The Back Bay Association (BBA) recently launched a new destination brand Web site to promote the Back Bay as the destination for culture, cuisine, couture, and commerce, showcasing the neighborhood’s products, services, restaurants, galleries and attractions.
“This is good news for businesses in the area,” said Alexander Cooper, director of membership and marketing for the BBA, which has represented the interests of neighborhood businesses since 1923. “The Back Bay has always been the ultimate consumer destination regionally, nationally and worldwide. With this new Web site and branding campaign, local businesses will have the ability to use the Back Bay brand to promote their businesses.”
The Web site, www.VisitBostonBackBay.com, includes interactive brand listings of local businesses, videos of neighborhood attractions, photo-realistic walking tours, maps, events and great deals listings, parking information, local history, and a wide variety of service and nonprofit listings. To deliver these features, the BBA has partnered with ChamberPG, a full service Web video-provider that works with companies to create and host streaming video for their sites and EveryScape, creator of The Real World Online, which provides a street-level online walking tour of the Back Bay and showcases businesses in a full virtual tour of their establishments.
“The Web site’s new interactive features give users a truly immersive experience of the Back Bay,” Cooper said. “Consumers who were considering making their next trip here will now be able to see everything it has to offer before they arrive.”
For instance, Cooper said a restaurant would be able to offer prospective clients a virtual tour of its function room without even setting foot in the facility.
As for BBA members, they will receive a free listing on the Web site and the opportunity to enhance their listings with low-cost Web-scape and video services via EveryScape and ChamberPG.
“We’re working to have the Web site be the main portal to all the Back Bay’s consumer offerings,” Cooper said. “The Web listings are just an added value to the networking opportunities and business advocacy that the BBA provides. We’re inviting all Back Bay businesses to join as members.”
Cooper added participating businesses could also benefit by linking to VisitBostonBackBay on their Web sites, thereby using the strengths of the neighborhood as another selling point for their products.
“A realtor looking to market a residence or office in the neighborhood could use the Web site to highlight the quality of life in the Back Bay,” he said.
“Ultimately, the new Web site benefits both businesses and consumers alike,” Cooper said. “VisitBostonBackBay.com delivers an informative and interactive experience to Back Bay visitors, while providing local businesses with cutting-edge tools to reach them.”
For more information about the BBA and opportunities for local businesses, contact the Back Bay Association at 617-266-1991 or info@bostonbackbay.com.

With the recent publication of “Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston,” longtime Back Bay Architectural Commission (BBAC) staff member William Young was given the opportunity to convey his extensive knowledge of the neighborhood’s architecture to a wider audience, but he admits narrowing down the sites featured in the book wasn’t an easy task.
“I was presented a short list of possible buildings of interest in the neighborhood for my comment,” he said. “They were all fine, but there were plenty of others that were equally deserving and possibly more interesting because they were less familiar. I made several passes through the inventory and kept finding more buildings.”
Young was invited to contribute to the book by Keith N. Morgan, his former professor from the Boston University art history department and editor of the “Buildings of the United States” series, which includes the latest volume on Boston architecture. In all, Young wrote more than 50 entries for the 89 Back Bay locales featured in the book, ranging from the Arlington Street Church, one of the neighborhood’s oldest surviving structures dating back to 1861, to the Tower Records building at 360 Newbury St., which was built in 1987.
As for the criteria he used in selecting which buildings to profile, Young chose the exceptional buildings that stood out at the time of their construction and others that are typical of their era.
“Some buildings that might not have seemed significant can gain notoriety through the passage of time if they survive with very little change,” Young said.
Other buildings of interest have undergone significant changes, so they reflect more than one style or period, such as the Hotel Vendome building at 160 Commonwealth Ave., which was built in 1871, expanded 10 years later, and underwent a major renovation in the 1970s.
Young said another selection, the Church Court Condominium complex at 492 Beacon St., is unique in that it “reflects adaptation from one use to another”. In the 1980s, the complex was built on the burned-out shell of the Mount Vernon Street Church, a building dating back to the late 19th century that was ravaged by fire in 1978.
The Crowninshield House at 164 Marlborough St. was chosen because it was the first building in Boston built by the renowned 19th century architect Henry Hobson Richardson, who would go on to design one of the Back Bay’s most celebrated landmarks, the Trinity Church at 206 Clarendon St.
“[The Crowninshield House] is significant because it represents the early work of an architect who would go on to do great things,” Young said. “It’s interesting to see how far he went from doing this to doing the Trinity Rectory.”
The WS Dexter House at 18 Exeter St. and the Wirt Dexter House at 393 Commonwealth Ave. are two other buildings in the neighborhood that Young said have an “implied comparison”. Although the two buildings were built by different architects in 1885 and 1899 respectively, Young points out they are similar in that both were residences built for the Dexter family.
“My tendency is always to compare and find things that are alike,” Young said.
“Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston” was published by the University of Virginia Press. For more information, visit www.upress.virginia.edu.

In the face of a downtrodden economy, Mayor Thomas M. Menino led a group of retailers, brokers and developers last Tuesday on the second annual “Experience Boston” bus tour of empty storefronts in the Back Bay and Fenway, designed to attract new businesses to the city.
“Even in these tough economic times, I continue to market our great city and remind people that Boston is still a sound investment,” Menino said. “With a diverse economy, more than $1.4 billion in projects currently under construction and almost 200,000 young adults who have an annual spending power of $3.4 billion…it’s the perfect time to invest on Boston.”
The tour, which preceded the International Conference of Shopping Centers New England Idea Exchange at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center on July 8 and 9, highlighted nearly 20 vacant retail spaces in the neighborhoods. More than 70 businesspeople accompanied the mayor, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) Director John Palmieri and other city officials on the tour.
As an incentive for prospective retailers, Menino announced that any retailer who signed a lease for any of the spaces visited on the tour within the next six months would receive two free outdoor advertising displays in downtown Boston for one month, which have an estimated value of $5,000. He added that the city would provide retailers with its green business consultant to teach them environmentally friendly measures to help them save money.

The Charles River Esplanade has gained Boston Landmark status, following final approval from the Boston City Council on Wednesday, one week after Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) voted in favor of the designation.
“The City of Boston has bestowed an honor on the Charles River Esplanade that puts it in good company with other historic Boston parks and open spaces such as the Boston Common, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall and the Riverway,” Menino said.
In November 2007, 850 Boston residents signed a petition supporting the designation of the Esplanade as a Boston Landmark amid concern that the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) was considering rerouting traffic through the linear park that extends along the Charles River in order to make repairs to the Storrow Drive Tunnel. Under the guidance of the nonprofit Boston Preservation Alliance and Beacon Hill resident Linda Cox, the petition gained endorsements from the Esplanade Association, the Beacon Hill Civic Association and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, as well as City Council President Mike Ross and State Rep. Marty Walz.
“The landmark status for the Esplanade ensures the greatest level of protection for our park, which is vitally important as DCR moves forward with plans for reconstruction of the Storrow Drive Tunnel,” Walz said.
“This protection will ensure access to the cherished green space for years to come,” Ross added.
Sarah D. Kelly, executive director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, said, “The landmark designation will ensure that the most important historic features be protected while also allowing for necessary maintenance and enhancements.”
According to the study report that the Landmarks Commission presented at a May 26 public meeting at City Hall, the Esplanade meets the criteria for landmark designation found in Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975, amended, because it has brought about significant historical, social, cultural, architectural and aesthetic improvements to the city, the commonwealth and New England region.

The Los Angeles artist charged with multiple counts of graffiti-related offenses pleaded guilty in a Boston courtroom Friday, agreeing to pay $2,000 to a local graffiti cleanup company, to possess none of his “tools of the trade” while in Suffolk County and to make a statement of apology to residents and deterrence to other potential offenders, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley.
Frank Shepard Fairey, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of defacing property for a 2000 case in which he placed a poster on a Brighton Avenue electrical box and two counts of wanton destruction of property for a sticker he placed on a Fort Point traffic sign and a poster he affixed to a Back Bay condominium.
Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville ordered Fairey to serve two years of probation. During that time, Fairey must pay $2,000 to a Boston-based graffiti cleanup service, must notify the Department of Probation in advance if he expects to travel within Suffolk County; and mustn’t possess stickers, posters, wheat paste, or other graffiti-related materials while in Suffolk County, except in connection with legal and authorized art installations.
Fairey also agreed to make a statement that first apologizes to Boston residents for placing the stickers and posters in unauthorized areas without the owners’ consent, stressing the importance of respecting private property.
Also on Friday, prosecutors affirmatively moved to terminate the prosecution of 11 additional graffiti-related charges against Fairey. Prosecutors had previously terminated the prosecution of 14 complaints after a review of the evidence led them to believe they couldn’t prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Foss prosecuted the case. Fairey was represented by Attorney Jeffrey Wiesner.