Copley Square

The Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. He was named after the portrait painter John Singleton Copley, who donated the land to the city for construction of the space available. A created by sculptor Lewis Cohen bronze statue of Copley stands at the northern end of the square. In the immediate vicinity of the place annually ends of the Boston Marathon.

Boundaries and history

According to the historian Douglass Shand - Tucci the look of Victorian Copley Square by the Brahmins of Boston from 1865 to 1915 was largely determined to create an agora of Arts and Sciences as well as of faith and learning in the New World.

The development began with the founding of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) on the site of the Copley Square and was continued with the establishment of the Museum of Fine Arts, the New England Museum of Natural History ( now the Museum of Science), the Trinity Church, the Old South Church, Boston Public Library, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art ) and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf. In later years, the Boston University followed, Emerson College and Northeastern University. Thus, the Copley Square was the center of Boston's educational system, which was an important part of the intellectual capital of the entire United States in the 20th century.

The square is bounded by Boylston Street to the north, the Clarendon Street to the east, St James Street in the south and the Dartmouth Street to the west. The land was created by the embankment of the Back Bay Fens in 1858. Originally was the Huntington Avenue diagonally from southwest to northeast across the square. The Museum of Fine Arts was located on the south side of what is now the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel is located. The creation of the MIT buildings stood on the northeast corner until 1916, the Institute moved to its new campus in Cambridge.

In 1966, the Huntington Avenue at the corner of Dartmouth Street / St. James Avenue capped, and the present form of the square began to take shape. For this, the entire area was paved to lowered about 3.7 m and added a pyramidal fountain sculpture.

In 1983, the public dissatisfaction about the lack of green spaces and lines of sight had become so great that the Copley Square Centennial Committee was formed. In a series of public meetings and seminars, design guidelines for a new park were established. 1989, a nationwide competition was organized and today's design chosen as the winner. As early as 1991, the new Copley Square Park was officially opened. A year later the committee was re-established as Friends of Copley Square and has since worked as a nonprofit organization that is funded by donations and the green areas, fountains, monuments and statues in the square cares.

Architecture

The Copley Square is probably the only place where architectural works of the world-class styles of Gothic Revival, Revolution architecture and new construction are gathered. In particular, the Trinity Church and Boston Public Library are likely to form the most famous confrontation in the history of American architecture. The following are the attractions at Copley Square are listed in chronological order.

• The 1873 completed Old South Church was designed by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T. Sears in the Venetian Gothic style, the essential of John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) was developed. The building is a National Historic Landmark.
• The built in 1874 Chauncy Hall School was a high brick Victorian building with tall gables and stood until 1908 on Boylston Street near the Dartmouth Street. The grammar school was founded in 1828 by Gideon Thayer for boys was founded in 1971 with the former girls' school in Chapel Hill for today's Chapel Hill - Chauncy Hall School merged and settled in Waltham.
• 1876 ​​, designed by John Hubbard Sturgis and Charles Brigham Gothic Revival Museum of Fine Arts was completed. It was originally located on the south side of the square, but was demolished after the move into the district Fenway - Kenmore in 1910 to make room for the Copley Plaza Hotel.
• Only a year later, 1877, the completion of Henry Hobson Richardson -designed in the style of romanesque Trinity Church on the east side of the square. This building is registered as a National Historic Landmark.
• The built in 1887, S. S. Pierce Building was designed by Edwin S. Tobey and served as the company's headquarters SS Pierce & Co., which was founded in 1831 by Samuel Stillman Pierce. In 1958, the house was demolished to make room for a parking lot. Today the area is part of the shopping center Copley Place.
• 1895, the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library was completed on the west side of the square. The name goes back to the architect Charles Follen McKim, who designed it in the style of the Renaissance. In the history of American architecture of the 19th century, it competes only with the Capitol in Washington DC. The building is registered as a National Historic Landmark and shows remarkable detail work of John Singer Sargent, Edwin Austin Abbey, Puvis de Chavanne, Augustus Saint - Gaudens and Daniel Chester French.
• The Copley Plaza Hotel was completed in 1912 and designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh Beaux -Arts architecture. It stands on the site where formerly the Museum of Fine Arts has found.
• 1976, the John Hancock Tower was inaugurated as the seat of the company John Hancock Insurance. The building was designed by Henry N. Cobb, together with IM Pei founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The design is based on a suggestion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for a glass skyscraper in Berlin and is 60 stories high and is rotated with the narrow side to the place, so that he Trinity Church still overshadows neither the place itself. With 241 meters height, it is the tallest building in New England.
• The Postmodern Bostix kiosk of 1992 in the northwest corner of the square was designed by Graham Gund and based on the design of pavilions in Paris.

Farmer's Market

From mid-May until Tuesday before Thanksgiving held every Tuesday and Friday at the Copley Square farmer's market a place where farmers and other local food producers sell their goods in the morning of 11 clock to 18 clock in the evening. It sells mainly fruit, vegetables, spices, honey, baked goods, cheese, meat from producers in the area as well as garden plants and cut flowers. The market spreads over the southern, western and northern boundaries of the square.

Traffic

Directly under the square stops at Copley Green Line MBTA. In the nearby Back Bay Station MBTA Commuter Rail trains as well as the Orange Line can be reached. On the south side of the square, the MBTA bus routes 9, 10, 39, 55, 503 and 502

Photo gallery

The Chauncy Hall School, c.1881

Foundation stone laid at the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library on November 28, 1888

Copley Plaza, 1920

The Copley Square, 2005

The Trinity Church, 2007

The Hancock Tower, 2007