The Federal Reserve Bank Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Stubbins and Associates, with Hugh Stubbins as lead architect, and built between 1969 and 1977 in Boston, MA.
Its precise street address is 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA. You can also find it on the map here.
The Federal Reserve Bank Building has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1977. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:
Stubbins and Associates, with Hugh Stubbins 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 Federal Reserve Bank Building a reality:
The Federal Reserve Bank Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.
Postmodernism in architecture emerged in the United States during the late 1960s as a reaction against the starkness of the International Style, which part of the new generation of architects argued was too impersonal, sterile, and disconnected from historical and cultural contexts.
Postmodernism challenged the International Style's austerity by reintroducing historical elements and ornamentation, although this time not as literally as in the Neo-Classic buildings. Instead, they reinterpreted them within the context of modern materials and construction techniques.
Postmodern buildings often feature bold, contrasting colors, unconventional forms, and a playful blend of various architectural elements from different eras and cultures.
In the United States, Postmodernism was not just an aesthetic choice but also a philosophical stance. It represented a democratization of design, where architects sought to create buildings that were accessible and meaningful to a broader range of people, not just designers and intellectuals.
The Federal Reserve Bank Building was completed in 1977. 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 Federal Reserve Bank Building was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.
The Federal Reserve Bank Building reaches an architectural height of 614ft (187m). It has a total of 32 floors.
Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1977, the Federal Reserve Bank Building has mainly been used as Commercial space.
The Federal Reserve Bank Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and reinforced concrete 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 structure of this building is quite remarkable. Two structural towers on each side made from a trussed steel frame (later clad in white marble) guide all vertical forces to the ground. Huge trussed beams span from tower to tower at several points, and from those, the floors hangFrom an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light-green tinted glass with natural anodized aluminum spandrels, which also act as sunshades to the floor immediately below, and white marble.
Two solid walls on each side are the only elements that reach the ground. The offices "float" between these two structural elements.
