The Landscape Architect’s Guide to

Boston

Financial District / Government Center

Post Office Square Park

Your Guide
Susannah Ross, ASLA
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In 1982, the Friends of the Post Office Square—spearheaded by developer Norman B. Leventhal—embarked on a campaign to raise funds to build a park on the site of a blighted parking garage that sat squarely among some of the highest-priced office space in Boston.

Ten years later, the park, which was designed by Halvorson Design Partnership, was completed, transforming the heart of the financial district from an unsightly above ground parking structure, to a below-ground garage that is all but hidden from view, with a lush, lavishly detailed park at the surface.

The space is open to the public, but owned and managed privately, using funds from the nearly $8 million generated each year by the parking operation. This private funding helps explain the meticulous condition of the park 20 years later, in contrast to many publically-funded open spaces that fall into disrepair.

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