Boston Garden - Design

Design

Rickard built the arena specifically with boxing in mind, believing that every seat should be close enough to see the "sweat on the boxers' brows." Because of this design theme, fans were much closer to the players during Bruins and Celtics games than in most arenas, leading to a distinct hometown advantage. This physical proximity also created spectacular acoustic effects. When teams made playoff appearances, and a sold-out crowd was chanting or screaming, the impact was enormous.

Due to the success of the Celtics in the 1980s, the Boston Garden was one of the most difficult buildings for visiting NBA teams to play in. During the 1985-86 season, the Celtics were 40-1 at home, setting the NBA record for home court mastery. They also finished the post-season undefeated at home. Combined with the following regular season, the Celtics' Garden record was an amazing 79-3 between the 1985-86 and 1986-87 regular seasons.

The parquet floor was an important part of the history and lore of the Celtics; however, it was not originally part of the Garden. The parquet floor was built and installed in the extant Boston Arena (now known as Northeastern University's Matthews Arena), but was moved to the Garden in 1952. It is said that the Celtics knew which way the basketball would bounce off any particular section of the floor; this was one contributing factor to the Celtics' many NBA championships. The floor became as much a part of Boston sports lore as the Green Monster of Fenway Park. The parquet floor was used at the FleetCenter until December 22, 1999. Portions of the original floor are integrated with new parquet. The floor was cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs of the original Boston Garden. Seats and bricks from the Boston Garden were also sold. The Naden/Day Industries overhead scoreboard (which was electro-mechanical, not electronic, as more recent arenas used) of the Boston Garden can be seen hanging in the Boston Garden themed foodcourt of the Arsenal Mall in Watertown, Massachusetts. The Celtics' old championship banners and retired numbers now hang at the team practice facility in Waltham, Massachusetts; a new set of banners (in Futura Condensed font for the championship banners and Helvetica for the retired numbers) were made in time for the move to the FleetCenter (now TD Garden). Likewise, the Bruins made a new set of banners when they moved to the FleetCenter.