 1790s, the whole section of Beacon Hill (which you have just walked through) was rapidly subjected to speculative development, and became the most desirable place in the city to live, instead of just its wild fringe.

Cross Bowdoin Street and head down Ashburton Place

2 9. You are now in the midst of a variety of government buildings, mostly state office buildings and courthouses (including the one where a lot of Ally McBeal is supposed to be set-- just to keep the theme of semi-relevant TV references coming...). This awkward route around the court house building at the terminus of Ashburton Place (try going counterclockwise)-- was supposed to be part of Kevin Lynch's "Walk to the Sea" concept, but it's pretty convoluted. On the other side of the Court House is Pemberton Square, pretty bleak, but it still gets a summertime lunch crowd.

Descend the stairs through the opening of the long curved concrete building to reach Cambridge Street.

10. From Cambridge Street, you get a view of the expanse of City Hall Plaza, which hopefully will be a vastly different vista in a few years. The urban designers said that they drew inspiration from the Piazza del Campo in Siena (where narrow alleyways emerge onto a memorable brick plaza with a major civic building), but the Italian 'prototype' doesn't have Cambridge Street in the way and has a completely different sense of enclosure and intimacy.

Look to your right down Court Street and you'll see the Old State House. Think of mid- 18th century Boston when this would have been a dominant force on the skyline, located at its major crossroads. Now it is dwarfed not only by the stone-clad buildings of a century ago that formed the scale of the city in 1900, but also the glass-clad towers of the 1980s that give a third scale-shift to this part of downtown.

Go down Court Street, turn right on Washington Street for a couple of blocks and then left on Milk Street until you reach Post Office Square.

11. Post Office Square, completed in the early 1990s, replaced a hideous 1950s above- ground parking garage with a park above a multi-level underground parking structure. This public- private partnership is seen by many as a conspicuously effective example of corporate leadership and fine design.

Head southeast down Congress Street across the Central Artery to Atlantic Avenue.

12. Like most areas in downtown Boston for the next few years, this is a good place to observe construction on the depressed Central Artery. Look across the Fort Point Channel to the new Federal Courthouse (and cross over to visit it if you have time). This part of South Boston (the Seaport/Convention Area) will be facing enormous development changes in the next decades.

Continue north along Atlantic Avenue until you reach the large arched entrance to Rowes Wharf.

13. The Rowes Wharf complex, completed in the mid-1980s, earns high marks for opening up public pedestrian access to the waterfront, and introducing a ferry/water shuttle terminal. The long-term goal is to have the entire harborfront publicly accessible

3 to pedestrians. Someday soon, perhaps, downtown Boston will really start to feel like its actually on the waterfront again.

Continue north along the water's edge; observe how hard it is to maintain contact with the harbor, as you try to go past the twin concrete Harbor Towers apartments (it's much better now than it used to be, but it still feels like one is intruding on 'private property'.

14. As you walk further north, you'll come to the wharf leading to the New England Aquarium; even if you don't go inside, the new outdoor pool at the new entrance is worth a look; the aquarium is scheduled for a major expansion on the harbor side.

15. Continue past/around/through the Marriott Long Wharf hotel, a rather crude 1980s version of the brick wharf buildings of 150 years earlier. You'll end up at Columbus Park (a creation of the early 1980s, after the development of Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market), with a nice view across the Harbor.

From Columbus Park, you could either continue along Atlantic Avenue into the North End or cross beneath the elevated Central Artery to the country's first festival market place (try to imagine how it will all fit together once the Artery is buried (but don't forget to think about the surface traffic that will still remain).

Time to eat, drink, shop, rest, or go home.

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