33 Arch Street is a

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

highrise A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

and Downtown Crossing neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. The building was completed in 2004 after three years of construction, which began on June 5, 2001. It is tied with the State Street Bank Building as Boston's 20th-tallest building, standing 477 feet (145 m) tall, and housing 33 floors. The 33rd floor is 392 feet (119 m) above grade and the top of the cooling tower screen is 429 feet (131 m) above grade. It was designed by

Elkus Manfredi Architects Elkus / Manfredi Architects is an architectural firm based in Boston, Massachusetts founded in 1988 by David Manfredi and the late Howard F. Elkus (1938–2017), both fellows of the American Institute of Architects. Its international projects inc ...

History

The builders had proposed a transparent glass building but ran into opposition from the historic Old South Meeting House. When the building was completed, it had a hard time finding tenants due to an office space glut and stood vacant upon completion. By 2005, 56% of the office space was rented and the average rent on a monthly parking space was $350. In March 2010, 33 Arch Street was awarded the LEED Gold designation from the

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

. In November 2010, the building was selected as BOMA's 2010-2011 Outstanding Building of the Year in the 500,000-1 Million Square Feet category.

Design and features

The building has views of

Boston Common The Boston Common (also known as the Common) is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street (139 Tremont St.), Park Street, Beacon ...

, the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

, City Hall Plaza, and Boston Harbor. 33 Arch Street offers over 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of office space and has 850 parking spaces in its underground

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

Architecture

The building has a unique wing shape to maximize the use of its tight footprint. The building strikes a balance with its surroundings and neighboring buildings through the use of the granite stone facade used to add to continuity of the urban streetscape. Yet, it is distinct from its neighbors by the extensive use of metal and glass in its exterior. The building facade features grey granite, glass and aluminum cladding. Twenty floors

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

over adjacent

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

space and a garage, which is connected to parking on the first six levels. The roof has a distinctive top that sets it apart from nearby flat roofs in the skyline. It features a curved penthouse and roof fins. The building uses four levels of external bracing transfer the enormous loads of the high building into the small base. The bracing continues through the parking levels to the foundation; perimeter and internal moment frames act as the lateral system above the braced levels. The building was the first to be built in downtown Boston under new Safety Guidelines-Subpart R for steel.

Development credits

*Architect: Elkus/Manfredi Architects, Ltd. *Structural Engineer: Weidlinger Associates, Inc. *MEP Engineer: Cosentini Associates, Inc. *Developer: Congress Group Ventures *General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease LMB/Congress Group Construction Joint Venture *Interior Construction: Spaulding & Slye Construction, a member of the Jones Lang LaSalle group *Curtainwall: Gordon H. Smith Corporation *Drywall: T.J. McCartney, Inc. *Elevators: Draper Elevator Interiors

Tenants

* ACE Group *

Digitas Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in Paris. After 1945, the little-known Paris ...

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a multinational law firm with offices in over 40 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2021, it had a total revenue of US$3.47 billion, an average profit per equity partner of ...

*Ameriprise Financial Services *QuickPivot (formerly Extraprise) *Databento *

CBRE Group CBRE Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate services and investment firm. The abbreviation CBRE stands for Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis. It is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 reven ...

WeWork WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...

References

External links

33 Arch Street official building site

Elkus Manfredi

Views from top floors
* — with photos
Photo by Robert Benson of Stubbins Associates interior design of Digitas Inc.’s office

Emporis.com
{{Boston skyscrapers Skyscraper office buildings in Boston Office buildings completed in 2004