What does it mean to truly see the world? And how do history and belief shape what we value and act on?

At Boston’s Christian Science Plaza, the Publishing House and Mapparium experience invites visitors into those questions, using a historic landmark to explore how personal perspective connects to global understanding. Across 21,000 square feet, the experience welcomes students, families, tourists, and members of the Christian Science community. Everyone arrives with a different relationship to the place. We designed for all of them.

Balancing reverence with renewal shaped every decision. We treated the building itself as the first artifact: preserve the landmark’s character, then weave in the layers that carry it forward. In the Welcome Hall, contemporary projection, circadian lighting, and an original score thread through the classical architecture, calibrated to the building rather than pasted onto it. We hid the projectors behind faux stone slabs. Visitors feel the light without ever seeing the source.

Then comes the Mapparium itself: three stories of inside-out stained glass, the world frozen as it appeared in 1935. Visitors cross a glass bridge through the center of the planet, continents glowing around them, as a new audio-and-light experience puts an unchanging map into conversation with a constantly changing world. The globe doesn’t move. The viewer does. That’s the point.

Beyond the globe, we drew on stories from The Christian Science Monitor and pages from the Mary Baker Eddy Library to build a sequence on observation, context, and compassion. Smart-glass vitrines hold the originals while digital animations turn fragile pages in the visitor’s hands. The originals are too delicate to touch; the animations come close enough to feel real. The journey lands at a contemplative installation where visitors leave reflections for the next person to find. Understanding, made collective.

Every sense engaged. Every step earned. Visitors leave seeing the world from the inside out, convinced that how we see it is how we move through it.