Insuring the City: The Prudential Center and the Postwar Urban Landscape

An in-depth look at Boston's Prudential Center and what its story reveals about the evolution of the modern American city

The Prudential Center anchors the Boston skyline with its tall, gray tower. It is also a historical beacon, representing a midcentury moment when insurance companies such as Prudential were particularly aware of how their physical presence and civic engagement reflected upon their intangible product: financial security.

Looking to New York's Rockefeller Center, the creators of the Prudential Center aspired to use real estate development as a tool toward civic achievement, reinvigorating central Boston and integrating a large complex of buildings with new infrastructure for the automobile. Now available in paperback, this award-winning book tells the full story of "The Pru," placing it in the political, economic, and architectural contexts of the period, and providing new insights into urban renewal in postwar America.

Author: Elihu Rubin
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 09/01/2024
Pages: 264
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9780300280821