POLL: Are More Skyscrapers Good for Boston?
Pending plans could mark the first major change to Boston's skyline in a quarter century.
After decades of more modest projects, Boston’s designers and architects may be reigniting a new age of Hub skyscrapers—the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1970s.
Millennium Partners has pitched a plan to erect a 606-foot tower at the former Filene’s site in Downtown Crossing; Simon Property Group snagged approval last fall for an addition to Copley Place which would bring the site’s full height to 600 feet, and the man who once pitched a 1,000-foot tower for the Financial District is in talks with city officials again for another plan for the site.
Should any of those projects reach their full height, they would be the first new buildings in Boston to stand at least 600 feet since 1987—when the pink columns of One International Place joined the city’s skyline.
Boston’s current tallest buildings:
- Hancock Tower, 60 floors, 790 feet, completed 1976.
- Prudential Tower, 52 floors, 749 feet, completed 1964.
- Federal Reserve, 32 floors, 614 feet, completed 1976.
- One Boston Place, 41 floors, 601 feet, completed 1970.
- One International Place, 46 floors, 600 feet, completed 1986.
Blase Gallo
8:17 am on Saturday, July 7, 2012
Although I am happy to see construction, tall towers are not necessarily the appropriate answer except to the developers. Boston is an historical city and I favor architecture that is compatible with that context, and not architecture that supports the egos of development teams.