Boston Landmarks Commission Evaluates Mid-Century Modern Buildings

The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) has completed a new survey of 147 mid-century modern buildings in Boston’s Central Business District. The survey includes buildings constructed between 1920 and 1979 and provides new and updated information for buildings that were last surveyed in 1979-80. The survey was completed by consultants Wendy Frontiero and Lynn Smiledge and was funded through a Survey and Planning grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

“Without a doubt, Boston has one of the most important collections of mid-century modern buildings in the nation,” says David Fixler, a principal at Einhorn Yaffee Prescott and President of DOCOMOMO/US-New England, an organization dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings from this period. “The survey makes a broad range of information available that will help the public better appreciate and understand the buildings.”

In light of new information and changing perspectives, the BLC’s survey identifies 57 buildings that are potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, either individually or as part of a district. The National Register of Historic Places is the Nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Buildings on the National Register may receive historic rehabilitation tax credits, which can assist in making renovation and restoration projects feasible.

The buildings deemed eligible for the National Register in the new survey range from the unassuming St. Anthony’s Shrine/Worker’s Chapel (Maurize A. Reidy, 1952), to the dramatic Federal Reserve Bank (Hugh Stubbins & Associates, 1973), to the contextual Boston 5 Cents Savings Bank (Kallman & McKinnell, 1972).

The consultants also make a clear recommendation that a number of twentieth century National Register Districts in the area be pursued by the sponsoring agencies for the survey, the BLC and the MHC. They especially call out Government Center as an “extraordinary collection” of modern architecture in the city.

While Boston’s modern buildings have not always been well undrstood or appreciated, many people have noted a shift in attidudes in the past couple of years. An acclaimed exhibit by the pinkcomma gallery in Boston’s South End featuring the city’s heroic twentieth century concrete buildings is just one example of modernism making its way into public discourse about Boston’s built heritage. Recent press seems to affirm changing opinions, including a Boston Globe Magazine article on the city's mid-century architecture in January.


See photos and the locations of some of Boston’s most interesting mid-century modern buildings on the Alliance website at http://tinyurl.com/yhjrgsv