Copley Square (Trinity Church Plaza)

I end then in praise of small spaces. The multiplier effect is tremendous. It is not just the number of people using them, but the larger number who pass by and enjoy them vicariously, or even the larger number who feel better about the city center for knowledge of them. For a city, such places are priceless, whatever the cost. They are built of a set of basics and they are right in front of our noses. If we will look.

--William H. Whyte in the Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1979

 

Copley Square is a public space located in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street.

The plaza was known as Art Square until 1883, when it adopted the name of a renowned local painter, John Singleton Copley. Evidently, the square was intended to be the city's main cultural hub. The extent to which it has achieved this initial goal has been partly constrained for various reasons, but it has also managed to expand into a role that much better reflects the multifaceted dynamism of Boston's public activities.

The pages of this exhibition, which can be navigated using the links to the right, will analyze the plaza on three levels:

First, in "Plazas and Places," the role of plazas and open spaces in cities;

Second, in "Infinity Mirrors Between the Past and Present," a look into physical construction and reconstruction, and how a tight space can evolve over, iterate through, and integrate between centuries of architectural style and urban form;

and Third, in "People in the Landscape," a focus on what ultimately determines the viability and vitality of a public space: the people who are inclined to interact with the plaza.