MassArt’s Paul Hajian Provides Commentary on Planned Office Building Behind Fenway Park

A baseball player in a Red Sox uniform prepares to catch a ball in front of Fenway Park’s iconic green outfield wall, with a large red brick wall and sky in the background.

Player by Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff; Green Monster by Charles Krupa/AP; Bricks and paper from adobe stock. Illustration by Keilani Rodriguez/Globe Staff

Faculty in the News
Architecture

In a recent Boston Globe article, MassArt’s Paul Hajian, Director of the Graduate Program in Architecture, reflects on the visual impact of the legendary Green Monster as plans move forward for a seven-story office building behind Fenway Park.

Hajian explains that the wall’s iconic presence is heightened by the open blue sky behind it. “If you put a solid color behind the Green Monster, it’s going to pop — that’s what the blue sky does to it,” he notes. The introduction of a brick building could dramatically alter that effect.

A lifelong Red Sox fan, Hajian recalls the awe he felt as a child stepping into Fenway Park. “As a kid you think it’s huge, like 100 feet. It seems insurmountable, and that’s part of its mystique,” he says.