The granite façade of the Arcade next door is another example of memory confronting invention. The original granite front of 1860 has been carefully restored. But its windows are now lined with LED lights, which can be programmed to create a multistory image that will seem to be lurking just behind the rows of windows. The LEDs should turn out to be a lively 21st-century riff on the jazzy neon of the past.
To anyone who’s been around Boston for a while, the Paramount Center seems like a miracle. I can remember when a developer owned the theater and proposed to plant a new office tower on top of it. I can remember, too, when Emerson planned to abandon Boston and build a new campus on a vacant site in faraway Lawrence.
Instead, Emerson has remained to become a powerful force for Boston. No activity works better than a mass of college students for reviving a decayed urban area. Students are energetic, they’re out and about, and they’re not scared of the dark. By moving into this and other buildings of what was once Boston’s Combat Zone, a district of dealers, strippers, and hookers, Emerson has performed a great benevolence.
See the full article from “Boston Globe”