The Back Bay Center

The Boston Back Bay Center was a proposed large development project proposed by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative in the Boston's Back Bay in 1953. The plan was proposed be built on the Boston and Albany Rail Yard. It was to contain four large office buildings, a shopping center, a convention hall, a hotel and a motel.[1] One key goal of the plan was to make the center accessible to the automobile, in order to make the site competitive with suburban shopping centers.[2] The initial project was ultimately prevented from moving forward because the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the railroad yards could not be considered "blighted" and that giving investors a tax concession for the project would have been an inappropriate use of public money for private development.[3] Before Prudential purchased the air rights to the parcel in 1957,[4] they consulted with the Back Bay Center designers, but decided to hire Charles Luckman to design Prudential Center instead.[5] A tax concession was ultimately achieved through legislation in 1960[6] that extended the power of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to contain the planning function. The BRA declared the rail yards, now abandoned, to be a blighted area, and Prudential was able to develop the site with a tax concession.[7][8][9]

References
  1. Bogner, Walter J (22 May 2015). "The Boston Back Bay Center Project - General Description". Journal of Architectural Education. 10: 40–43. doi:10.1080/10464883.1955.11102350.
  2. Rubin, Elihu (2012). Insuring the city : the Prudential Center and the postwar urban landscape. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. pp. 167–171. ISBN 978-0-300-17018-4. OCLC 756377538.
  3. Rubin, Elihu (2012). Insuring the city : the Prudential Center and the postwar urban landscape. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. pp. 118–121. ISBN 978-0-300-17018-4. OCLC 756377538.
  4. Rubin, Elihu (2012). Insuring the city : the Prudential Center and the postwar urban landscape. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-300-17018-4. OCLC 756377538.
  5. Rubin, Elihu (2012). Insuring the city : the Prudential Center and the postwar urban landscape. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0-300-17018-4. OCLC 756377538.
  6. Massachusetts (1960). "1960 Chap. 0652. An Act Concerning The Development Or Redevelopment of Blighted Open Areas, Decadent Areas And Substandard Areas By Urban Redevelopment Corporations With Special Provisions For Projects In The City Of Boston". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Kennedy, Lawrence W. (1992). Planning the city upon a hill : Boston since 1630. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 171–173. ISBN 0-585-25122-3. OCLC 45729909.
  8. O'Connor, Thomas H. (1995). Building a new boston : politics and urban renewal, 1950-1970. Boston: Northeastern Univ Press. pp. 173–178. ISBN 1555532462. OCLC 1244514743.
  9. Rubin, Elihu (2012). Insuring the city : the Prudential Center and the postwar urban landscape. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17018-4. OCLC 805661168.

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