Post Office Square, Boston, Massachusetts

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Post Office Square in the Financial District, Boston, Massachusetts

Post Office Square (named after the John W. McCormack Post Office and Court House, which lies on it) in Boston, Massachusetts is almost entirely occupied by a privately owned and managed public park named Norman B. Leventhal Park, after the Boston building manager and designer who designed it. It sits above a parking garage in the heart of the Financial District. This garage, named "The Garage at Post Office Square,"[1] is at 80 ft (24 m) below the surface, is the deepest point in the city, and revenues from parking fund the maintenance of the park. The 1.7 acre (6,900 m²) park is a popular lunchtime destination for area workers. It features a cafe, fountains, and a pergola around a central lawn, and provides seat cushions for visitors during the summer. It was designed by the landscape architects The Halvorson Company.

Harvard University reached an agreement with the Friends of Post Office Square to place six large trees from its Arnold Arboretum collection on permanent loan in the square, but "[a]s of 2003, only one of the... trees remain."[2]

Norman B. Leventhal is the chairman of The Beacon Companies, a developer and manager of office buildings, housing, and hotels. At Beacon, Leventhal helped direct several major civic improvement projects in Boston, including Rowes Wharf, Center Plaza, One Post Office Square, and 5,100 units of affordable housing. Leventhal co-founded The Beacon Companies as a construction company with his brother, Robert, in 1946. The firm's conversion of Post Office Square from a two and one-half story parking garage to a lush park, with parking underground, in 1992 is considered emblematic of Leventhal's vision: to enliven and make hospitable Boston's public spaces. "We must constantly work to find ways to make the riches of Boston available to all her citizens, not just the most fortunate among us," he was quoted in a 1997 Boston Globe article. Post Office Square Park was dedicated and named Norman B. Leventhal Park the same year. As chairman of the Trust for City Hall Plaza, Leventhal currently is spearheading the effort to revitalize that center. Born and raised in Boston, Leventhal is a 1933 graduate of Boston Latin School and a 1938 graduate of MIT. He is the author of Mapping Boston (MIT Press, 1999), a book about the social and topographical development of Boston, from its founding to the present day. He was inducted to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's Academy of Distinguished Citizens in 1999 and has been honored by several other business and philanthropic organizations. He holds honorary degrees from Hebrew College and Brandeis University.