Corporate name-dropping on Boston buildings historically has been reserved for transformative projects – think of the Prudential Center and the birth of the “New Boston” in the early 1960s.
Breaking with longstanding tradition, the Walsh Administration is considering new rules that would clear the way for more office buildings to bear companies’ names and logos.
“If we’re going to have companies invest significant numbers of people in a particular area and take a large portion of the building, I have no problem with them putting a name on a side of the building,” Mayor Martin Walsh said last week.
Financial services giant State Street Corp. was allowed to hang a high-profile shingle atop its 36-story One Lincoln St. headquarters in 2003 and its One Channel Center office complex that opened this past June in South Boston. So, too, was prized biotech recruit Vertex Pharmaceuticals after it moved from Cambridge to anchor Boston’s Innovation District in 2013, and Converse Inc. as it nears completion of its new headquarters at Lovejoy Wharf. But such examples have remained the exception to the rule.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority is reviewing draft regulations that would expand the ranks of buildings that could be adorned with corporate names. Under an informal policy that goes back about a decade, a company must occupy 100 percent of the building and have its U.S. headquarters based in Boston to qualify for a sign near the roof line.
“The assumption is the architecture of the building is what should make the skyline of the city what it is,” said Prataap Patrose, the BRA’s deputy director for urban design. “The question is: to what degree do you acknowledge the presence of institutions and businesses in the city? That’s what we’re examining right now.”
The draft policy would reduce the minimum percentage of occupied space. Examples of projects that could be covered under the new rules include 101 Seaport, where Skanska USA is building a 440,000-square-foot office building that will be 75 percent occupied by PwC. A few blocks away, Boston-based Fallon Co. is building a 515,000-square-foot office building, with law firm Goodwin Procter taking 380,000 square feet.
Other office tenants, such as TripAdvisor on Causeway Street, have gotten permission for lower-level signs under BRA reviews similar to those for retail stores. That policy also is under review, Patrose said.
“It’s not a great number, but it’s something that comes up periodically,” he said.
LED Lighting: Green And Widely Seen
Some office developers are using LED technology to add a more vivid touch to the skyline, such as the purple vertical beams that run up the side of the 18-story Vertex buildings in the Seaport and the backlit blue patchwork windows at Channel Center. Another Fan Pier building developed by Fallon Co., the neighboring One Marina Park Drive, programmed its top-floor light arrays in a red, white and blue pattern in observance of Veterans’ Day last month. Like exterior signs, LED lighting is part of the BRA’s Article 80 review process for major projects.
“Nowadays, because these are LED lights, along with being energy-efficient, it allows you to change colors with a flick of a switch,” Patrose said.
Companies such as Cambridge-based Philips Color Kinetics have led the way with arresting, energy-efficient LED lighting arrays whose prices have dropped significantly in recent years. The systems range from LEDs embedded in buildings to colored spotlights trained on buildings at night.
“Companies are trying to walk the line of how they choose to promote their brand through the use of signage and colored lighting along building edges,” said Kayte Muse, director of environmental graphics and branding for Boston-based architects Spagnolo Gisness & Assoc. “Some want to be a little more bold and out there. Others seek a more refined approach.”
For now, there’s little chance that Boston’s skyline will be confused with Dubai. But the new guidelines could offer an opportunity to build signature structures and address complaints that much of the city’s recent development boom is dominated by blocky look-a-like buildings.
"For the buildings that are left on the waterfront, we have an opportunity to really make it a little bit more spectacular," Mayor Walsh said following a recent groundbreaking in the neighborhood. "You look at the buildings here, they’re beautiful buildings, but they’re all kind of similar. I think a couple of buildings that stand out wouldn’t be a bad thing."
Email: sadams@thewarrengroup.com
