The Walsh administration recently released a draft of its Imagine Boston 2030 master plan for the city. It’s basically an attempt to, well, imagine Boston 15 or so years on in terms of development, transportation, education, parks, etc.
That—and this post on sister site Curbed NY—got us thinking: Which newer properties in Boston will decades from now be considered landmarks of the city? The sort of emblematic creations that demand souvenir replicas sold at Logan and South Station? The kind that will seem like they’ve been there forever as part of the skyline and streetscape?
More importantly, the sort that will be looked upon as innovative or even ingenious down the road?
To kick-start the debate, here are a few recent additions we think might make our grandchildren and great-grandchildren think, “Yup, Boston.” Feel free to add your own in the comments section.
Millennium Tower
If people 70 or 80 years from now note Downtown Crossing’s Millennium Tower at all, it will likely be because they remember people telling them how the 685-foot, 442-unit condo spire drove Boston home prices to a whole other stratosphere.
They might also then note its multi-angled design (by New York’s Handel Architects), which fitted the tower into the streetscape of one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
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Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building
The “gleaming ... monument to contemporary urban architecture,” according to the Globe, will be considered a landmark decades from now because of said architecture, but also because its 2015 opening presaged a real estate renaissance for the surrounding Dudley Square area of Roxbury.
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Lawn on D
Boston’s population is only expected to swell during the 21st century amid the rising popularity of cities in general. Greenspace will be at a super-premium; and those in the early 22nd century will remember more kindly those cities that utilized every little bit available.
South Boston’s 2.7-acre Lawn on D will be seen as a pioneering public-private partnership to preserve and popularize an otherwise underutilized sward of the booming city.
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Boston Landing
Our descendants will hail the 15-acre Brighton development as a genius amalgam of urban development in the early 21st century.
The complex already includes a 250,000-square-foot headquarters for sneaker kingpin and lead developer New Balance; and will soon include flourishes such as a hotel, a practice rink for the Bruins, a practice center for the Celtics, and housing.
Plus, the development included the construction of a new commuter rail station. Subsequent generations will applaud such vision (and lament that no one thought to save the T before it broke down for good in November of 2052).
- Millennium Tower: the Ultimate Timeline for Boston's Tallest Residential Building [Curbed Boston]
- The Tower That Hopes to Remake Downtown Crossing [Curbed Boston]
- Is Dudley Square the Next South End? A Cafe May Tell All [Curbed Boston]
- 10 projects set to transform Boston [Curbed Boston]
- Boston real estate in 2017: the biggest question marks [Curbed Boston]