Landmark Center

February 20, 2007

Landmark Center, Boston

Here is a common sight on my way to work every day. Landmark Center was developed in the early 2000s as a giant, mixed-use complex as part of the effort to jump-start the regentrification of the Fenway and Kenmore Square areas. The building was opened in 1928 and served over 50 years as a Sears, Roebuck & Co warehouse and store. It closed sometime in the 1980s and stood boarded up, neglected and decaying, for a few decades.

This is perhaps one of the most magnificent restorations seen in recent years in the Fenway neighborhood. The building, exhibiting its original Art Deco splendor on the exterior, now houses a Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Staples, REI, Best Buy, Lonestar Steakhouse and Saloon, Quiznos, Boston Sports Club fitness center, a large Regal Theater complex, and a Blick Art Store, among other establishments. Its main lobby is absolutely beautiful, with amazing marble walls and grand staircased/escalators leading to its upper office levels. It has earned its place on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, thereby designating it as "Landmark Center".

Its retail stores aside, this building serves as an excellent welcome to Boston City for those arriving from the western suburbs on the MBTA D Line to see a Red Sox Game a few blocks away.