Boston Mayor and the AIA Honor Boston’s
Shade of Green

by Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

The 2008 AIA Convention in Boston took time out to pay tribute to its host city’s commitment to green and sustainable architecture on Friday, May 16. At the newly LEED® Gold-certified Boston Children’s Museum, Mayor Thomas Menino and AIA CEO Christine McEntee unveiled a plaque honoring the museum’s sustainability rating. In January of 2007, Boston became the first American city to incorporate the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards into the city’s zoning codes. Menino highlighted the city’s diverse stock of sustainably designed projects; for example, historical renovation at Fenway Park by Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, to Modernist icons like AIA Gold Medal Winner I.M. Pei’s John Hancock Tower, to contemporary design pieces like Polshek Partnership’s WGBH’s radio station headquarters. “We’re turning Beantown into Greentown,” said Menino.

Cambridge 7 Associates’ 23,000-square-foot expansion to the Boston Children’s Museum (the city’s first green museum) features three green roofs, a cistern and water recycling system, real-time heating and cooling controls, and locally sourced and recycled materials. Its expansive, multicolored glass walls and steel-gray, open-framed courtyard allow ample daylighting and provide a playful façade that engages the adjacent waterfront. “We’ve actually brought 23,000 individuals from around the world to Boston, they have been experiencing a green city, and I understand that many have come here to see what’s possible and [see] how they can replicate it across the country,” said McEntee.