A museum about the city: an air rights proposal for Boston

Abstract

The John F. Kennedy Expressway, commonly known as The Central Artery, is an elevated highway running north-south through downtown Boston. It is an immense structure which cuts its way through the urban fabric, is a considerable source of noise and pollution, and visually segregates the city’s downtown from its vital waterfront.

Recently a study was undertaken to explore the possibility of removing the elevated Central Artery and replacing it with a tunnel in order to alleviate traffic congestion and noise, curtail pollution and reunite the downtown with the waterfront. If this proposal were carried through, fifteen air-rights parcels (approximately twenty acres) would become available for development in Boston’s inner core. This thesis explores one possible way of using a specific air-rights parcel above the proposed tunnel.