The Architects Building

The Architects Building on Google Maps

At the end of the boom in the late 1980s, the Boston architectural profession purchased this abandoned building at a public auction. Located in the financial district near Quincy Market and the Custom House Tower, the building — now known as The Architects Building — quickly became a valued meeting place for architects and for our allies in the industry and it also became the offices of the BSA.

The building — designed in 1853 by Charles Edward Parker — was acquired by a building committee led by Peter Madsen FAIA and Buz Brannen FAIA and it was Jung/Brannen Associates that made the purchase possible while the BSA fund-raising campaign led by Tom Payette FAIA was getting under way. Over $400,000 in contributions from hundreds of architects and architecture firms, engineers, contractors, attorneys and other BSA allies ultimately made the purchase a reality.

The design team was led by Peter Forbes FAIA, Ken DeMay FAIA and project manager Dennis Rieske AIA and the building was renovated with an enormous amount of assistance (much of it pro bono) from several general contractors led by Shawmut Design and Construction and numerous subcontractors and suppliers who worked with us to make it affordable.

The bad news at the time was that the recession of the early 1990s followed hard on the heels of the purchase of the building and that economic downturn put an enormous strain on the BSA and BSA members and firms as the profession rallied to sustain the building throughout the recession. Of extraordinary significance during this period was the generous financial support of several member firms and allies who co-signed the first mortgage on the building and financed the second mortgage, a level of support that was crucial and was provided by ADD Inc, Architectural Resources Cambridge, CBT, Charrette, Finegold Alexander + Associates, Jung/Brannen Associates, Jung/Brannen Development, Keyes Associates, Payette Associates, Shepley Bulfinch, TAC, and the Wallace Floyd Design Group.

It is my pleasure to report that the profession’s commitment has been honored — in April the BSA paid off the first mortgage on the building five years ahead of schedule. There is a smaller second mortgage held by several member firms who have since transferred their interest in that note to the Boston Foundation for Architecture; the BSA will pay off that mortgage as well in the coming year.

Every architect and every one of our allies in the building industry who played a role in the creation of this center for the architectural profession and for the building industry deserves our appreciation and gratitude for their foresight. I also wish to acknowledge in particular my predecessors as BSA president who led us through the enormous financial difficulties of the early 1990s and the subsequent years as the BSA rebuilt its financial strength — Chuck Redmon FAIA, Peter Forbes FAIA, Wilson Pollock FAIA, Richard Bertman FAIA, David Lee FAIA, Elizabeth Ericson FAIA, Ed Tsoi FAIA, Elizabeth Padjen FAIA, Lee Cott FAIA, Roger Goldstein FAIA, Peter Kuttner FAIA, Charles Tseckares FAIA, Michael Hicks AIA and Rebecca Barnes FAIA. These former BSA presidents — and their remarkable BSA treasurers including Ken DeMay FAIA, the late Tony Platt FAIA, Steve Cecil AIA, Paul Nakazawa AIA and Jim Dunn, Assoc. AIA — deserve our thanks for their uncommon leadership.

It is a pleasure to report this news to you as we celebrate the BSA’s 135th anniversary this month on June 21, which also was designated over a decade ago as Massachusetts Architects Day.

We have a home…and now we own it.

Robert Brown IIDA, AIA, BSA past-President