One Lincoln Street Building vs Exchange Place Building

Comparing the One Lincoln Street Building and the Exchange Place Building is interesting because they both rise in Boston, MA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, TRO Jung Brannen and WZMH Architects, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of Boston across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The Exchange Place Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 509ft (155m) with 40 floors above ground, while the One Lincoln Street Building reaches 463ft (141m) with 36 floors above ground.

Exchange Place Building also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,240,001 sqf (115,200m²), which is about 125,722 sqf (11,680m²) more than what the One Lincoln Street Building offers.

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 One Lincoln Street Building and the Exchange Place Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

The One Lincoln Street Building was designed at a moment when the Postmodernism style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the Exchange Place Building style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the Exchange Place Building was built when the style still carried greater cultural weight.

Both the One Lincoln Street Building and the Exchange Place 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 One Lincoln Street Building offering 900 spaces and the Exchange Place Building offering 126.

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

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

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.