Just a decade or two ago, Boston's Fenway Park stadium was surrounded by a smattering of surface parking lots, fast-food joints, gas stations and sports bars, an odd slice of Route 1-style suburban sprawl in the heart of the city.
Today, empty parking lots are fast becoming an endangered species in the Fenway neighborhood, one of the epicenters of new development in booming Boston—with the 350-ft Fenway Center tower just the latest in a series of projects set to transform the once dingy streets around the ballpark and next-door Kenmore Square as well.