Constitution Plaza

After running into financial turmoil in its early stages, the project was eventually taken-over and completed by Hartford-based Travelers Insurance Company.

Subject to periodic flooding (before the construction of riverfront dikes and Interstate 91) and in serious physical decline, this neighborhood was nostalgically known for its large Italian-American population and its eclectic collection of local restaurants, businesses and shops.

Situated at the eastern side of Hartford's downtown area, near Connecticut's landmark Old State House, this complex of office towers, commercial buildings, parking garages, and luxury apartments covers three city blocks, and is connected by a series of elevated pedestrian plazas and bridges.

As a result, Constitution Plaza today sits several feet above the city's streetscape, disconnected and mostly devoid of pedestrian life except during workdays.

However, as later office tower development occurred on adjacent blocks, in particular to the east and south, additional pedestrian bridges were built to connect them to the main Plaza level.

However, it's been noted these new window surfaces lack the character of the original dark glass and spandrel colors that gave the towers a sophisticated and more backdrop feel to the featured plaza and landscaping.

Vacated in 2007 and demolished in 2009, it was the long-time home of local CBS affiliate station, WFSB-TV who moved to a new building in the suburb of Rocky Hill in mid-2007.

"[1] Other structures include a U-shaped (former) retail court at its northern end, which was altered in the mid 1980s with a new five-level office complex 'piggybacked' on its eastern side that once housed Travelers Insurance Company's Training Center, which is now vacant.

Tying all these buildings together are well-detailed, large pedestrian spaces and overstreet bridges that showcase stylish walkways and paved areas, planter beds with professionally maintained landscaping, large potted trees, a modernist clock tower, reflecting pools and fountains designed by landscape architect Masao Kinoshita.

From the 1980s through the mid-2000s and through multiple ownerships, the mergers/demise and eventual vacating of most of the anchor corporate tenants, and Hartford's sharp economic decline which took hold in the early 1990s, it has called into question the Plaza's long-term viability without significant re-investment and maintenance.

Constitution Plaza was the site of many annual public events, such as the popular Festival of Lights during the holiday season (which has since been relocated in a scaled-down form to nearby Bushnell Park), and a number of concerts and sing-alongs.