Iconic Boston Building Among '8 Best Things We Built in 2016'

BOSTON, MA — A Boston landmark made new was listed among 2016's most meaningful architectural accomplishments, in an end-of-year roundup by Slate out this week.

Writer Henry Grabar asks that readers "consider the following buildings a kind of collective antidote."

"Each one is an original work of architecture, newly constructed or newly renovated, that doesn’t look quite like anything else we’ve got," he says. "And each one has a deep connection to its site, either with a community, an institution, a landscape, or a city. These are landmarks—not just new structures, but signposts by which we’ll know the places we live."

The Boston Public Libary's central branch expansion made the list, lauded for opening a once-imposing stretch of granite to the streets while preserving the architect's original vision.

"The renovation... reminds us that midcentury architecture can be tastefully updated, preserved, and reimagined," writes Grabar. And more importantly to the locals, he writes, quoting the Globe's Dan Adams, it now seems "infinitely more approachable.”

See images of the BPL elements that caught the author's eye, plus the full list of "best things" here.

Image by Alison Bauter, Patch staff