boston’s back bay through diagram, dimension, & detail Ashley Sampson
University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation ARCH654 Urban Development and Design Theory 12.20.14
Back Bay
Boston, Massachusetts The Back Bay neighborhood is located on the north side of the Shawmut Peninsula along the Charles River, on what was once a shallow tidal bay. The neighborhood is laid out in a rigid gridiron street pattern with blocks running parallel to the river, and it is composed of over 450 acres of infill land taken from other parts of Boston and the surrounding area. The neighborhood was designed by Arthur Gilman in 1856 to be a fashionable new district for wealthy Bostonians. In that, and many other regards, it is a resounding success.[1] The 14-block area outlined in red is the main focus of this analysis. It is bounded by Stuart Street on the south, Exeter Street on the west, Clarendon Street on the east, and the Charles River on the north. At approximately 77 acres, this cross-section encompasses the full range of land uses and building types found in Back Bay, as well as the neighborhood’s three major public spaces: Copley Square, Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and the Charles River Esplanade. FIGURE GROUND
1 inch = 500 feet
Development Timeline
1835
1830
[Fig. 1] This 1835 map shows Boston prior to the filling of the Back Bay. Train tracks crisscross the bay.
[Fig. 2] This image from around 1830 depicts the Back Bay when it was a shallow tidal bay. For health reasons, the State threatened to take the land, spurring the City to develop a plan for the Bay. [2]
1872
[Fig. 3] This 1872 photograph of Commonwealth Avenue depicts the block-by-block filling and construction of Back Bay. Notice that the housing lots are significantly lower than street level. [Fig. 4] By 1910, the Charles River edge of Back Bay was made accessible by the construction of the Charles River Esplanade, which would go through many future changes. [3]
1893
1910
[Fig. 5] By 1893, most of the blocks had been filled with a mix of residential and commercial buildings.
1949
1970 [Fig. 7] By 1970, Storrow Drive (then an alignment for Route 1) was complete and the diagonal street Huntington Drive had been truncated to expand Copley Square.
[Fig. 6] This 1949 Arthur Shurcliff plan for the Charles River Esplanade was intended to expand the park farther into the River to compensate for land that would be taken by the Storrow Drive parkway along the river.
Design and Precedent Arthur Gilman, the architect who designed Back Bay, was reportedly strongly influenced by Haussmann’s plan for Paris, as he had spent some time in the city.[4] While a preliminary plan from 1852 does not bear a strong resemblance to Haussmann’s wide, straight boulevards such as the Champs Elysées, the final plan from 1864 clearly shows major diagonal streets in addition to a wide pedestrian boulevard down the middle of Commonwealth Avenue as the central organizing component. 1864 Plan
[Fig. 8] This 1852 plan lacks a pedestrian boulevard modeled after the Champs Elysées and instead has a large lake as the prominent feature of the plan.
[Fig. 9] By this 1864 plan, features such as the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and Copley Square had been introduced. The lake had thankfully been scrapped.
Champs Elysees, Paris
Regents Drive, London
1852 Plan
[Fig. 11] Back Bay centered around Commonwealth Avenue also resemble Regent Street in London. Although it lacks th pedestrian amenity, there are striking similarities in block geometry both were generated by large existing parks.
Back Bay, Boston
[Fig. 10] The Champs Elysées served as a precedent for Commonwealth Avenue.
[Fig. 12] Aerial view of Back Bay, centered on Commonwealth Avenue.
Density and Land Use Back Bay is composed primarily of large brick and brownstone attached townhouses along with a handful of medium and large multi-family buildings. Although the townhouses were originally single-family homes, many of them have been divided into apartments and small studios, giving the perception of a lower population density. On the contrary, the neighborhood is very high density*: SITE DENSITY = 340 ppa | NET DENSITY = 150 ppa | GROSS DENSITY = 42 ppa Streets comprise the largest percentage of land use in Back Bay due to the densely gridded street pattern; however, green space accounts for 18%, a large percentage considering the very urban nature of the neighborhood. Residences are concentrated in the northern part of the neighborhood, while commercial and civic uses are found predominantly around Copley Square. LAND USE MIX 4% 5% 6% 10%
13%
18%
[Fig. 13] A typical Back Bay residence.
[Fig. 14] Some parcels were redeveloped during the 20th century to build large apartment buildings.
45%
1 inch = 500 feet Residential Commercial Mixed Use Institutional/Civic
Green Space Water Streets Structured Parking
[Fig. 15] Lower-level accessory apartments contain “hidden” density.
* Population density was estimated using a figure of 700 square feet of gross residential building floor area per person based on similar estimations for Manhattan. A summary of the density calculations is at the end of the report.
Blocks and Streets Back Bay has a gridded street pattern that is generated by the adjacent Charles River and the edge of the Public Garden. The most common street in the cross-section is 300’ by 600’, which provides for a variety of uses, including the urban fabric of townhouses, apartments, and retail, as well as city monuments such as Boston Public Library, the John Hancock Tower, and Trinity Church.
STREET HIERARCHY
[Fig. 16] Further increasing the density of intersections, the large blocks are bisected by narrow service alleyways that are now used for parking.
BLOCK SIZE
1 inch = 750 feet
Primary
1 inch = 750 feet
300’ x 600’
325’ x 600’
325’ x 680’
200’ x 500’
Secondary
Local
Pedestrian
[Fig. 17] Storrow Drive is an abrupt edge to the neighborhood. No buildings front onto the street because the bay was an awful smelling marsh until after construction was complete. Pedestrians are funelled onto two widely-spaced bridges to cross over to the park.
Buildings and Parcels
PARCEL WIDTH
There is a large amount of variety in both building height and parcel width in Back Bay. Building heights generally follow an exponential curve, being somewhat similar in size towards the River, then increasing exponentially as you reach Boylston Street and continue further south. The John Hancock Tower, at 790 feet, is seen throughout the neighborhood, offering an interesting contrast of architectural style and aeshetic. Parcels vary in width within blocks, with the widest parcels typically occupying the corners. These larger blocks, seen in orange scattered throughout the residential area, do not appear to be associated with taller buildings. Conversely, it appears that the narrower lots tend to be taller, perhaps because the developers were compensating for a small parcel by adding another floor. In some cases, parcels and/or buildings have been combined to form larger units, indicating that this formula of long blocks with varied parcel sizes is adaptable to changing housing needs. Two examples are indicated with arrows. 7 - 30’ 31 - 50’ 51 - 80’
BUILDING HEIGHT
81 - 150’ 151 - 280’ 1 inch = 500 feet
0 - 30’ 31 - 60’ 61 - 100’
[Fig. 18] The picture on the left is from 1889, just after the
101 - 200’ completion of 184 Commonwealth, the first of two apartment
buildings that would later be connected to each other and the
1 inch = 500 feet
200 - 790’ house next door to form one large condiminum.[5] The house to the left has also been redeveloped into a condominium.
Newbury Street Multi-level commercial spaces along Newbury Street create a unique pedestrian experience with shops at, above, and below street level. It is an effect that is often generated in large suburban shopping malls and rarely in traditional “Main Street” settings. This unique contrast was made possible in Back Bay because the original lots were left below street level during the infill project. The success of these multi-level pedestrian spaces—in contrast to the failure of many mid-20th century models— may be due to their smaller scale, which creates a fine-grained texture of uses, and their close proximity to people on the sidewalk. [Fig. 19] A modern update to this store entrance below street level created space for a small plaza with a fountain, cafe tables, and a pedestrian underpass.
[Fig. 20] Elevation for a new lower-level store on Newbury Street.
STREET SECTION
[Fig. 21] Multiple levels of retail space create a high density of retail floor area per acre. As a result, there are more pedestrians than a typical one-level shopping street, which creates a vibrant and active streetscape.
10’
34’
25’
15’ Newbury Street cross-section showing varying upper and lower level building entrances.
Public Spaces COPLEY SQUARE Copley Square is Back Bay’s most iconic public space, yet its least successful. The square was bisected diagonally by Huntington Avenue until 1966, when the street was cut short at the southwest corner of the square. Because of this it can now be considered a traffic square, whereas it was originally constructed as a purely pedestrian square within the grid system. The shadow of the imposing glass and steel John Hancock Tower accenuates the darkly Gothic architecture of Trinity Church, creating an uncomfortable contrast with the harsh sunlight that floods the open space. [Fig. 22] Trinity Church in the shadows
1 inch = 500 feet
COMMONWEALTH AVENUE MALL Commonwealth Avenue Mall is a residential promenade fronted by the grandest and largest of Back Bay’s residences. Extending from the Public Garden to Back Bay Fens, it is a narrow link in the chain of green space through Boston called the ‘Emerald Necklace.’ Building face-to-building face, the Mall is 240 feet wide, with a 110-foot wide pedestrian refuge down the center. The tall buildings and trees successfully overcome the massive street width to create a sense of enclosure.
1 inch = 500 feet
[Fig. 23] Commonwealth Avenue Mall is a lush linear residential park with mature trees that create a two-fold sense of enclosure on the street.
CHARLES RIVER ESPLANADE Back Bay’s second linear park, the Charles River Esplanade, is a less formally landscaped space than either the Mall or Copley Square, which is reflective of its later origins at the turn of the 20th century. The park provides a space for active as well as passive recreation with its many paths and benches offering grand vistas across the river to Cambridge. Although part of Back Bay, the park is separated from it by a multi-lane highway, effectively limiting its contribution to the public realm.
1 inch = 500 feet
[Fig. 24] The Lagoon at Charles River Esplanade is home to an abundance e of wildlife.
REFERENCES Endnotes
1. City of Boston. “Back Bay.” <http://www.cityofboston.gov/landmarks/historic/backbay.asp>. 2. “Filling The Back Bay 1820 - 1870.” iBoston.org. <http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=backBayFilled>. 3. Library of American Landscape History. “Boston’s Charles River Esplanade.” <http://lalh.org/bostons-charles-river-esplanade/>. 4. City of Boston. “Back Bay.” <http://www.cityofboston.gov/landmarks/historic/backbay.asp>. 5. Back Bay Houses. “184-188 Commonwealth.” <http://backbayhouses.org/184-188-commonwealth/>
Figures
1. Boynton, George W. Plan of Boston with parts of the adjacent towns [map]. “Boston Public Library.” 1835. <http://maps.bpl.org/id/10946>. 2. “Filling The Back Bay 1820 - 1870.” iBoston.org. <http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=backBayFilled>. 3. Coviello, David. “Boston’s Back Bay (Part 1).” < http://www.davidcoviello.com/bostons-back-baypart-1/>. 4. Library of American Landscape History. “Boston’s Charles River Esplanade.” <http://lalh.org/bostons-charles-river-esplanade/>. 5. U.S. Geological Survey. Massachusetts Boston Sheet [map]. “USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer.” 1893. 6. Berg, Shary Page. “Cultural Landscape Report: The Esplanade, Boston, Massachusetts.” April 2007. 7. U.S. Geological Survey. Boston South Quadrangle [map]. “USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer.” 1970. 8. Tappan and Bradford. Plan presented to the honble. the State Commissioners for the improvement of the Back Bay [map]. “Boston Public Library.” 1852. <http://maps.bpl.org/id/12652 >. 9. Boston (Mass.). Back Bay Commissioners. Plan of lands on the Back Bay belonging to the Boston Water Power Co., the Commonwealth and other parthies [sic.], showing the system of streets, grades and sewers as laid out and recommended by the Back Bay Commissioners [map]. “Boston Public Library.” 1864. < http://maps.bpl.org/id/12676>. 10. Google Earth, “Regent Drive, London.” 2014. 11. Google Earth, “Champs Elysees, Paris.” 2014. 12. Google Earth. “Back Bay, Boston.” 2014. 13. Photo by Ashley Sampson 14. Photo by Ashley Sampson 15. Photo by Ashley Sampson 16. Photo by Ashley Sampson 17. Photo by Ashley Sampson 18. Back Bay Houses. “184-188 Commonwealth.” <http://backbayhouses.org/184-188-commonwealth/> 19. Photo by Ashley Sampson 20. Xchange Architects. Springing Forward on Newbury Street: Wich!t Sandwich. April 11, 2013. <https:// xchangearchitects.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/springing-back-on-newbury-street-wicht-sandwich/>. 21. Photo by Ashley Sampson 22. Photo by Ashley Sampson 23. Photo by Ashley Sampson 24. Photo by Ashley Sampson
Cover photo by Ashley Sampson
Density Calculations
1. Population of the district was estimated using building-level GIS data from the City of Boston. Residential building footprint area was multiplied by the estimated number of floors (based on building heights and using 12 feet per floor) to get a total residential square footage. This was divided by 700, an estimate of the gross square feet of living space of a person in Manhattan (http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/livingspace-working-space-and.html). 2. Site density was calculated by converting the sum of the area of the residential building footprints to acres. The total population was divided by the resulting site area. 3. Net density was estimated by summing the area of the residential parcels and adding an estimate of the area of the local streets based on GIS data. The total population was divided by the resulting area. 4. Gross density was calculated by divided the total area of the cross-section by the total population.