International Architecture Awards Tell a friend
ARCHIVE 2024
International Architecture Awards
Architects: Elkus Manfredi Architects
Lead Architect: William Halter
Interior Architects: BAMO, Inc.
Landscape Architects: Carol R Johnson Associates
General Contractor: John Moriarty & Associates
Client: Cronin Development
Photographers: Robert Benson
Inspired by the historic waterfront surrounding it, the new St. Regis Residences is located in the heart of Boston's Seaport District and totals 319,650 square feet, with 114 residences ranging from one-bedroom condominiums to six-bedroom penthouses.
Complex, compelling, and aesthetically arresting, the design of The St. Regis Residences evokes a schooner under full sail. At 22 stories high and 250 feet tall, the building sits on a highly constrained 15,504-square-foot lot with limited terra firma and appears to twist on its central axis as it rises, with five deep pleats on the east façade. The top of the pleats twists toward the north and the bottom toward the south, giving the building movement and visual drama. Only the east façade of the building has a twist; the three other façades are perpendicular, acting like a sailboat's masts, bringing stability and a central element around which other elements of the design are organized. On the south façade, three “sails” - projecting bays that rise the vertical height of the south side of the building - are a counterpoint to the east façade.
The form of the building changes when viewed from different directions and distances, seeming to shape-shift for passersby on the street, the water, and along the Harborwalk, the 45-mile-long public pathway that traverses the perimeter of Boston Harbor. The building includes three levels of below-grade parking and an 8,138-square-foot, two-story restaurant with 2,073 square feet of additional exterior terrace space connecting to the Harborwalk. Public open space including the Harborwalk and adjacent Massport Wharf occupies approximately 60% of the ground floor. The restaurant, SAVR, on the first and second floors, features outdoor seating on the second-level terrace and along the Harborwalk. The entire exterior is a unitized curtain wall of silver-blue glass, and residences enjoy spectacular views in all directions. The innovative nature of designing distinctly different façades provides many more rooms with views than a traditional rectangular building shape could offer. Designed to LEED-NC Silver standards, the building is raised for protection during storm surges and includes a deployable flood barrier system. Primary electrical transformers and critical life safety systems are located on or above the second level of the building.
The architecture of the St. Regis Residences was guided by four principal objectives: - Evoke the neighborhood's historic ties to shipping - Take advantage of site constraints to create vertical proportion and add complexity to the building design - Design a building that is resilient and sustainable - Fully activate the waterfront and draw the public to Boston Harbor At street level - with its white curved planes, glass and metal panels, textured white marble pillars, and oiled ipe wood - the exterior evokes the bows of wooden schooners on the waves.
The main residential entrance faces Seaport Boulevard and is flanked by two fountains that conceal the 30-inch vertical transition to the building's raised first floor, which provides protection from storm surges. Separated from the residential entry by the larger trapezoidal fountain, the restaurant's main entrance is oriented away from the street and toward the Harborwalk. The angled corners of the pleats are echoed in the building's two-level base. On the second level, the base of the pleats forms the restaurant's ipe wood ceiling, outlined in white, and support columns for the pleats are clad in brushed stainless steel. Tilted structural columns run continuously from the base to the top of the building - because of the building's twisting shape, their location changes on each level. Above the ground floor, the undersides of balconies are constructed of metal for strength and longevity, and painted to echo the warm tones of the ipe wood on the two base levels. Structural concrete slabs are thickened to nine inches to stabilize the building and reduce vibration and sound levels.
