Mutual Benefits

Everyone should benefit when a large urban institution alters the cityscape with an extensive building program. That is why improvement of the central city of Boston and the Back Bay section has been one of the ideas behind the Christian Science Church Center. The Center is planned primarily to meet the needs of the Church, but it most certainly will be a great benefit to Boston.

Isolated planning, which does not take account of the activities and requirements of other groups and the total environment, no longer meets today's urban needs, let alone anticipates tomorrow's demands.

Specific public needs, such as open space, better housing, convenient shopping, and improved traffic and parking have been considered by Carl B. Rechner, Development Consultant for The Mother Church, in his work with architects and city planners.

To do this, an economic market analysis of Boston's Back Bay and Fenway area was obtained and carefully studied. Also, a nationally known traffic firm made a study of traffic flows, circulation, and signals, including the question of parking. In addition, city officials and local urban renewal authorities were consulted as to public improvements.

The master plan that resulted from this research will help meet these common urban needs. The building program, it is accurate to say, both adds to and is in harmony with the extensive urban renewal already under way in Boston.

One important rearrangement of the city scene that is expected to be mutually helpful is the closing of several small streets within the Church Center. Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, as well as part of Norway Street, have been purchased from the city by the Church to provide open landscaped space and private circulation routes within the new Center.

Until these streets were closed, two of them spouted traffic onto Massachusetts Avenue and one onto Huntington Avenue, each heavily traveled main thoroughfares. Traffic lights at the intersection halted the even flow of traffic, often contributing to traffic jams.

Streets in the Back Bay area of Boston were laid out in the 1870's. They were fine for horse-and-buggy travel. But with today's faster and more congested traffic, all street patterns must contribute to faster circulation and fewer intersections. The closing of these streets achieves this result by routing traffic in less complex patterns and by eliminating certain traffic lights.

All these improvements were thoroughly discussed with city officials in advance. Then public hearings were held to give everyone concerned an opportunity to discuss the matter. Only after such careful groundwork did the city consent to the purchase of streets and to the traffic changes.

The master plan will bring many other benefits to the city. In the perimeter area outside the Church Center, increased space for greatly needed retail stores and other commercial activities will be built. Private developers will undertake this step, building on land leased from the Church. Housing and related parking space will be expanded by about three times. The dwellings, designed for middle income small families and single persons, will include some lower rental units.

A further contribution to the needs of the city will be a probable doubling of the total real estate assessment within the building site, thus increasing Boston's tax revenues. The only tax-exempt property in the entire plan is the Church edifice and the Sunday School building.