Paul's House Diary

The Lyra development on Huntington Ave won’t be Boston’s next tallest–or even technically qualify as a skyscraper–but it’s a project I’ve been excited about for years. That’s because what Boston may lack in height, it’s more than making up for in recent architectural ‘swings’ closer to ground level. 

A wave of new developments are foregoing the “glass box” concept that dominated Boston’s 2010s development boom in favor of more ambitious designs: From BU’s new Computing & Data Science tower landing like a stack of shiny books on Comm Ave, to the endless angles of Amazon’s new office at One Boston Wharf Road in the Seaport–the largest “net zero” building in the city–to (hopefully) Studio Gang’s proposed take on a 21st century ‘dripping’ Flatiron Building for Kenmore Square. 

The Lyra is part of a larger project to update the Huntington Theatre that’s been in the works for almost a decade. Although the new tower’s construction called for the raising of a few charming low-rise structures on the ground level–the cardinal sin of Boston development–the project retained the Huntington Theatre’s main structure and facade while clearing the way for 400+ residential units across 34 stories. 

Why do I find this tower so exciting? 

For starters, it will finally pull attention away from Symphony Towers, the bland white boxes you’ll see to the left of the Lyra structure in the pictures below. Despite abutting masterpieces like Symphony Hall, Horticultural Hall, and the feast of architectural excellence on the Christian Science Plaza (also see below), buildings like Symphony Towers and the Midtown Hotel across Huntington Avenue have been a prominent bummer for decades, dumped at one of the busiest intersections in the city. 

It remains to be seen if I’ll ever afford one of these units–and while 400+ new pads is nothing to sneeze at, luxury condos aren’t going to help the housing crisis–but the latest design of the Lyra tower at least adds something fresh to the rich collection of architectural styles this high-profile corner of town is famous for. With Mass Ave and Huntington Ave providing view corridors to this intersection from literally all corners of the city, this new building is going to visually extend the city’s skyline significantly to both the South and West.

It’s developments like this and Pierce in Fenway that are really making Boston feel BIG while also making areas of the city feel closer, if not more accessible. For instance, seeing this tower from Back Bay Station or even from the Mass Ave bridge or MIT really shortens the perceived distance between these spots and the ‘Avenue of the Arts’–much like how Pierce helped make Fenway feel closer to downtown. 

This new building is also a funky design that mixes things up. It’s a little bit “spaghetti-thrown-at-a-wall” in terms of taking a few contemporary design fads to heart–just ask the Millennium Group: Boston loves an angled roof but rarely permits a spire. Still, it’s not a mess of offset or ‘colossal order’ double-height windows like so many recent commercial or lab projects. 

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Lyra also embraces its height, which many recent low-rise towers in the city refuse to do. There’s tapering as the tower goes high, while the building’s width is masked somewhat by features that make the final design look like two towers in a tango. Rather than a single massive party wall, there’s a pair of ribbons–one white-ish, one gray–that wrap around the building’s vertical perimeter, which will eventually result in the tower being topped with a pair of peaks.

It’s too early to give this thing all of its flowers–it’s roughly halfway completed as of late July–but it’s nice to still see cranes on the horizon, and a new focal point for such a pivotal location.