The Renaissance-inspired former Federal Reserve Bank, designed by R. Clipston Sturgis in 1922, seems like a gem alongside the thirty-nine-story office tower with its concrete and glass-grid facade relieved only by projections and recessions at the edges to provide the maximum number of corner offices. Jung/Brannen Associates converted the bank to a hotel (adding a multilevel glass mansard) and attached the tower in the early 1980s. Some degree of luxury is visible in the tower lobby, with its varied shades of Carrara marble, travertine pavement, and brass fixtures. A tubular frame and a diagonally braced core constitute the structural system. The adjoining Langham Hotel, its arcaded windows framed by paired pilasters on the elegant Classical Revival exterior, is distinguished by an interior atrium in the old banking room.
1 Post Office Square/Langham Hotel (Federal Reserve Bank)
Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith
With State Street Bank, FD5
1922, R. Clipston Sturgis; 1981–1982, Jung/Brannen Associates. Milk and Pearl sts. and 250 Franklin St.