You might notice something different about the Boston skyline Thursday night: Some of the office towers will be lit up in blue.
This will be the second year that the people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are honored in Boston in this waythanks in large part to Gogi Gupta. The founder of Back Bay marketing firm Gupta Media was moved by the “Tribute in Light” that takes place in downtown Manhattan every Sept. 11, and wanted his city to show some solidarity.
Working with his brokers, Ben Heller and Bryan Sparkes of JLL, as well as Mike Simonelli of Structure Tone, the firm that built out Gupta’s new Back Bay office, Gupta and his associates have roped in landlords such as BXP, Fortis Property Group, and Chiofaro Co.
“I don’t think we should leave it on New York’s shoulders,” Gupta said. “I think everybody has to remember that day.”
This year, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is getting involved, by lighting up the Zakim bridge, as is the city of Boston, by illuminating City Hall and the Bolling Building in Roxbury. Last week, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce encouraged its members to get involved in the cause. (And Gupta said he has colleagues in Cleveland and Minneapolis starting similar efforts in those cities.)
A whole generation is joining the workforce that wasn’t even born when the World Trade Center towers fell. Gupta worries that the horrors of 9/11 are fading from public consciousness, and that the significance of that day is starting to be forgotten. Maybe illuminating more than a dozen buildings in Boston can help prevent that from happening.
“If everyone takes a second and just remembers the lives lost,” Gupta said, “I will have achieved what I wanted to achieve.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
