Hub on Causeway Office Tower vs One Congress Building

Comparing the Hub on Causeway Office Tower and the One Congress Building is interesting because they both stand in Boston, MA, and were completed just one year apart, 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 One Congress Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 646ft (197m) with 43 floors above ground, while the Hub on Causeway Office Tower reaches 525ft (160m) with 31 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 Hub on Causeway Office Tower and the One Congress Building 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 Gensler and Pelli Clark & Partners 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 Hub on Causeway Office Tower and the One Congress Building were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with Hub on Causeway Office Tower offering 800 spaces and the One Congress Building offering 1160.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The Hub on Causeway Office Tower uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the One Congress Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, that combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, 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.