500 Boylston Street

The 500 Boylston Street is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Philip Johnson/Burgee Architects, with Philip Johnson as lead architect, and built in 1989, for a reported $100 million dollars, in Boston, MA.

500 Boylston Street is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as The New England Phase 1.

Its precise street address is 500 Boylston Street, Boston, MA. You can also find it on the map here.

The 500 Boylston Street has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1989. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• Building of the year by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in 2005
• Building of the year by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in 2001
• Building of the year by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) in 1996

The Palladian-style windows and the entrance courtyard composed of columns and arches are one of the highlights of its architecture, and are considered by many to be a miniature replica of St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 2014 and 2015.

Philip Johnson/Burgee Architects, with Philip Johnson as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 500 Boylston Street a reality:

• Le Messieur in charge of Structural Engineering
• Hines Interests Limited Partnership as the Main Developer
• Cosentini Associates in charge of MEP Engineering

The 500 Boylston Street can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The 500 Boylston Street was completed in 1989. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The 500 Boylston Street was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The 500 Boylston Street uses a frame structure made of steel columns and poured concrete over metal decking slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing modular, or panelized system. This type of facade can function as either a window wall or a curtain wall, depending on the design. Unlike traditional glass curtain walls or window walls though, the modular facade is not primarily composed of glass. Instead, it often features more opaque panels that mimic masonry or stone-clad finishes, with smaller windows cut into the panels.

This type of facade allows the building to benefit from the modern qualities of a curtain wall while giving the design team flexibility to achieve visual aesthetics beyond the all-glass modern skyscraper.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features polished pink granite panels with aluminum-framed windows.

The exterior composition is symmetrical and organized in vertical bays defined by paired pilasters. The fenestration follows a two-tier arrangement, with rectangular windows on the lower sections and arched windows above. The windows are slightly recessed from within the granite cladding, emphasizing the depth of the wall surface, and are divided into smaller sections by white aluminum frames.