engineering

Post Office Square, Boston

Post Office Square, Boston is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Post Office Square, Boston rather than just read about it. In short: Post Office Square (est. 1874) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a square located in the financial district at the intersection of Milk, Congress, Pearl and Water Streets. It was named in 1874 after the United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury which fronted it, now replaced by the John W.

Key takeaways

Post Office Square, Boston belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Post Office Square, Boston to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Post Office Square, Boston from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Post Office Square (est. 1874) in Boston, Massachusetts, is a square located in the financial district at the intersection of Milk, Congress, Pearl and Water Streets. It was named in 1874 after the United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury which fronted it, now replaced by the John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse. The square is almost entirely occupied by a privately owned and managed but publicly accessible park, Norman B. Leventhal Park, named for the Boston building manager and designer who designed it. It sits above a parking garage, named "The Garage at Post Office Square." The garage descends to 80 feet (24 m) below the surface, at the time one of the deepest points of excavation in the city. Revenues from parking fund the maintenance of the park. The 1.7-acre (0.69 ha) park is a popular lunchtime destination for area workers. It features a café, fountains, and a pergola around a central lawn, and the management provides seat cushions for visitors during the summer. Designed by landscape architects The Halvorson Company in collaboration with Ellenzweig Architects, the park is also home to "125 species of plants."

History

In the 18th century, rope manufacturers occupied the area, then it became a residential district, and later a business and commercial area. The Great Boston Fire of 1872 swept through the area, and as rebuilding began the area began to be called Post Office Square after the new United States Post Office and Sub-Treasury Building which faced the square. In 1874, the headquarters of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, designed by Nathaniel Bradlee, was erected in the square on the site of what is now Norman B. Leventhal Park. This building was demolished in 1945, and a large parking garage which filled the area of the present park was erected, being completed in 1954. Post Office Square was the site of a 1964 speech by Lyndon B. Johnson. There was a transformer explosion and fire in the One Post Office Square building in December 1986. An electric company worker was killed but it was after normal business hours and the building was able to be evacuated with only a few injuries. The above-ground parking garage was demolished in 1988. The new garage, entirely underground, was opened in 1990 at a cost of $18 million, and the park above it was completed in 1992.

Major buildings Significant buildings on the square include the following:

John W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse New England Telephone and Telegraph Building is a historic structure built in 1947 at 185 Franklin Street. It is a Pending Boston Landmark. A developer purchased the building in 2011 and renamed it "50 Post Office Square." In this building, the laboratory in which the first telephone was built has been reconstructed. Langham Hotel Boston, a building that until 1977 housed the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston In 1978 it was designated a Boston Landmark. One Post Office Square 100 Federal Street Ten Post Office Square (Atlantic National Bank Building) built 1924, a pending Boston Landmark, petition accepted for further study in 2000.

Notes

External links

The Norman B. Leventhal Park Garage at Post Office Square SAH Archipedia Building Entry

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Post Office Square, Boston

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Post Office Square, Boston claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Post Office Square, Boston before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Post Office Square, Boston ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Post Office Square, Boston

In research: Post Office Square, Boston appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Post Office Square, Boston in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Post Office Square, Boston is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1870s establishments in Boston, 1874 establishments in Massachusetts, Buildings and structures completed in 1874, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Post Office Square, Boston outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Post Office Square, Boston in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Post Office Square, Boston means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Post Office Square, Boston out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Post Office Square, Boston in simple terms?

Why does Post Office Square, Boston matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Post Office Square, Boston?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Post Office Square, Boston.