Chapter News Boston’s Christian Science Center between the 1936 Art Moderne collection of Texas Centennial Buildings at Fair Park, and the In 1964, the First Church of Christ Scientist distinctly modernist 1955 Old presented architects I.M. Pei and Araldo Cossuta Dallas Public Library, located just with the challenge of providing space, amenity four blocks away. The Temple is in and an intangible presence for the expansion of relatively good shape and is not their Mother Church complex, which had occu- immediately threatened. It was pied a part of this same site since 1898. With the put up for sale in 2006 at a price incipient completion of the adjacent Prudential of $3.6 million, perhaps reflecting Center complex, a commercial development that the decline in the fortunes and featured a 52-story tower and several apartment popularity of the Masonic fraterni- slab blocks set off from the street on a large ty. To date, the Temple remains in raised plaza, the “High Spine” development con- Freemasonry ownership, but that cept promulgated by planner Kevin Lynch and the sector of downtown Dallas is Boston Society of Architects seemed to be taking attracting much new develop- off. The Prudential was to be the first of a series ment. Concerned preservationists, of skyscrapers that would stretch along Boylston including DOCOMOMO NTX, and Huntington Streets, defining Boston’s skyline. will be closely monitoring future It became apparent to Pei and Cossuta that the developments in and around the dome of the 1908 Mother Church would no Temple. longer be a commanding presence on the Boston DOCOMOMO NTX’s next event skyline. They responded by persuading the is a tour of mid-century modern Church to do something out of the financial religious churches and temples reach of a commercial developer. They would designed by several of North “command the ground plane” and construct Texas’ earliest modernists. The the great plaza around which the new Christian tour is planned for late winter or Science Center evolved. Boston’s Christian Science Center, Boston, MA. early spring of 2008. (Photo courtesy of Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, Architects) High Court at Chandigarh, that defines the north —Robert Meckfessel side of the plaza. At the southwest corner, the sweeping curve of the Sunday School redirects the thrust of the space of the reflecting pool out WEWA into the reconfigured forecourt of the Mother Church as it is presented to the open space along DOCOMOMO WEWA’s advocacy Massachusetts Avenue. There, it is firmly efforts in late 2007 culminated at bounded by the long slab of the Church Park an important meeting of the Apartments, designed by The Architects Seattle Landmarks Board on Collaborative (TAC), which were also a component January 2, 2008 with the designa- of the original Master Plan. tion of the Norton Building and The CSC is one of the most striking and the nomination of the Manning’s successful modernist urban complexes in the Cafeteria Building. Aerial view of Christian Science Center, Boston, MA. world. As the Church embarks on a new master In 2007, parked by a zoning (Photo courtesy of Alex MacLean, Landslides) plan for the adaptive use of some of the buildings resolution to allow taller buildings and the development of the Plaza, it will be in the commercial core, the City This great gesture was described by Cossutta imperative that the character and dignity of this of Seattle released the results of as the “heart and soul” of the project. The quiet, complex be properly maintained. The Church is a historic inventory of downtown dignified but unabashedly monumental urban well aware of the unique quality of this heritage buildings eligible for landmark complex of the Christian Science Center (CSC) and has come out in supporting of the proposed status. One of the first buildings stretches from Copley Square to Symphony Hall. landmark designation of the complex. Still, it will to be considered was one of the Featuring a long reflecting pool at the center of be important that the City of Boston, advocacy city’s most prominent Modern the space and a planted terrace to the south, it organizations like DOCOMOMO, and everyone aluminum and glass curtain-wall creates a cohesive and dignified identity for the concerned with the future of one of Boston’s skyscrapers. The Norton Building, Christian Science Church, mitigates the insensi- most distinguished works of mid-twentieth built in 1958, was designed by tive urban boundary of the Prudential Center, and century urbanism be alert to the unique and SOM and local architects Bindon knits together older monumental structures such delicate qualities of this ensemble. With vigilance & Wright and represents an as the Christian Science Mother Church and we can ensure it that it will remain a its future as important shift in the design of Publishing House, and the adjacent Horticultural a great urban complex and a link to the best of commercial real estate in Seattle. Hall. Through these moves, the CSC establishes Boston’s modernist heritage. Acting on the support of a strong sense of place at the intricate complex DOCOMOMO WEWA, the board urban juncture of the Fenway, Back Bay and —David Fixler, AIA nominated the Norton Building South End. The buildings themselves are com- in the autumn of 2007 and was posed in a classic modernist dynamic asymmetry, unanimously designated on with the strong vertical slab of the Administration January 2nd. Tower (the Center’s own small contribution to the High Spine) serving as a counterpoint to the Library or Colonnade, inspired by LeCorbusier’s

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