Metro Center features the majority of Western Massachusetts' most important cultural institutions. For example, it features the
Springfield Armory National Park, which includes a museum featuring the world's largest historic firearm collection. A block west of the Armory is the
Quadrangle, which includes an extraordinary grouping of world-class and regional museums, each with a different focus. The Quadrangle features the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, which is known worldwide for having the largest collection of Chinese cloisonné outside of China. It also features the Museum of Fine Arts, which features a particularly strong European
Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist collection, including paintings by Monet, Degas, and Gauguin, among others. The American Collection features works by Springfielder
James McNeill Whistler. The Springfield Science Museum features the first-ever American
planetarium (built 1937,) Dinosaur Hall, and a live animal center. The Quadrangle's two regional museums are the
Connecticut River Valley History Museum, the most extensive compilation of information on the historic valley and its people; and the new Wood Museum of Springfield History, which showcases Springfield as
The City of Firsts in the context of American History.
Live entertainment near Court Square Springfield Symphony Hall at Court Square features famously "perfect acoustics," and frequent performances by the innovative
Springfield Symphony Orchestra. It also features traveling performances of
Broadway shows. Also, close by, the Community Music School of Springfield, located at 127 State Street, features musical programs during the day and evenings. Across the street, the
MassMutual Center features arena-scale rock concerts, conventions, and is home to Springfield's professional sports team, the
American Hockey League's
Springfield Thunderbirds. Within close walking distance are Rascal's, a comedy club at 1
Monarch Place, and Springfield's famous City Stage playhouse – a tiny modern playhouse that produces a range of works from philosophical modern plays, to Shakespeare, to children's entertainment.
The Club Quarter The area surrounding
Stearns Square has been Springfield' Club Quarter for over 120 years. As of 2011, Springfield's
Club Quarter continues to expand, now featuring over 70 clubs, bars, restaurants, and even historic gathering places such as Smith's Billiards,
The Student Prince, both extant since the early 20th century. For an example of the latter, the
Duryea brothers built the first American gasoline-powered car at a still existent building on Taylor Street – one of the few buildings in the district at that time, which was not a bar or club. An 1893 model Duryea stands in a small park outside of what is today Alumni Club at 90 Worthington Street, mere feet from the historically important Duryea shop. Springfield's most popular bars and clubs are an eclectic mix, featuring many different "scenes" which co-mingle peaceably, including hip-hop, rock, LGBT, jazz, strip clubs for both men and women, and blues. The restaurants and clubs by the
Basketball Hall of Fame also feature live music, Las Vegas-style shows and several sports bars.
Urban fabric Even by urban
New England standards, where downtowns are frequently
walkable like those in Europe, Springfield's is exceptionally so. It is composed of mixed-use residential, commercial, and institutional organizations. A majority of its buildings were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, giving it a Victorian look; however, there are numerous skyscrapers as well. Metro Center is cut off from the Connecticut Riverfront by Interstate 91, an 8-lane highway. Across Interstate 91 sits the
Basketball Hall of Fame complex, Springfield's largest tourist draw.
Legislature skyline height limit From 1908 until 1971, Springfield was subject to a skyline height limit – imposed by the Massachusetts State Legislature – of 125 feet, and thus Springfield has a relatively lower skyline than comparable cities of its population and economic and cultural importance. This trait is now looked on as a positive by developers at the Urban Land Institute, who have written "Metro Center now stands out from its peers, most of which long ago demolished the human-scale architecture that made their downtowns livable." During Springfield's resurgence in the new millennium, prominent architects – like
Moshe Safdie, who built the $57 million, 2008 U.S. Federal Court Building;
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, who built the $47 million, 2004 Basketball Hall of Fame; and
TRO Jung Brannen, who are building the $110 million, 2012
adaptive reuse of Springfield's original Technical High School – adapted to Springfield's human-scale to create monumental buildings rather than attempting to "achieve monumentalism through over-scaling," as has happened in other cities.
Transportation In 2012, Springfield's 1926 Union Station will receive a $75 million renovation (including $4 million pledged by
Connecticut) to become an intermodal transportation center, with
Peter Pan Bus' headquarters,
PVTA's headquarters, and
Greyhound all relocating to the new facility. This project will coincide with the start-up of Springfield's two new rail lines: the $1 billion, southbound
Springfield Hartford New Haven rail line, which will reportedly reach speeds up to 110 mph, making it the United States' first true "high-speed" train; and the $80 million, northbound Knowledge Corridor Intercity Commuter Rail, which will connect Springfield with its northern neighbors along the Connecticut River (e.g.
Northampton, Massachusetts) and terminate in
Brattleboro, Vermont. Ultimately, this renovation of the old Montrealer line will take passengers to
Montreal, Quebec, Canada. While billions of dollars are funding Springfield's north–south rail expansion, a more modest, combined $25 million recently improved Springfield's two main thoroughfares, Main Street and State Street. Both now feature artistic crosswalks and ornate streetlights, which add to the eclectic and increasingly whimsical atmosphere of Metro Center. The
2011 Greater Springfield tornado reversed much of Main Street's progress.
Interstate 91's placement inhibiting economic growth Metro Center provides quick access to
I-91 and
I-291, both of which connect to
I-90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike), making trips to
Boston,
Albany,
New York City,
Montreal,
Hartford,
Worcester, and
New Haven convenient by car. This convenience, however, came at a steep price to Springfielders: hasty, poor urban planning decisions during 1958 created the now elevated I-91 viaduct along the Connecticut River, which essentially cut off Springfield from the Connecticut, the parks surrounding it, and the
Basketball Hall of Fame complex, preventing foot traffic and resulting in untold losses of tourist dollars among other losses. In 2010, Boston's
Urban Land Institute proposed a vision for Springfield's riverfront; however, as of 2011, Interstate 91 remains a physical barrier between Springfield, the Connecticut River, and the Basketball Hall of Fame. The position of I-91 and its blockage of the Connecticut River – along with the cement covering of the Mill River – are challenges that Springfield officials say they plan on addressing in upcoming years. Recent academic papers have documented negative economic and sociological effects of I-91's placement in Springfield – it has fragmented three neighborhoods, inhibited the economic growth of Springfield's most valuable land – on the Riverfront and around the Basketball Hall of Fame – and essentially made the river inaccessible to people as a place for recreation and tourism. Recent city planning polls rate Springfield's I-91 among the worst urban planning decisions made by an American city. The highway's inhibiting effects on riverfront development were exacerbated during the 1980s and 1990s, when giant, above-grade highway parking lots were built underneath I-91, and later when earthen, grassy mounds and 20-foot limestone walls were constructed around large sections of it, blocking all but the tallest Metro Center buildings' views of the Connecticut River, and discouraging economic and social interaction between Metro Center and the
Basketball Hall of Fame. ==Buildings==