1 Financial Center: 590' or.....
Could it be taller?
For reference, the base elevation (AMSL) of 1 Financial Ctr is 16 feet.
In 1983, while walking around near the State House, i noticed steel going up on Dewey Square. As the weeks went by, the steel kept rising skyward. i knew my Dad was working with architects on some highrise projects--so, i made sure to ask him if he knew how tall this was going to go. He stated without the least bit of interest, "600'."
Good. It wasn't crazy like in the 70's when Dad took me around Downtown. But a few wrecking balls, and rubble being hauled away could still be seen. Still, a few buildings whose time had come to their end were still coming down. It was cool to see new tall buildings, and reading articles in the Globe's Real Estate section about the new ones being presented, or going u/c.
The shape of Dewey Square was more pleasing to my eyes than the Boston Company bldg (1 Boston Pl), or the dull, 70's buildings. To me, this was more, the type of tower you'd expect to see along [the Avenue of the America's].
600'. Cool. Let's get more of these!
It was the end of the White Admn, which brought so much height.
Then, rather quickly, it all kinda stopped.
International Place (1987) you say?
No, that was not fun--
It was more, a fair warning about what was to come.....
Then end of the Mass tech boom, Big Dig, & Great Recession probably held us down a good while longer.
Ray Flynn took office in Jan, 1984. It wouldn't be too long after, that the new mayor soon found himself under fire for the highrise construction "ruining Boston."
i suspect it was around this time, the White/Flynn Admn may have started fibbing more about the heights of some of the Downtown towers. With no internet back in those days--it wasn't hard to keep that stuff quiet. And they sorta did.
Three White/Ryan (BRA) towers had put the area around Faneuil Hall under new shadow. First, 60 State, then, a few years later with Post Office Square and Exchange Place. There was also Dewey Square going up over by South Station. Much of Boston had been getting the wrecking balls, and dug up for 25 years. The trend was beginning to anger a bunch of people. They seemed to get louder as the months passed.
Feeling that heat, Flynn issued a decree that construction would be capped at ~400' or 450' (i don't recall the exact #). The Beacon Hill coterie convinced the mayor to stop permitting tall towers.
Along comes Don Chiofaro--hyper-focused on building skyscrapers (hey/right), starting with his IP proposal and designs on 700'. Don walks into City Hall in a trench coat covering his Harvard Football jersey blaring Eye of the Tiger.
The next many months would be spent sparring with the Flynn Admn and BRA director, Stephen Coyle. They wanted the IP scaled down. Don reduced the main tower down to @600' and "not a g_dammed foot lower."
The process that would eventually permit 600' wasn't bludgeoned by an army organized on Facebook, or other morons, psychopaths and mental defectives "threatening interlopers." But, it sure was a 'thing:' featuring months of protracted negotiations and the Brahmin millionaire bickering vs the upstart developer.
What struck as a bit odd: Don wanted to lay claim to building the tallest Downtown tower ever. When that went by the wayside, it became 'tallest in Boston in the '1980s.' But, Dewey Square completed a few years earlier was 600' (right?)--and it was practically right next door.
Why didn't Chiofaro want his building to eclipse 1 Boston Place (601') and Dewey Square [(600') as i believed it to be]?
Years later, i saw 1 Financial Center given as 590' on a list of Boston's tallest. Hmm. i'd notice dubious heights assigned to a few other structures, and a few other buildings not easy to find.
As mentioned in the previous post, a 2008 FAA application shows Exchange Place being well-taller than the reported, 510'. 540' (at least). 1 Devonshire Pl also looks taller. Maybe 418~420'.
Dewey Square/1 Financial Ctr
In 2017, i aimed my camera toward 1 Financial Ctr and the Fed Reserve from the high floors of the Preggo, and straightened them on Photoshop.... i found some other drone and helicopter shots, looked at Google Earth, compared w/ IP, Preggo, etc, taking also into account the 6.6'/mi defect for the curvature of the Earth. i felt i was looking at (maybe) ~596-600'. Or perhaps, i was in error.
Another FAA antenna document gives more height to another tower,
closing the gap once again. Not quite 600'....
1 Financial Ctr rises 599' to the top of a large setback roof,
which is part of the tower's permanent built structure.
From FCC docs, 1 Financial Ctr stands exactly 598.7825' tall.
Spreadsheet of towers/antennae in Downtown Boston from
FCC database showing the height of 1 Financial Ctr;
The architectural pinnacle of 1 Financial Ctr is the base of a large radio antenna array built upon a maintenance vault or paddock enclosure that covers a significant part of the tower.
Because of the height, location, and wide open airspace that surrounds the tower, antennae were always going to be the key feature of the rooftop.
The vault is the base structure for 2 antennae reaching up to 84' with it's enclosed work area inside. The FAA doesn't have an issue with calling the huge setback vault as Dewey Square's architectural pinnacle--and nor should we.
In 1981, Planners at the BRA may have taken issue with permitting 600' or taller at Dewey Sq--But, apparently they were ok to allowing the base of the radio communications to be 599'. The desire for Boston to have a tall antenna podium (here) expedited permitting. In the photo above, you can clearly see the vault at the top. We know from at least 3 documents, the vault is 9' tall.
It seems my dad's collegues weren't fibbing when they said 600'--except by just the 1 foot. Don Chiofaro held out for 600' almost a year. Being that 1 Financial Ctr had recently been completed, and the comm enclosure was allowed to reach 599', perhaps the milestone of a bona fide 600' tower wasn't the only thing on Mr Chiofaro's mind, and nothing less than eclipsing 599' would do.
