Boston buildings to light up blue in memory of 9/11 victims

On the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks this week, buildings around Boston and beyond will be lit up in blue in honor of the nearly 3,000 people who died.

Gogi Gupta, founder of national marketing firm Gupta Media, is organizing the tribute for the second year, and has already confirmed 17 buildings in and around Boston to participate.

In 2024, Gupta said, for the first time, his company hired employees who had been born after the 2001 attacks.

“Their relationship with that is the same way I feel about Pearl Harbor. It’s something that happened a long time ago,” he said. “I still wake up on 9/11 with a pit in my stomach. I just thought the memory of 9/11 was fading a little too speedy.”

Gupta said he was inspired by the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, which projects twin beams of light into the sky every year on the anniversary. For the last few years, the museum has asked buildings around the city to join in to honor the victims by lighting up in blue.

In 2024, nine buildings participated in Boston, where the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center originated. This year, the list has expanded to include more commercial buildings but also Fenway Park, City Hall and the Zakim Bridge, and they have even recruited two buildings in Cleveland and one in Minneapolis to participate.

“It never made sense to me why this is New York’s tragedy to bear. It’s an American tragedy,” Gupta said. “It’s not history yet. It’s still shaping us.”

The buildings participating are Boston City Hall, the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building at 2300 Washington St., Roxbury, State Street at 1 Congress St., Berklee College of track Performance Center at 136 Massachusetts Ave., Fenway Park, Center Plaza, International Plaza, Atlantic Wharf, 100 Federal St., The Hub on Causeway above TD Garden, Prudential Tower, One Lincoln Street, the UMass Boston Integrated Science Complex, Winthrop Center Park at 250 Devonshire St., the Equinox Building at 4 Avery St., the Zakim Bridge and Akamai at 145 Broadway, Cambridge.