Located in the heart of the historic Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, the Prudential Center Plaza is a new public space that creates an iconic landmark along Boylston Street. This urban plaza serves as the front door for the Prudential Tower and links to the Boston Common and Copley Square. The design is inspired by the wind patterns that flow through the site, highlighting the intensity of the wind with lighted wind vanes and “wind swept” granite planters. The CNC carved granite planter walls fluidly emerge from the plaza paving to create integral seating benches. The wind vanes rotate on a series of light columns that signal the intensity of the wind with changing colors that indicate the level of wind velocity turning the plaza into a living wind diagram. A grove of ginkgo trees and woodland groundcover planting provides a green screen between the busy street life and the interior plaza.
The mixed use commercial building that flanks the plaza was built as “the most sustainable building in Boston” featuring wind turbines that power the exterior lighted wind vanes. Amongst the grove of ginkgo trees within the planters, metal light columns are programmed to transform the plaza atmosphere by reacting to the site’s wind power in real time. Each column’s spiraling LED colors change with the wind intensity captured within the plaza. The mirrored wind vanes that top these columns point to the direction of the wind while reflecting light back down to the plaza’s paving surface.
This plaza has quickly become an icon for the Back Bay commercial district. The plaza is consistently programmed with many retail activities and events that bring the surrounding community to the site. Once an underutilized space, the new Prudential Center Plaza has become a public epicenter of retail, restaurant and activity.
View Original