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The Boston Landmarks Commission voted unanimously to declare Paul Rudolph’s Blue Cross Blue Shield building a local landmark.this announcement Efforts have been made to preserve the Brutalist building for many years, a campaign that began in 2006.
Blue Cross – Blue Shield is a 13-story, 120,000-square-foot concrete tower located at 133 Federal Street in downtown Boston, completed in 1960. It is one of Paul Rudolph’s three buildings in the city of Boston and is the architect’s tallest building.
This Brutalist tower is famous for its Y-shaped precast concrete piers. columns made from large pieces of white quartz aggregate; and a new HVAC system concealed within the non-load-bearing columns.Rudolph hopes the building’s opaqueness and heaviness will challenge the rampant glass curtain construction in cities across the United States
Rudolph’s project at 133 Federal Street is the first new ground-up building in Boston’s central business district since the 1920s, marking a turning point in the city’s history after years of economic stagnation. In 1975, Sasaki renovated the tower’s ground floor to accommodate a new bank. Its basement level has had a variety of uses over the years, including an art gallery.
In 2006, then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (who certainly didn’t like Brutalist architecture) proposed demolishing Rudolph’s Blue Cross-Blue Shield building and replacing it with designs by Renzo Piano ’s new 75-story “iconic tower.” But as soon as preservationists heard about the proposal, they took action, calling for a 90-day moratorium on demolition to determine whether Blue Cross-Blue Shield was of sufficient historic significance to deserve preservation.
The 2007-8 recession hampered commercial demand for the Piano Tower, so demolition plans at Blue Cross – Blue Shield were put on hold. Following this, the Boston Landmarks Commission determined in 2009 that the Blue Cross-Blue Shield building was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which provided the opportunity to submit an application for landmark status to the City of Boston.
After the economy rebounded, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) revisited development plans for the site. The BRA issued an RFP and received five responses, including one from Trans National Properties, which proposed demolition of Blue Cross-Blue Shield’s twin-tower project to coincide with another development site at 115 Winthrop Place. The plan looked like it would come to fruition, but was halted in 2017.
Fast forward to November 2023, and the Boston Landmarks Commission released a study on Blue Cross – Blue Shield’s proposed landmark designation under Chapter 772 of the 1975 Act.
A few months ago, Boston city officials again decided to recommend landmarking another Brutalist building, Gerhard Kalman and Michael McKinnell’s Boston City Hall.
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