Christian Science Plaza, Church complex and urban plaza in Back Bay, United States.
Christian Science Plaza is a church complex and urban space in Boston that spans a large area and combines classic and modern buildings. Water features and open spaces run through the grounds, creating different areas for visitors to rest and explore.
The site grew around the original Mother Church, completed in 1894, which was enlarged by the Church Extension in 1906. The Christian Science Publishing House followed in 1934. When the site was extended in the 1970s, Araldo Cossutta of I. M. Pei & Associates designed Reflection Hall (1971), the Colonnade building (1972) and 177 Huntington (1972). The plaza was designated a Boston Landmark in 2011.
The site is the administrative center of the Church of Christ, Scientist, whose Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, stands at 250 Massachusetts Avenue. The Mary Baker Eddy Library and the Mapparium are housed in the 1934 Christian Science Publishing House, which also holds the offices of The Christian Science Monitor. The plaza is a public space used for walking and sitting by the reflecting pool.
The plaza sits at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue in Back Bay, with the 690 × 100 ft reflecting pool running between the Mother Church and Reflection Hall. The open space covers 10.4 acres, so allow time to cross it on foot. The Mapparium and Mary Baker Eddy Library are inside the Publishing House at 200–210 Massachusetts Avenue.
The Mapparium, a three-storey stained-glass globe inside the Mary Baker Eddy Library in the Christian Science Publishing House, is entered by a footbridge through its equator. Its map fixes the political borders of 1935, and the glass sphere carries sound so sharply that a whisper at one side is heard clearly at the other.
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