The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower

Hub On Causeway Residential Tower
  1. About the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower in Boston
    1. Prizes & Awards
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and built between 2016 and 2019 in Boston, MA.

The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Hub50House.

Its precise street address is 50 Causeway Street, Boston, MA. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2020 the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower was awarded with the PRISM Gold Award.

The Hub on Causeway consists of a six-story structural steel podium that supports three towers:

  • The Hub on Causeway Office Tower
  • A lower Hotel Tower
  • The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower (This article focuses on this tower)

This complex is built over a four-level underground parking garage with a capacity for 800 cars and several MBTA subway tunnels. At the center lies a five-story arcade, sheltered by a steel-and-glass canopy and flanked by restaurants, markets, and shops. It culminates in a grand entrance designed to direct pedestrians toward the North Station transportation hub .

Building's timeline

Construction begins
2016
8
Construction completed
2019
5
years ago
2024

Architect and team

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 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 The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower a reality:

  • Le Messieur in charge of Structural Engineering
  • Kone as the company in charge of the elevators system
  • Boston Properties, and Delaware North as the Main Developer
  • Constantini in charge of MEP Engineering
  • Copley Wolff Design Group in charge of Landscape Architecture

Architectural Style

The The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

Contemporary style architecture builds on top of the principles of Modernism and Postmodernism, but incorporates other variables which might not have been that important in the past, but certainly are today, such as technology, sustainability, inclusivity, and others.

From a historical point of view, it is hard to categorize things from a not-so-distant time, and therefore we choose to categorize most buildings built after the year 2000 as "Contemporary". It is possible that as time goes by and we, as a society, gain perspective on the things happening today, we'll be able to look back and recategorize all these buildings into more concrete subsections, some of which might not even exist today.

Spaces & Uses

The The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower reaches an architectural height of 495ft (151m). It has a total of 38 floors.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 500 spots available, which roughly equals 13 spots per floor (above ground).

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 2019, the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower has mainly been used as Residential space.

About the residences

The The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower has a total of 440 residential units throughout its 38 floors. If you are interested in learning more about the residences and their availability, you can check the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower's website.

495ft (151m)

Materials & Structure

The The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and concrete, and steel 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 curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade
Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade

The residential tower, built using a concrete frame system, utilized ultra-high-strength concrete reinforcement in the boundary elements of the core walls. This approach reduced the total amount of reinforcement required, minimized the number of pieces to be installed, and shortened the construction time

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a blue-tinted glass curtain wall with aluminum details. The aluminum details come in two colors, light and dark grey, and alternate to mark each floor's slab. They also run vertically on some facades, creating a decorative pattern.

There are several curtain wall modules. Some are composed of one single floor-to-ceiling glass pane, while others are divided into a smaller, fixed glass spandrel, and a larger superior pane which can be slightly opened to allow for natural ventilation.

Sources

  • en.wikipedia.org
  • www.lemessurier.com
  • www.bxp.com
  • www.tdgarden.com
  • www.greenengineer.com
  • www.hub50house.com