Designed by Blake Middleton of Handel Architects and built on most of the site of the old Filene's store, the 685-foot spire opened in 2016 as the tallest residential building in Boston. The glassy tower's trapezoidal shape, including staggered facets like creases in paper, helped it blend with the original Filene's building next-door, allowing it to act as a kind of bridge between downtown Boston way back in the day and in the early 21st century.

The (deep breath) Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, One Dalton Street is supposed to be Boston's third-tallest tower when it opens in 2018 (it's under construction now). That will also make it the tallest building constructed in the city since 200 Clarendon opened in 1976. A kind of triangular shape and a translucent look will define the 742-foot tower, which Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Cambridge Seven Associates have designed.

The station reopened in March 2016 after a two-year, $82 million renovation. That renovation not only left it with better accessibility and ease of movement, but also set a precedent for how transit stops can (and should) look in the region's denser areas. First, the station’s outward appearance is striking in itself, especially against the drabber Government Center area around it. Second, HDR Inc. designed the station’s glassy head house to facilitate views of the Old North Church from certain points—altogether a neat way of moving people not only physically but aesthetically.

The 15.2-acre, under-construction, partially opened Boston Landing already has the look of a landmark, especially when seen from the Mass. Pike coming into Boston. That is because the main building of the 1.43 million-square-foot residential-office-retail-hotel-sports complex, which Elkus Manfredi designed, looks like a spaceship—a kind of futuristic vessel-in-place for a Boston heading into the 21st century, the way people used to design airport terminals when we all thought we’d be living on the moon by the year 2000.

Like Boston Landing, the multi-building, 1.5 million-square-foot Hub at Causeway on the site of the old Boston Garden is destined to serve as another gateway into Boston (it will look especially striking against the Zakim Bridge). Designed by Gensler, the residential-retail-office complex will also help revitalize a West End that an ill-fated attempt to eradicate urban blight undercut 50-plus years ago. Out with the old, in with the new.