Untitled Document

Situated in Boston’s commercial spine, this transportation station serves both regional and local transportation needs, as a gateway for the City of Boston and as the hub of several residential areas. Because of its critical place in the transportation network and its transitional relationship to the commercial, institutional and residential districts, the station fulfills many needs.

The station's architectural image is intended to recall the grandeur and spaciousness of railroad stations of the past and create a noteworthy place to arrive and depart. Like its predecessors it celebrates the structural span of the hall. A sequence of curved wooden arches dominates the interiors and is highly visible from the streets through the large glass facades. The two entrances are linked by a concourse, which is flooded with daylight by tall glass block clerestories, and functions as the major organizing element for the estimated 58,000 patrons who use the station daily.

The lower parts of the perimeter walls containing the concourse, one of which follows the slight curvature of the railway tracks below, are of concrete and polychromatic brickwork. Springing from their corbelled brackets rise graceful laminated wooden arches supporting a lightweight roof. The smaller hypostyle hall of the waiting and ticket area with its massive columns invokes the opposite theme of heaviness and support.

The requirement of an exhaust vent for the railway tunnel below is translated into the twin form of a campanile clad in brick with a stone base and bench on Clarendon Street

	Situated in Boston’s commercial spine, this transportation station serves both regional and local transportation needs, as a gateway for the City of Boston and as the hub of several residential areas. Because of its critical place in the transportation network and its transitional relationship to the commercial, institutional and residential districts, the station fulfills many needs. The station's architectural image is intended to recall the grandeur and spaciousness of railroad stations of the past and create a noteworthy place to arrive and depart. Like its predecessors it celebrates the structural span of the hall. A sequence of curved wooden arches dominates the interiors and is highly visible from the streets through the large glass facades. The two entrances are linked by a concourse, which is flooded with daylight by tall glass block clerestories, and functions as the major organizing element for the estimated 58,000 patrons who use the station daily. The lower parts of the perimeter walls containing the concourse, one of which follows the slight curvature of the railway tracks below, are of concrete and polychromatic brickwork. Springing from their corbelled brackets rise graceful laminated wooden arches supporting a lightweight roof. The smaller hypostyle hall of the waiting and ticket area with its massive columns invokes the opposite theme of heaviness and support. The requirement of an exhaust vent for the railway tunnel below is translated into the twin form of a campanile clad in brick with a stone base and bench on Clarendon Street
	*Project Data* Completion Date: 1987 Total Area: 840,000 sf	Awards • Architectural Review, December 1989 • Special Mention, NE Regional AIA, 1988 • Architecture, December 1988 • Boston Business Journal, October 1988 • The Boston Globe, September 1988 • Design Award, NE Masonry Association,1987