Flustered, I approached the front desk and asked the clerk for help. When I arrived, I found no signs outside touting the observation deck, nor directions about how to get upstairs. I coasted back down the steep hill on Monument Avenue, resolved to head across the Charles and try my luck instead at Boston’s original skyscraper: the Custom House. A flock of tourists were gathered around the base of the granite obelisk, reading a National Park Service sign stating that the monument remained closed due to COVID concerns. I rode over to the Bunker Hill Monument, but upon my arrival I immediately realized I’d need to come up with another plan. While I knew the Prudential Tower’s observation deck was closed for renovations, I wasn’t prepared for how insurmountable the challenge of getting my bird’s-eye view would prove to be. Whenever I needed a break from the frantic rush to close an issue, I’d head up to the employees-only lounge on the 64th floor, look out at the skyline and beyond, and feel my pulse steady and my breath deepen. Before moving to the Boston area, I worked for a magazine in New York that had its office at One World Trade Center. What’s more, I knew firsthand that, like seeing a landscape from a mountaintop, getting up above the hustle and bustle of a city and gazing out has a calming, therapeutic effect. After 18 months of rattling around my corner of Cambridge during the pandemic, I found myself yearning for the urban connection and sense of place you can only get from looking down at a city from a great height. On a warm day earlier this fall, I left home on my bike with a simple goal: to get a decent view of Boston.
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