It's hard to feel romantic about a development, but romance definitely shaped Lyrik Back Bay's design.
Lyrik Back Bay represents Boston’s first successful air rights development in more than 40 years and a step toward knitting back together neighborhoods the construction of Interstate 90 cleaved in the 1960s.
In recognition, the project earned a 2025 CoStar Impact Award for commercial development of the year in Boston, as judged by a panel of local industry professionals.
From its perch above the Massachusetts Turnpike, the $1.1 billion mixed-use development physically and economically bridges Boston’s Fenway and Back Bay neighborhoods, creating new opportunities and revitalized public spaces. Lyrik’s design integrates seamlessly with Boston’s historic and modern landscapes, according to the firm that submitted the award, and its name is a nod to its acclaimed neighbors, the Berklee College of Music and the Boston Pops. Its terraced plaza is an invitation to the community to gather for cultural events.
And it's that plaza that encourages romance.
In discussions with the community, Samuels & Associates Management discovered that the highway overpass was a spot where couples would take in the unobstructed view of the sunset. That there was a chain-link fence in their way didn't matter.
"This is when the project really came alive and became what it is today," Greg Contente, vice president of development at Samuels & Associates, said in an interview. After one community member expressed concern about the possibility of losing the view, staff went to the spot at dusk the next evening. They found several couples enjoying the sunset.
The developer addressed the dilemma by creating a tiered plaza for all to enjoy — with a direct line of sight to that sunset.
"Beyond just a new hotel and tower attracting marquee tenants, the new development also activated a long-blighted stretch along Massachusetts Avenue, allowing for residents, tenants, and visitors to use thoughtfully designed greenspace as small escape from the city," said Impact Awards judge Mark Fallon, director of research and strategy at Hunneman. "This type of thoughtful development that allows use of newly created space for everyone, not just visitors at the hotel or tenants of the building, goes a long way in ensuring the building and associated developments become entwined with the fabric of the city."
Construction was no easy feat, with railroad tracks on one side, the turnpike in the middle, and Green Line subway tracks below on the other. At no time were they allowed to stop traffic, on the highway or on the tracks. Construction called for driving more than 800 steel beams along the side of the highway and into the median at depths of up to 170 feet in the bedrock. Coordinating with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the city of Boston, and the community, they set to work in the dark of night. State Police vehicles would line up across the highway, driving slowly to slow down traffic as workers attached the deck.
"Never before had we done so much logistics and upfront planning," Contente said.
About the project: Lyrik Back Bay, completed in 2024, spans 450,000 square feet of mixed-use space, including CarGurus' global headquarters and the Lego Group's North American headquarters, as well as 35,000-plus square feet of retail and dining and a 150,000-square-foot, all-electric hotel. The development comprises two buildings and two levels of underground parking: 1001 Boylston, 20 stories that houses office space for CarGurus, LEGO Group and other corporate offices; and 400 Newbury St., citizenM’s largest hotel in their portfolio and Boston’s first fully electrified high-rise. A two-level public plaza featuring lush greenery and retail uses connects them.
Lyrik provides much-improved pedestrian access and public safety measures, such as widening sidewalks from 10 feet to 40 feet to accommodate increased pedestrian traffic, rebuilding the Massachusetts Avenue intersection, relocating the existing Interstate 90 on-ramp for better traffic flow and accessibility, establishing a bike lane, adding a modern bus shelter and incorporating a Blue Bikes station, according to the firm that submitted the award.
Lyrik officially opened to the public in September 2024. The remaining retail and commercial tenants including Lego, Avra Estiatorio, ChiCha San Chen, Pink Carrot, George Howell Coffee and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream are expected to move in this fall.
The development generated 1,300 construction jobs and is projected to create roughly 2,750 permanent on-site jobs across the office, retail, restaurant and hotel sectors. Lyrik also contributed nearly $5 million in housing and job linkage payments to the community.
What the judges said: Impact Awards judge Garry Holmes, president of RW Holmes Realty Co., called Lyrik a "very impressive and complicated development deal, especially when you factor in the challenges associated with the air rights," while fellow judge David Hark, principal of Drumlin Group, said it was a "game-changer for the neighborhood." Judge Drew Kirkland, senior associate at Northeast Private Client Group, said it was "the perfect 'end cap' to the Newbury Street retail corridor," and another judge, Director of Research & Strategy Mark Fallon at Hunneman, praised it for attracting Lego Group in "the largest corporate relocation of the year."
UPDATED They made it happen: Samuels & Associates Management leaders behind the development were Steven Samuels, chairman and principal; Joel Sklar, president and principal; Peter Sougarides, principal; Abe Menzin, principal and executive vice president of development; Greg Contente, vice president of development; Sienna DeSantis, development manager; Jon Elliot, vice president of construction; Rachael Diharce, vice president of leasing; Andi Simpson, senior vice president of creative and marketing strategy; and Jeremy Ouellette, vice president of portfolio operations.