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Over the years, Back Bay’s most famous street has proven to be amazingly adaptable. How else could fashion boutiques as au courant as Diesel and DKNY blend so seamlessly into their 140-year-old brownstone environs? This uncanny adaptability provides for the liveliest, most eclectic street scene in Boston: a babble of languages, skater punks walking alongside catwalk models, and delivery trucks and Ferraris jockeying for the same parking space – it’s all here (see Around Newbury Street).

When I. M. Pei’s 60-story John Hancock Tower was completed in 1976, Bostonians feared Trinity Church would be overshadowed by its gleaming upstart neighbor. Yet H. H. Richardson’s masterpiece, dedicated in 1877, remains just as vital to Copley Square, and as beautiful, as it appeared on its opening day (see Trinity Church).

Although this McKim, Mead, and White-designed building went up in 1895, the Boston Public Library was actually founded in 1848 and is the oldest publiclyfunded library in the country. The interior’s Greco-Roman style cues lavish use of marble, and John Singer Sargent’s powerful “Judaism and Christianity” mural sequence clearly illustrates how highly public education was valued when the library was constructed. Guided tours offer insight into the building’s architecture and history.

The perfect setting for a leisurely bike ride, an invigorating jog, or a lazy, languid afternoon of soaking up the sun, the Esplanade is one of the city’s most popular green spaces. This gorgeous ribbon of green hugging the Charles’ river banks was inspired by Venetian canals. July 4th (see Fourth of July) at the Esplanade’s Hatch Shell concert venue brings the world-famous Boston Pops orchestra along with thousands of revelers to enjoy the incomparable mix of music, good cheer, and awe-inspiring fireworks.

Founded in 1936, the country’s oldest non-collecting contemporary arts institution rewards its visitors with challenging, cutting-edge exhibitions. Over the years, the ICA has shown video installations, customized cars, and even blowtorches by internationally celebrated guest artists. Another ICA endeavor is its Vita Brevis program, which introduces works of contemporary art into public spaces around the city.

With its leafy pedestrian mall and belle époque -inspired architecture, Commonwealth Avenue aptly deserves its comparison to les rues parisiennes . A morning jog on the mall is a popular pastime, as is the occasional picnic or afternoon snooze on a bench. Highlights include Boston’s first Baptist church (110 Clarendon; closed to non-worshipers) and the pedestrian mall’s stately statues, including the William Lloyd Garrison bronze, sculpted by local artist Anne Whitney.

Although difficult to imagine, the Prudential Tower’s 52 stories seem dwarfed by the huge swathe of street-level shops and restaurants that comprise the Prudential Center. With its indoor shopping mall, food court, supermarket, cluster of residential towers, and massive convention center, the Prudential Center is like a self-contained city within a city. For a jaw-dropping view of Boston, visit the Skywalk on the tower’s 50th level (see Prudential Skywalk), or the Top of the Hub Lounge (see Top of the Hub Lounge) two floors above.

While believers head for the Romanesque-Byzantine basilica, the library (entered from Massachusetts Avenue) emphasizes inspirational facets of the founder’s life rather than church doctrine of the power of faith over sin and disease. The Mapparium, a walkthrough stained glass globe with 1935 political boundaries, remains the most popular exhibit. Peer into the newsroom of the Christian Science Monitor. Outside, a 670 ft- (204-m) long reflecting pool designed by I. M. Pei is lined with begonias, marigolds, and columbines.

One of the first private residences to be built in Back Bay (c.1859), Gibson House remains beautifully intact. The house has been preserved as a monument to the era, thanks largely to the efforts of its final resident (the grandson of the well-to-do woman who built the house). So frozen in time does this house appear that you might feel like you’re intruding on someone’s inner sanctum, and an earlier age. Highlights of the tour include some elegant porcelain dinnerware, 18th-century heirloom jewelry, and exquisite black walnut woodwork throughout the house.

In the lobby of the New England Financial building, a series of eight murals depicts scenes from Boston’s most formative moments. Mounted in 1942 by a Beaux Arts star pupil, Charles Hoffbauer, the series commemorates events such as the pilgrims’ welcome by the Samoset Indians in 1621 and the 1797 launching of the USS Constitution (see USS Constitution).