The convention center occupies a pivotal site in Boston facing one of the major commercial arteries, Boylston Street; straddling a main rail line and the Massachusetts Turnpike; and backing up to the mixed-use Prudential Center (above and top). The building itself has a linear, gabled front section containing circulation spaces that abuts the main block of meeting and exhibition spaces. Separated by a reveal and change

of materials from granite to Roman brick (facing page), the two sections of the building are linked by a grid of stone that does not align with the floor levels. Grids applied to windows in the brick block obscure actual sill and head lines. Although the granite wall has deep reveals, that depth is countered by the "honest" expression at the corners of the stone veneer's thinness.

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Hynes Convention Center

The convention center consists of new meeting rooms, circulation space, dining facilities, an auditorium, and a ballroom that wrap around and over rehabilitated exhibition halls. Public circulation runs in an L-shape, with vertical movement—elevators, escalators, stairs—occurring at two end nodes and a large rotunda at the corner (plans below). Meeting rooms form a block along the front of the building, while dining space and the auditorium are stacked along one side of the exhibit halls. The rail line and turnpike, which bisect the lowest floor, separate the entrance and administrative offices to the north from the truck docks to the south. Projecting above the front, gabled façade are the rotunda (section, top) and the barrel-vaulted ballrooms (section, middle). The upper hall overlooking Boylston Street (facing page) is a grandly scaled space with white walls and stone belt courses. Custom-designed mahogany benches run down the center, and a curved stair connects to the hall below.

SECTION AA THROUGH AUDITORIUM AND ROTUNDAS

SECTION BB THROUGH EXHIBITION HALLS BALLROOM

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

THIRD FLOOR PLAN

LOWER FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

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