In Boston’s historic Back Bay neighborhood, a striking new 35-story tower has made waves as the first U.S. location for famed luxury hotel brand Raffles. Designed by architects The Architectural Team (TAT) with the Raffles Boston design team, including Stonehill Taylor for the hotel interiors, Rockwell Group for the residences, and Studio Paolo Ferrari for the Long Bar F&B venue, the $400+ million destination offers luxury hospitality, retail, and residential environments.
The new, 400-foot curved glass tower introduces a dramatic addition to the city’s skyline, a presence made possible by innovative solutions that integrate the new structure within significant constraints of its modestly scaled site, including the 65-foot (20m) adjacency from the all-glass Hancock Tower and its proximity to a historic landmark, the 100-foot-tall University Club.
Striking is the tower’s cantilever structure that extends the new building’s upper floors more than 25 feet above the adjoining historic landmark. The solution allowed the building to meet significant floor-area goals despite the compact building lot and entailed securing air rights over the historic neighbor, allowing for an innovative approach by TAT and structural engineer McNamara Salvia. With that, a 30-foot cantilever at the tower’s fourth floor extends above the University Club’s party wall, supporting the building’s upper 29 stories, rising an additional 340 feet upward, with a second cantilever at the 17th floor.
“The complex process behind the cantilever design serves as a testament to the deeply collaborative approach that defined the entire Raffles project from start to finish,” affirms TAT principal Gary Kane, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP. “Achieving these innovative solutions required commitment and substantial ongoing effort from the development group, Raffles leadership, and the entire design and construction team. This landmark development, with a one-of-a-kind hospitality offering, called for unusually complex design and construction techniques – resulting in a design that seamlessly blends the qualities of global and local influences, intricately woven into the close-knit fabric of the Back Bay.”
The airfoil-shaped building profile is designed to calm strong winds from the adjacent Hancock Building, Boston’s tallest building located a mere 65 feet from the new tower. In addition, Raffles Boston’s exacting curtainwall façade design delicately balances opacity and vision, addressing the different glazing demands of hotel and residential uses.
Also, key is the architecture team’s complex interior program involving multiple entries and upper-level, multi-story “sky lobbies” for the building’s different uses, including 147 hotel rooms, 146 residential units, and shared amenity spaces encompassing an indoor pool and several restaurant venues, as well as Boston’s only hotel sky lobby. TAT’s ingenious radial interior plan ensures that residences, guestrooms, and amenity areas alike all have access to maximum daylight and exceptional views.
Raffles Boston represents the first-ever mixed-use property in North America for the world-renowned Raffles brand, a part of the Accor world hospitality group. The Raffles development will also contribute over $22 million in public benefits, including street and public realm improvements, seven affordable housing units on-site, and an additional contribution of more than $13 million to support affordable housing initiatives in Boston.
“It’s such meticulous attention to detail that truly distinguishes this project,” says TAT senior partner and principal Michael Liu, AIA, NCARB. “And while the glass and aluminum exterior forms a distinctly modern impression, the intimate and welcoming refuge we’ve collectively designed is as timeless as Boston itself.”
Team:
Architects: The Architectural Team (TAT)
General contractor: Suffolk Construction
Structural engineer: McNamara Salvia
Interior design:Stonehill Taylor
Eesidences, fitness center, Guerlain spa: Rockwell Group
Long Bar F&B venue: Studio Paolo Ferrari
Photographer: Ed Wonsek
Materials Used:
Wood Flooring: Vintage Flooring
Tile: DalTile
Hotel & residential bathtubs: WetStyle
Hotel plumbing fixtures: Waterworks
ES Windows: Curtainwall
Heat pump: ClimateMaster
Air handling equipment:Trane
Hotel guest room lighting Interel, Inc.
