[plinko]

An anchor to the downtown Boston skyline (actually the tallest in DT Boston), the Federal Reserve Bank Building is a sleek, aluminum-skinned tower that looks more like a wall heater than a skyscraper.

Designed by Hugh Stubbins (Landmark Tower, Yokohama; Chase, Indianapolis), the building had major security requirements in the programming that required the first office floors to be substantially above street level. Giving these floors a similar treatment as Gunnar Birkerts did in Minneapolis four years earlier, Stubbins created a very slender vertical box with elevator cores at either end (kind of gives the building 'ears').

The tower was then given a very unique tri-angular shade element on the facade at each floor that has a very distinctive look. As I said, kind of like a wall heater.

The aluminum shines in the sun, and gives off a metallic hue in cloudy weather.

I'd have to say that this is probably my favorite tower architecturally in Boston. It doesn't have the purity or height of Hancock, but it's massing and materials due to program make it a subtle monster on the south end of the Boston skyline.