Best of the New: Spaces

Page 2 of 2 -- Smith & Wollensky

Inside this 19th-century armory, the bartenders treat everyone like kings. No wonder the bar scene has been bustling since its September opening. The bartenders, poached from a who's who of local upscale establishments, can tell you anything about their 550 wines. Drinks are pricey, but you're paying for the service and atmosphere, too: How often do you get to drink by a fireplace that warmed the First Corps of Cadets in the late 1800s?

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South Boston Maritime Park

Here at Northern Avenue and D Street, opposite Fish Pier, messages are carved into the granite steps and benches. They include markers that tell you how many rods you are from the harbor's edge, snippets of nautical poems by Robert Burns and John Masefield, and lessons in how to read weather warnings from flags. In warm months a cafe will emerge.

Street Makeovers

After years of bumps and holes, many area roads got new coats, some thanks to the Democratic National Convention. More than $3 million went into repaving. Highlights included Beacon Street from Arlington Street to Mass. Ave. and sections of Boylston Street. Cantabrigians have smooth sailing along a northern stretch of Mass. Ave. Somerville drivers glide down College Avenue, and Brookliners scoot along Harvard Street, enjoying new blacktop, lighting, and sidewalks.

Trinity Undercroft

A magnificent space mined out of the earth beneath Trinity Church in Copley Square, it serves as an informal assembly room. Architects Goody Clancy deepened and widened the shallow old basement, thus exposing the pyramidal bases of four granite piers that support the church above. A delicate tracery of wood spans the new space, giving it the feel of a garden house, while art-glass doors and partitions by Alexander Beleschenko are as delicate as a watercolor wash of distant scenery.

Parris Landing

Once you cross the soaring, swooping Zakim Bridge and take a right, you will be headed to Parris Landing at the Charlestown Navy Yard. And once you cross into the Philippe Starckre-designed interior, you will soar and swoop again as you take in a five-story, all-white common space in the 367-unit waterfront condominium. Starck has poured scoured concrete floors, refinished the doors in white, and added stainless-steel hardware. Stairways are concrete and glass, and whimsical Oldenburg-like sculptures will soon fill the atrium.

The following writers contributed to the "Best of the New" reports: Naomi Aoki, Alison Arnett, Carol Beggy, Chris Berdik, Karen Campbell, Robert Campbell, Monica Collins, Michelle Bates Deakin, Peter DeMarco, Geoff Edgers, Anthony Flint, Catherine Foster, Jan Gardner, Joshua Glenn, Meredith Goldstein, Ken Gordon, Amy Graves, Patrick Gerard Healy, Stephen Jermanok, Sheryl Julian, Patrick Kennedy, Doug Most, Kimberly Moy, Charles P. Pierce, Mark Pothier, James Reed, Bridget Samburg, Shira Springer, Lise Stern, Rachel Strutt, Tina Sutton, Emily Sweeney, Rachel Travers, and Joe Yonan. Send e-mails to magazine@globe.com.