MORE ARTICLES

Stay Connected!

Receive the latest updates in your inbox.

LATEST ARTICLES

If We Build It Will They Come? And Other Questions About the Proposed Boston Convention Center

In 1965 Boston’s War Memorial Auditorium (later Hynes Convention Center) opened to great fanfare and anticipation. But, by the mid 1970s, Boston officials were already proclaiming Hynes too small for growing conventions and promising that an expanded convention center would draw far more meetings and visitors to the city. An expansion of the Hynes was begun in 1985. When it finally opened three years later, the expectations were as optimistic as 23 years earlier. The center was expected to bring $500 million into the city’s economy and create 8,000 new jobs. Yet the convention business did not expand at the new Hynes. Even with the promise of free rent for meetings that booked early, the Hynes attracted in 1990, 1991, […]