The Precedent-Setting Possibilities of the New Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate opens officially in Boston on Tuesday, sited right next door to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, overlooking the deep blue waters of Massachusetts Bay. Slanted and minimalist and purist white, the new structure seems at first like an extension of the museum honoring the late senator’s brother, so thoroughly has the architect Rafael Vinoly honored I.M. Pei, who designed the JFK complex.

Yet there is no mistaking, this is a major addition to the promontory known as Columbia Point in Boston’s Dorchester section. In addition to the institutions dedicated to the Kennedy brothers, the Massachusetts state archives and the Commonwealth Museum are located there, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston is transforming its adjacent campus with a flurry of new building. Visitors arrive by the busload to this area well south of downtown Boston. For a moment I was reminded of the memorial proliferation along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which has been so crowded with destinations, Congress has essentially banned any more.