Site Visit 9: Tent City, Back Bay (Nov 2, 2007)

Interior Courtyard

What makes this site unique is the design approach and the site forces taken into consideration through the project. Due to its specific and critical position and orientation, the building addresses two very important aspects of the site - A bigger scale and monumental characteristics of the downtown Boston area on one side and the small scale community of the back bay on the other side.

Relation between John Hancock Tower and Tent City Building - Downtown Scale

From the outside part of the building and on the downtown area, the building feels and looks massive and tall, like many other buildings in the surroundings. This area is noisy, with lots of pedestrian and motorized traffic running through. The green and open space between the tent city building and the Copley Place, in front of back bay MBTA station is a very public space for leisure and public circulation.

As you walk around the tent city building you notice the stepping down of its volumes to address the small community characteristics. The whole space feels different, more quiet, less movement and with a somewhat pedestrian quality, although there is motorized traffic running through. The central interior courtyard space created by the shape of the building that is wrapped around the block (somewhat more open towards the smaller scale community), feels much more a private area for the residents of the tent city building and the adjacent residential buildings. You definitely don't feel as you are in the middle of the city, the noise is broken down by the many buffer zones created by the lines of trees and the building itself.

The landscape itself helps creating this reduction in scale. By having these many trees casting shadows on the courtyard creating a great, warm green space to be used by the residents, that is protected of the noisy and busy city downtown by the tallest portion of the tent city building itself with 6 stories high. The building itself acts as a visual and sound barrier between the downtown area and the smaller scale community.





This interior space creates a great leisure, relaxed and safe space within the city which many times is not available and hard to find or even design due to the many issues of being in the city center.