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One of the joys of living in a modern city full of skyscrapers is to overlook it from a height. Now there are only two observation decks left in Boston. Here is a case where more rooms can be built.

On a warm day earlier this fall, I rode my bike away from home with a simple goal: to enjoy the view of Boston. After wandering around the corner of Cambridge for 18 months during the pandemic, I found myself longing for the connection and sense of place in the city, which can only be obtained by looking down at a city from a height.

More importantly, I have personally experienced that, just like looking at the scenery from the top of a mountain, standing above the hustle and bustle of the city, staring at the outside, has a calming and healing effect. Before moving to the Boston area, I worked for a magazine in New York, whose office was located in Building One of the World Trade Center. Whenever I need to get out of my rush to solve a problem, I go to the staff lounge on the 64th floor and look at the skyline and the distance, feeling my pulse steady and my breathing deepening.

Although I know that the observation deck of the Prudential Tower is closed due to renovations, I am not ready to accept the challenge of bird's eye view. Wow, I was wrong. I rode to Bunker Hill Monument, but upon arrival I immediately realized that I needed to come up with another plan. A group of tourists gathered at the bottom of the granite obelisk and read the sign of the National Park Service, which stated that the monument is still closed due to COVID concerns. I slid down the steep slopes of Monument Avenue and decided to cross the Charles River to try my luck in Boston's original skyscraper customs building.

When I arrived, I found that there were no signs promoting the viewing platform and no instructions on how to go upstairs. Frustrated, I approached the front desk and asked the clerk for help.

"Then do you have an appointment?"

"We pick up once a day at 2 o'clock, but you need to call ahead to reserve a place."

I checked the time and found that it was almost 3 in the afternoon. I stumbled back outside and checked the phone for other options, but apart from the closed Pru Skywalk, there is no observation deck in the town.

I failed, and I rode my bike back home. My route took me through some of the city’s recently built skyscrapers, including the Millennium Tower and Dalton One, which are 60 and 61 stories tall, respectively. What would I do to get an opinion from any of them, I thought to myself. More importantly, I want to know what is going on. After about ten years of unprecedented construction, in a place that likes to see itself as a new metropolis, there is hardly any decent viewing platform or place to view us. city ​​of?

A few weeks before I gave up my sightseeing trip, the Boston Globe reported that Jack Conners, an outstanding advertising guru and philanthropist, abandoned his office on the top of the Hancock Tower, the city’s tallest building, to carry out a new project on Newbury Street. Of mining. When I called him, Connors thoughtfully talked about the views his perches and floor-to-ceiling windows had long provided him. "You can see what's going on in this city," he recalled. "When a fire broke out, you were one of the first to see it. When the weather changed, you could see it coming in from the west."

In the past, every year thousands of people could appreciate the scenery that Connors remembered fondly, including seeing a city in motion from a height. But over time, the highest point in Boston changed from a public facility to the private domain of one of the most powerful people in the city.

When construction began in the 1960s, the observation deck was the main selling point of the Prudential Tower and Hancock Tower. These two popular destinations remained open until 9/11, when they were closed along with many other skyscrapers across the country due to security issues. Although Pru's Skywalk reopened in the weeks after 9/11, Hancock's never reopened. Instead, the building owner used it for private events and announced that it would be transformed into an office space.

By 2005, City Councillor John Tobin asked to know how this happened, claiming that the observation deck was a necessary prerequisite for the construction of Hancock in the first place. In response, the owner of the building blocked the media, other city officials shrugged, and Mayor Tom Menino pretended to be innocent, and later told reporters, "I didn't see the documents." Boston Planning and The current planning director of the Development Bureau (BPDA) Lauren Shurtleff (Lauren Shurtleff) said that her office has never found any documents proving that the building must have a public viewing platform. In this way, one of the most sublime sights of the city disappeared into the air.

Like other cities, the Boston skyline has undergone tremendous changes in the past two decades, but Boston may be the only city that has seen so many buildings without a new observatory.

The disappearance of the Hancock Observation Deck is even more disturbing because it has not been replaced by any new observatory. Like other cities, the Boston skyline has undergone tremendous changes in the past two decades, but Boston may be the only city that has seen so many buildings without a new observatory. For example, the Hudson Yards large-scale development in Manhattan launched "The Edge" in 2020, which is a glass-floored outdoor deck with up to 100 floors-in a city that already has quite a few high-rise buildings and public observation decks. The previous year, the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco opened up the highest floor on the West Coast for monthly visits. As Gary Johnson, president and CEO of the construction company CambridgeSeven, is refurbishing a historic 33-story tower, even New Orleans' relatively meager skyline will soon have an observatory. "When developers choose to use high-quality real estate for the public good," Johnson told me, "this is an incredible gift for this city."

However, it is not necessarily a gift. BPDA can stick to the observation deck, just like Hancock Tower should have done when it was approved-and make sure there is a written record to record it. In fact, Shurtleff assured me that the city is as keen on viewing platforms as I am. "Whenever a project passes (high-rise buildings)," she told me, "It's like,'Well, can you have an observation deck?'"

However, the answer is obviously no. Johnson is the architect of One Dalton, the city's third tallest building, which was completed in 2019 but does not have an observation deck. "I don't think we have ever talked about it," he told me, explaining that the tower occupies a small footprint and there is almost no space to install special elevators for visitors to climb to the top of the tower.

More controversial is the negotiation about the Winthrop Center, a two-tower complex near South Station, which is expected to reach 691 feet next year and become the fourth tallest building in Boston. The project site is owned by the municipal government, which means that BPDA has the ability to ensure that any project built can maximize public interest. The agency specifically requested the construction of a new observation deck in its request for proposals, and three of the six bids included one. Finally, BPDA chose Millennium Partners to develop the website. The plan for the millennium is not what the city calls an observation deck, but includes a "hall", a multi-storey corridor with high ceilings that will connect Devon and Federal Street and open to the public. Then in 2019, the "lobby" was changed to a "connector", the multi-story loft area disappeared from the plan, and the ceiling was lowered to a position closer to the ground. Instead of the observation deck of one of Boston's newest skyscrapers, we have a lobby that doubles as an entry point.

that's all. Every time a high-rise building is proposed, the city government will ask for an observatory, but when the developer says no, it won’t insist. Rinse and repeat for about ten years, and you will finally see our skyline, the highest of which is hardly open to the people who live here.

Boston's need for more observatories goes far beyond my and other residents' desire to experience the special connection and sense of environment that only a bird's eye view can provide. This is also about our identity as a city-no longer just a low, quaint, and historic town, but a stylish and modern metropolis. "Owning an iconic high-rise building lets you know that the city has reached the global stage," said Daniel Safarik, assistant director of research and thought leadership at the Chicago-based High-Rise Buildings and Urban Habitat Council. "An observatory is provided there to make visitors feel that they are part of the arrival."

Similarly, when a city loses an observatory like Hancock, it suffers more than the combined disappointment of residents and tourists who are isolated. Safarik said that the city itself was also affected, adding: “The Observation Deck is like any large private investment of civic significance. When a city loses a major league sports team, the city loses. [Recognition of its importance]. If you own an iconic building without a viewing platform, some aspects of the city will also be lost."

I also think that the observation deck can not only help people feel the connection with the city, but also help people establish a connection with the building itself. To be honest, the reason Pru is so popular in Boston is not because of its design problems. It's not because of the mall. Pru is part of the structure of this city because it provides an unforgettable experience for those who have climbed to the top of it and saw their city in miniature under their feet.

Currently, we have two options. We can hold on to 2023, when alternatives to Skywalk and Top of the Hub will be available. The top of the Prudential Tower, renamed "View Boston", will become a three-story attraction with panoramic windows and indoor/outdoor cocktail lounges. Or, we can be content with our current product-a 26-story observation deck, by appointment only.

I can't do it either. So a few weeks after my failed trip to customs, I came back-this time with an appointment. When I arrived, there were already two parties at the front desk: a man in a trench coat and a bald dad in an almost famous T-shirt were shepherding two teenagers glued to their iPhones. At 2 o'clock in the morning, a security guard squeezed the five of us into the passenger elevator that climbed to the 19th floor. Then we moved to a slightly spacious elevator that took us to the 26th floor. From there, we were taken to the barebones observation deck outside, which surrounds the building above the clock face.

Although only half the height of the top floor of Pru, this observation deck still provides an impressive view of the city. The wind blew across my face, and I marveled at the width of the harbour, marveled at the red brick enclave at the north end juxtaposed with the new glass-like buildings near the Zakim Bridge. I am also attracted by how my high altitude allows me to experience all the small events that make up city life at the same time. While a Coast Guard vessel blew its horn in the harbor, I could hear the low construction sound of Faneuil Hall and the applause of the crowd. A photo unfolds in a park at the north end. Window washer climbing on an office building in the city center. Golden balloons are tied to the patio furniture on the nearby roof deck, swaying in the breeze.

However, looking westward, I suddenly felt surrounded by skyscrapers in the financial district. The Charles was barely visible in the gaps between the buildings, and the Back Bay was completely obscured, let alone Roxbury, Dorchester, or Jamaican Plains. Although this habitat does provide some sense of the city as a cohesive unit, it is limited, like I was looking at an old family photo that was torn in half.

Likewise, I can still feel the tranquility that I once enjoyed in Building One of the World Trade Center. Rather than being overwhelmed by the scale of the city, I find it easier to imagine myself as a component of it, neither more important than any other, nor more important than any other. It would be nice if the whole of Boston could feel this way. This is a sensation that everyone deserves, not just the few who can afford the best views in town. Boston should be the kind of city that can provide us.

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