With little fanfare, Boston’s zoning Board of Appeal recently approved application for three major construction projects in the Back Bay. One would have thought the plans would have provoked a firestorm of opposition. Yet each sailed through the approval process with the support (or officially, the “non-opposition”) of the Back Bay’s neighborhood association. Each project provides a good object lesson to usually skeptical city officials and commercial developers of how neighborhood activism can work to both make a project better and protect and preserve the historic and residential interests of a neighborhood.

One project will fill in a hole at the corner of Boylston and Fairfield streets with a building housing Planet Hollywood — a restaurant and retail shop — and office space. Initial word of the Planet Hollywood notion was greeted with hostility by residents, this writer included. But as plans for the building evolved and compromises were made, it became clear that the developers were more than willing to fit the project into the neighborhood. Planet Hollywood, originally perceived as a nightclub, emerged more as a family restaurant with a cinematic theme. Deriving most of its revenue from food and retail sales rather than liquor, the restaurant will be located on the second and third floors of the building and the developers agreed to scale back its closing hours from 2 AM to 1 AM.

The neighborhood association worked all of this out after months of negotiations with the developer. Although there continue to be some outstanding issues — the architectural board has yet to decide on the building’s final height, for example — the result will be a building that should enhance the architectural quality of the Back Bay while filling in an empty and ugly hole in the street with what appears to be a good commercial neighbor.

Close by, at the intersection of Blagden Street and Huntington Avenue behind the Boston Public Library, sits an old, triangular-shaped office building. Its address is 25 Huntington Avenue, and the Raymond Cattle Company proposed tearing it down and building a new structure that would house residential rental units. As with Planet Hollywood, the neighborhood association quickly became involved and plans for the building went through several iterations. The result, quite frankly, is stunningly beautiful. The building will help knit together the South End and Back Bay and will help make an area that is notoriously unfriendly to pedestrians more compatible with those of us who are on foot. If everything is built as planned, my guess is we will have a landmark building that will enhance the library and Copley Square.

Finally, the Back Bay Hilton received approvals to construct a 42-room addition. The Hilton, which sits next to the Cheri Theater, is an ugly box of a hotel that plainly was not subject to the scrutiny that today’s proposals are receiving. The addition proposed by the applicant would add a glass bullnose to the apex of the building. Architecturally, the result is to lighten the blocky feel of the building and give it some character up and down its length. From the point of view of the owners, the additional rooms make good business sense and assists a city that cannot find enough places to put its visitors.

Jim English, a principal of Raymond Development Company, was asked at a recent forum why his company, the developer of 25 Huntington, focused so much on the Back Bay. It was the real estate values, he responded. And much of the credit for those values goes to the residents of the community who focus so much attention on maintaining the physical beauty of the Back Bay and its quality of life. Sure, its a pain. But every resident and every business ultimately benefits from that effort.