Opened in 1964, Boston's Prudential Center is an office tower, hotel and shopping complex on Boylston Street just west of Copley Square in the Back Bay near the Hynes Convention Center (map).

Bounded by Boylston Street, Huntington Avenue and Dalton Street, the Prudential Center is built in part) above the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90). The Prudential Tower, centerpiece of the complex, is a rectangular 52-storey skyscraper that, with its antenna, is the tallest building in Boston, inching above the nearby John Hancock Tower.

Unless they're staying in the Sheraton Boston Hotel in the complex, most visitors to "the Pru" come to visit the Prudential Skywalk Observatory observation deck on the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower, the tallest observation deck in New England.

The Top of the Hub Restaurant on the 52nd floor enjoys the same panorami view. There's no fee to enter the restaurant, but you're expected to sit and drink and/or dine.

Many also come to shop in The Shops at the Prudential Center, spread throughout the complex. The more than 75 shops and restaurants include Barnes & Noble, The Cheesecake Factory, Lacoste, Legal Sea Foods, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sephora.

The Shops at the Prudential Center are connected by an elevated, glass-enclosed pedestrian walkway to the Copley Place complex on the east side of Huntington Avenue.

Boston Duck Tours start their jolly amphibious-vehicle city tours from the Prudential Center. You can buy your tickets here.

To reach the Prudential Center by subway, take an MBTA subway Green Line train to the Copley Square station, the Hynes Convention Center station, or the Prudential Center station. The center also has a large underground parking garage.

You might want to consider including a stop at the Prudential Center in your Back Bay walk along Commonwealth Avenue and/or Newbury Street.

Prudential Center
800 Boylston Street (map)
Boston MA 02199

—by Tom Brosnahan

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