We love our statues in Boston, as long as they represent historic figures who are today dead and preferably on horseback.
But erect something fun that might wind up in someone’s Instagram feed? That’s just not our jam.
I’ve been thinking about our city’s joy deficit every time I read about Hasbro’s new headquarters in the Seaport or chat with a LEGO executive, as I did last week.
Both toymakers, at their old headquarters in Connecticut and Rhode Island, displayed some public sculptures that might’ve put a smile on a child’s face when you passed by.
In the Connecticut ‘burbs, LEGO had a brightly-colored pile of giant-sized bricks near the front door of its headquarters. (At one time, there was also a life-sized police officer made of the company’s plastic bricks.) Hasbro’s current home office has Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head waving to the Pawtucket populace.
Boston once had a beloved teddy bear on Boylston Street, outside the FAO Schwarz toy store. You almost never walked by it without seeing a family snapping photos. But when the store closed in 2004, the bear got relocated to a “dark pocket park,” in the words of architect David Hacin, near Tufts Medical Center.
“I have never seen anyone engage with it like when it was on Boylston,” he said.
“Boston does seem to have a problem with public art,” Hacin said. “Unless it’s something laden with political or historical references, there isn’t much of a tradition of art for art’s sake, or art for fun.”
“Companies like Hasbro and especially LEGO understand that some of our greatest creativity comes when we feel safe enough to play,” Sam Seidel, a city planning consultant and former Cambridge city councilor, said. “In a city that prides itself on innovation, it would be nice to be able to walk down the street and see Mr. Potato Head and stop for a moment to have your picture taken with him.”
I’ve been asking around, and it doesn’t sound like there’s any concrete plan to either bring LEGO and Hasbro’s existing sculptures to Boston or to do something new. At the Lyrik Back Bay, the mixed-use plaza over the Mass. Pike, where LEGO opened its new North American headquarters earlier this year, has added some nice public art, though none is LEGO-related or especially appealing to children.
I made a lot of inquiries this month and received a few semi-encouraging responses that seemed to leave the door open to potential future happiness.
Samuels & Company, the real estate firm that developed the Lyrik project, emailed a statement noting they “are always willing to consider collaborations with community partners, artists groups and tenants on both temporary and permanent art installations.”
WS Development built the Seaport office building that Hasbro will soon occupy. Yanni Tsippis, a senior vice president at WS, said that there was “nothing to share currently. … But please stay tuned.”
In 2018, WS brought colorful, pixelated animal sculptures to the Seaport, which mostly sit in a median strip.
And it sounds like Hasbro hasn’t ruled out bringing some whimsy to its new HQ.
“While we don’t have details to share yet about how the space will look on the outside,” said company spokesperson Abby Hodes, “we’re thinking carefully about how to bring Hasbro’s creativity and spirit into the location.”
I’m not necessarily a Potato Head partisan. Hasbro also owns Optimus Prime, Twilight Sparkle and the Power Rangers. Any of them would power up the company’s serious-looking new headquarters building.
And LEGO once made a set called Women of NASA, featuring a (still living) Cantabrigian, Margaret Hamilton, who helped oversee the software development for the Apollo moon missions. Perhaps a Hamilton sculpture made of LEGO bricks would satisfy our city’s history-loving denizens?
Whatever we do, isn’t it time Boston sheds the reputation of being a city founded by Puritans, where fun goes to die?
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