601 Congress Street
Boston
Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Glass oasis sails into Boston Harbor

© Peter Vanderwarker

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SOM’s 601 Congress Street encompasses some 690,000 square feet, large by most standards and especially large given the office building’s prominent location in an emerging district of South Boston. But the building’s unusual curtainwall system helps dematerialize it: subtly cuing passersby to its presence yet fading into the sky. Truthfully, few people walk past this building, but thousands of drivers catch a glimpse of it through a cut in the roof of Ted Williams Tunnel, a major traffic artery abutting the building’s southern elevation.

Although the plan for 601 Congress assumes a curvy form, it does not strictly adhere to the site’s meandering property lines. The design team determined its footprint as they subtracted and added volumes within the tower’s upper floors. For instance, at the northeast corner of the building, a 15-story tower signals its presence on the horizon like the prow of a ship sailing into Boston Harbor, just one block distant. The northern elevation then gently curves away, dropping four stories and stepping back from the street.

The building’s most unique feature is its double-skin glazing, among the first applications of this highly efficient curtainwall system in the U.S. Two layers of low-E glass enclose an eight-inch cavity containing vertically mounted aluminum sunshades. In addition to reducing solar load on the building, this inner cavity allows waste air to circulate back to the building’s cooling plant without requiring mechanical extraction. The floor-to-floor curtainwall also deadens sound transmission, which is an important consideration at 601 Congress Street, because it stands just a short distance from Logan Airport.

The curtainwall is only one of many eco-friendly elements in this building. Its roof is covered by tall prairie grasses that tolerate the windswept climate of Boston Harbor and provide habitat for birds and insects. The green roof also helps insulate the building, reduces solar load, and lessens the urban heat island affect. Office tenants may access a part of it from the tower’s twelfth floor. The architects liken this experience to standing on a cliff above the sea, with tall grasses waving in the wind like a moving sculpture.

Formal name of Project:
601 Congress Street

Location:
Boston

Gross square footage:
690,000 sq. ft.

Owner:
Manulife Financial www.manulife.com

Architect:
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
224 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60604
www.som.com

From left to right: Ermenegildo DiIorio, Bernie Gandras, Jeffrey McCarthy, D. Stanton Korista, William Baker, Adrian Smith, Lynn Boeke