an attempt to uncover the truth about September 11th 2001

M.I.T., Rotch Visual Collections

1.2 PROTO DEVELOPMENT

The BRA was established by Mayor John B. Hynes in 1957 as an offshoot of the Boston Housing Authority to implement Boston's urban renewal plans. Its first project, an industrial and commercial center in South Cove, was well received, but the second was a disaster. Redevelopment of the West End (see figure 1.2) "....brutally displaced people, disrupted neighborhoods and destroyed pleasing buildings, only to create a vast approximation of a battlefield in the center of the City."[3] Collins had inherited a BRA proposal for a Government Center adjacent to the West End Project, using private, city and state funds to replace Scollay Square.

Logue took eight months to transform his position, his agency and the Government Center Proposal. Government Center was to be the nucleus of the City's rebirth -- a project to capture the imagination of the City and restore the BRA's tarnished image. To enable the BRA to both plan and implement Boston's rebirth, the BRA and the City Planning Board were combined into one agency.

The Sixty State site was parceled between two urban renewal areas: about two thirds within Government Center and one third within the Waterfront. The boundary follows an irregular path through the block (see figure 1.3). [4] Occupying the extreme southeast corner of I.M. Pei's 1963 Government Center Plan, only modest renovation and new additions equal in scale and height to the existing buildings were proposed for the site. Pei's plan incorporated two path sequences which would exhibit historic Boston --the Freedom Trail and the Walk-to-the-Sea. The Walk-to-the-Sea would tie Bulfinch's State House to the Waterfront, highlighting historic buildings and new civic monuments.

Pei proposed an 80-foot-wide extension of City Hall plaza across Congress Street to carry both paths. Kallmann, McKinnell and Knowles' monumental, concrete New City Hall required changes in the Plaza design. The 80-foot-wide extension was reduced to a 60-foot-wide bridge, settling down abruptly into Dock Square (see figure 1.3).

Boston merchants had made their fears known concerning the abandonment of the downtown area by bankers, corporations, their lawyers and accountants. The BRA encouraged the development of large commercial buildings to replace and add to the downtown's antiquated office space. The Government Center Plan included one of Boston's earliest highrise skyscrapers, the New England Merchants Bank Building. Simple, taut and smooth, the Edward Barnes design aptly foils the crenelated complexity of the New City Hall, while maximizing rental space within the envelope.

Historic buildings were a crucial part of the Sixty State development context. The Old State House, Faneuil Hall, and Quincy Markets found new attention as citizens recognized their important cultural role in the midst of vast change. These landmark structures marked the original town center and symbolized the close proximity of merchant, banker and politician in Boston. The old State House and Faneuil Hall were to be renovated. The Quincy Markets were to be redeveloped for restaurant, shop and small office use. The area, likened to an urban Williamsburg, would be a living environment where the historic structures of the past continued to serve as Boston's market center. The adjacent Waterfront, then dilapidated and in disuse, was to be redeveloped to residential and recreational uses.

Bounded by New Congress Street, Faneuil Hall Square, Merchants' Row and State Street, the Sixty State site area contained a diverse group of 50 to 150- year-old structures (see figure 1.4). These privately-owned buildings included 50, 60, 70 and 84 State Street; the Sanborn Building; and structures on Faneuil Hall Square. Corn Court and Change Ave. (shown in figure 1.4), now alleyways, had fallen into disuse. Part of the cleared site of 40 State Street remained from the creation of New Congress Street (see figure 1.3). The State Street subway ran beside the buildings' foundations, with the "State" stop located on the ground floor of the Old State House. At the far end of the Quincy Markets lay the Central Artery, an elevated highway that cut off the area decisively from the sea. Progress on the heart of the Government Center redevelopment plan continued, but rejuvenation for the southeast corner seemed far away.

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