Let there be no light; eyesore removed at Public Garden

Ted Furst (at right) proudly points to the empty space at the corner of Charles and Beacon streets where an ugly lightbox used to stand.

The entranceway to the Public Garden is a little more historic, thanks to the efforts of the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA).
As the watchdog for the area’s aesthetics, Ted Furst has an unenviable job as chair of the architectural committee, to make sure the city doesn’t clutter up the street with unsightly utilities like the lightbox that was on the corner of Charles and Beacon streets.
The civic association had been appalled when the city installed a tall, ugly switchbox there, as part of improvements to traffic light signals last summer.
“To our disappointment, they put it in haphazardly,” said Furst. “It was right in front of the garden, the most important entrance for the community and tourists. It crowded the corner, where people stopped to cross the street. It was a big eyesore for the Boston Garden.”
Oh, a lightbox, you scoff. Who cares? Actually, it’s the tiny changes like this that add up quickly to dampen the charm of a neighborhood, Furst points out. Look around Charles Street, and there’s a definite look and feel to it that’s pleasing to neighbors, tenants and visitors. That doesn’t come naturally.
“You see beautiful gas lights, and beautiful architecture here,” said Furst. “The windows are preserved. You don't want to walk smack dab into a box.”
“The box was almost as tall at it was huge,” said Furst. “It just made that corner feel like a train station. There needs to be a beautiful transition from one historic area to another.”
Furst acknowledges that the particular corner the metal box was on wasn’t technically in their district, but it definitely affected the area’s appearance.
"We're in a historical district. When you start changing anything, it impacts the way the neighborhood is looked at when you come here. It negatively impacts the vitality of the street, diminishing the aesthetic quality of the hill. Although it’s not part of Beacon Hill 's historic district specifically, to me, there's no border. It's across the street, which is just as important as on this side of the street.”
So Furst contacted the Boston Transportation Department (BTD), that was upgrading traffic signals last summer. “We wanted to explore an alternative with the city,” he said.
In fact, they hired an engineer to figure out alternatives.
Furst had done some research, and knew that many European cities seeking to preserve the historic nature of a neighborhood would find alternatives, such as installing such utilities underground, or behind bushes. “When you go to Europe, you don't see this stuff,” he said. “They figure out how to hide them.”
As it turned out, there wasn’t a way to completely eliminate or bury the box, because the BTD uses a system that is somewhat antiquated. “The newer systems don't require these boxes,” Furst said.


In the end, the light box’s NStar meter “pimple” was moved inside the box, and it was moved down the sidewalk where it blended in better with parking meters. They had asked that it be painted black to blend in with the garden’s ironwork, but that’s a battle for another day, said Furst.
So is the fight to move another box that’s on Beacon Street near Cheers. “We tried to get it behind Cheers' fence, but we couldn't get it done,” said Furst.
The Public Garden entrance victory may have been a small one, but an important one that other neighborhoods should try to emulate.
“At Park Street, there ‘s no delineation from downtown to Park Street. There’s no fence, and mechanical equipment is everywhere. We didn't want that. The city is so historic. All neighborhoods should be looking at their area this way,” he said.