Downtown Boston in the context of "Back Bay, Boston"

The Boston Common is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of 50 acres (20 ha) of land bounded by five major Boston streets: Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street, Charles Street, and Boylston Street.

The Common is part of the Emerald Necklace of parks and parkways that extend from the Common south to Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and Dorchester. The visitors' center for the city of Boston is located on the Tremont Street side of the park.

Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly 8 miles (13 km) west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of Brighton and West Roxbury), Brookline to the east, Watertown and Waltham to the north, and Weston, Wellesley, and Needham to the west. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Newton was 88,923.

Newton is home to the Charles River, Crystal Lake, and Heartbreak Hill, among other landmarks. It is served by several streets and highways (including Route 9, Hammond Pond Parkway, and the Mass Pike), as well as the Green Line D branch run by the MBTA.

Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in downtown Boston, across the street from the Boston Common and the Freedom Trail, two blocks from the Massachusetts State House, and a short walk to the financial district. Suffolk Law was founded in 1906 by Gleason Archer Sr. to provide a legal education for those who traditionally lacked the opportunity to study law because of socio-economic or racial discrimination.

Suffolk Law school has full-time, part-time evening, hybrid online, accelerated and dual-degree JD programs. It has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1953 and the Association of American Law Schools since 1977.

Boston College (BC) is a private Catholic Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order, the university has more than 15,000 total students.

Boston College was originally located in the South End of Boston before moving most of its campus to Chestnut Hill in 1907. Its main campus is a historic district and features some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America. The campus is 6 miles west of downtown Boston. It offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its nine colleges and schools. Boston College is classified as a "Research 1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production" university by the Carnegie Classification.

The Central Artery (officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway) is the concurrent section of Interstate 93, US 1 and Route 3 through Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The modern-day Artery, built as part of the Big Dig from 1995 until 2003, begins at the Southeast Expressway in the South End. Traveling north, it has an interchange with the east–west Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90), and travels beneath the Financial District and Government Center through the O'Neill Tunnel. Route 3 exits onto the Leverett Connector within the tunnel in Charlestown; US 1 exits aboveground from the Zakim Bridge onto the Tobin Bridge, and I-93 continues on the Northern Expressway toward New Hampshire beyond the bridge.

The original Artery, constructed in the 1950s, was named after John F. Fitzgerald; it was partly elevated and partly tunneled. Its reputation for congestion inspired the local nicknames "The Distressway," "the largest parking lot in the world", and "the other Green Monster" (the paint of the highway girders shared the same color as the left field wall at Fenway Park). The original Artery was demolished after the O'Neill Tunnel was completed, and was replaced with the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, named after the daughter of John F. Fitzgerald and the mother of John F. Kennedy.

Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately 190 miles (310 km) along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways located entirely within New England; the other two are I-89 and I-91. The largest cities along the route are Boston, and Manchester, New Hampshire; it also travels through the New Hampshire state capital of Concord.

I-93 begins at an interchange with I-95, US Route 1 (US 1) and Route 128 in Canton, Massachusetts. It travels concurrently with US 1 beginning in Canton, and, with Route 3 beginning at the Braintree Split on the Braintree–Quincy city line, through the Central Artery in Downtown Boston before each route splits off beyond the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. The portion of highway between the Braintree Split and the Central Artery is named the "Southeast Expressway", while the portion from Boston to the New Hampshire state line is named the "Northern Expressway".

The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially the "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a controlled-access toll road that runs concurrently with Interstate 90 (I-90) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is the longest Interstate Highway in Massachusetts, spanning 138 miles (222 km) along an east–west axis.

The turnpike opened in 1957, and it was designated as part of the Interstate Highway System in 1959. It begins at the New York state line in West Stockbridge, linking with the Berkshire Connector portion of the New York State Thruway. The original western terminus of the turnpike was located at Route 102 in West Stockbridge before I-90 had been completed in New York state. The turnpike intersects with several Interstate Highways as it traverses the state, including I-91 in West Springfield; I-291 in Chicopee; I-84 in Sturbridge; the junction of I-290 and I-395 in Auburn; and I-495 in Hopkinton. The eastern terminus of the turnpike was originally at Route 128 (now cosigned with I-95) in Weston, and has been extended several times: to Allston in 1964, to the Central Artery (at the time designated as I-95/Route 3; currently designated as I-93/US 1/Route 3) in Downtown Boston in 1965, and to Route 1A in East Boston as a route to Logan International Airport in 2003 as part of the "Big Dig" megaproject. I-190 and I-290 are the two auxiliary Interstate Highways that serve the route.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a linear park located in several Downtown Boston neighborhoods. It consists of landscaped gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art, and specialty lighting systems that stretch over one mile through Chinatown, the Financial District, the Waterfront, and North End neighborhoods. Officially opened in October 2008, the 17-acre Greenway sits on land created from demolition of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway as part of the Big Dig project.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is named after Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy family who was born in the neighboring North End neighborhood, the daughter of the former Boston mayor for whom the demolished expressway was named. Her son, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, played an important role in establishing the Greenway.

Government Center is an area in downtown Boston, centered on City Hall Plaza. Formerly the site of Scollay Square, it is now the location of Boston City Hall, courthouses, state and federal office buildings, and a major MBTA subway station, also called Government Center. Its development was controversial, as the project displaced thousands of residents and razed several hundred homes and businesses.

Controversial in design since before it was completed, the use of Brutalist architecture for its main buildings, as well as the open brick-and-concrete plaza at the center of the development, have been alternately praised for its innovative design, and scorned for its lack of character and uninviting appearance. After decades of calls for a redesign to make it more friendly and usable, a major rebuild of City Hall Plaza, the main public space of Government Center, was begun in 2020 and is to include additional seating areas, play spaces for children, and space for public art.