Thomas J. Klutznick Company_Projects_Mixed Use Complexes_Copley Place, Boston

Boston's Back Bay, the fashionable neighborhood of Copley Square, the Boston Public Library and Symphony Hall, also was home to a nine and one-half-acre eyesore - a turnpike interchange and railroad tracks. On this unlikely site Mr. Klutznick and his Boston-based partner, Kenneth A. Himmel, created the largest private development in the city's history - Copley Place, a $500-million, 3.4 million-square-foot complex that includes four seven-story office buildings; a Neiman Marcus department store; a two-level retail gallery with 100 shops, boutiques and restaurants; two hotels (a 1,145-room Marriott convention hotel and an 804-room Westin luxury hotel); 100 mixed-income apartments; and 1,400 parking spaces. The location presented formidable engineering challenges: Amtrak and Boston & Main Railroad tracks that crisscrossed the site were moved twice without disrupting daily train schedules; three turnpike ramps were realigned; and a high-pressure water main supplying most of Back Bay was relocated. Because the development would connect two proud but diverse in-city neighborhoods, the Back Bay and the South End, which together were home to some 45,000 people, a two-year citizens review process was required to assure that the views and concerns of Copley Place's neighbors were addressed. The result, commented then-Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, was "a model of public-private collaboration."

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Thomas J. Klutznick Company