He Li

He Li

Although Newbury Street and Copley Place/Prudential Center seem like two different worlds – one outside, the other inside, one containing eclectic and contemporary brands and the other containing luxury heavyweights – the two utilize similar design strategies for their commercial purposes. On Newbury Street, every single storefront has roughly the same height and elevation, with the spaces in the buildings above the stores used as office spaces or residences. The entirety of Newbury Street has many consistent themes: red brick, at most four or five stories high, with plenty of glass storefronts. These, combined with the wide sidewalks, mimic the experience of an indoor mall. The sameness of the surroundings of each store, the glass, the freedom of space to roam – all are similar to the experience of walking through a mall. Copley Place/Prudential Center share many of these characteristics, although there are some specific differences. Copley Place has a low ceiling for many of the stores, providing an intimate atmosphere for luxury shoppers used to personal attention, while Prudential Center has a high ceiling for its generally more accessible brands. The indoor malls have clear entrances and exits, with welcome signs, whereas Newbury Street simply intersects with other streets. Newbury has no main gathering spots – it's one long street, whereas Copley has a main center with a large carving, and Prudential has a main open space next to the Microsoft store. One more interesting point of difference is the ability to escape – Newbury intersects multiple streets, each of which provide an exit, but in order to get out of Copley, a shopper has to walk back through a long, wide corridor lined with stores to make it back out.