Post Office Square

Park Structures and Garage

Boston, Massachusetts

Size:
442,800 sf
1,400 parking spaces

Completion Dates:
Garage, 1990
Park, 1991

Construction Cost:
$50,000,000

Roles
Ellenzweig
Design Architect

The Halvorson Company
Landscape Architecture

Awards:
AIA New England Regional Council Design Award
AIA, Honor Award
ASLA Landmark Award
Boston Preservation Alliance Preservation Award
Boston Society of Architects, Harleston Parker Medal
Boston Society of Architects, Special Award for Infrastructure
Boston Society of Architects, Wilhelm Von Motke Award for Design Excellence
Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence

 

In the early 1990s, an ugly and intrusive parking garage in Boston’s financial district was replaced by a two-acre park with underground parking for 1,400 cars. Ellenzweig played a key role in this dramatic transformation, designing both the garage and the park structures, including a pavilion, café, garden trellis and automobile ramps.

The park pavilions recall traditional steel and glass greenhouses by using abundant glass, lattice-like window frames and steep copper roofs. Because the park would be viewed from surrounding office towers as well as from the street, great care was taken to integrate structures and setting. The brick and granite paving of the park continues as flooring in the café; granite curbs reappear as the bases of window walls. The same granite is used again in bench details and as columns supporting the long trellis that shades the park promenade.

The Post Office Square garage is 80 feet below the street, the deepest building excavation in Boston. Ellenzweig was responsible for designing ramps, stairs and ventilation shafts that would have minimal impact on the park. A major goal of this project was to extend the grace and elegance of the park into the garage, while providing easy access, clear orientation and a sense of security. The walls, ceilings and columns of the garage are painted white, with perimeter walls carefully lit to create a bright, appealing environment.

They pulled down a parking garage and put up paradise.

The Boston Globe

Boston