The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower vs Millennium Tower

Comparing the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower and the Millennium Tower is interesting because they both stand in Boston, MA, and were completed within 3 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Millennium Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 686ft (209m) with 60 floors above ground, while the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower reaches 495ft (151m) with 38 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower and the Millennium Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Handel Architects followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower and the Millennium Tower were designed to serve as residential towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

In terms of capacity, the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower offers 440 apartments, while the Millennium Tower provides 442 units.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower offering 500 spaces and the Millennium Tower offering 550.

Both the The Hub on Causeway Residential Tower and the Millennium Tower rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.