O’Neill Plaza

Lying on the main path between the Lower Campus, where most upperclassmen live, and McElroy Commons, a center of student activity, O’Neill Plaza is the crossroads of the University. This camera is mounted on the roof above the entrance to O’Neill Library, which was dedicated in 1984 with a speech on the plaza by its namesake, then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. ’36. Visible at the left, across the wide steps, is Devlin Hall, home of the McMullen Museum of Art, undergraduate admission office, and the departments of fine arts and geology and geophysics. To the right is Gasson Hall, or the “Tower Building,” Boston College’s signature structure and the first building to be erected (1913) on what had been a 31-acre gentleman’s farm.

O’Neill Plaza was designed in the European tradition of urban plazas. A large, open space bordered by important buildings, with pathways radiating from its center, it functions as a site for large political, social, and religious gatherings.  A stage for some of the University’s largest events—including the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit, and the annual spring Arts Festival—O’Neill Plaza was also the site of a prayer service at noon on September 11, 2001 that drew thousands of members of the Boston College community.