Paul Rudolph's Downtown Office Tower Could Become Apartments. Landmarks Commission Reviews the Plan Tuesday, Along With a Leather District Demolition Extension

Two landmark-designated buildings downtown are on the Boston Landmarks Commission's agenda Tuesday, Oct. 27, according to a public notice posted by the city: the former Blue Cross Blue Shield building at 133 Federal St., where an owner wants to convert the upper floors to apartments, and the Richardson Block at 149 Pearl St., where an earlier approval to demolish the building and put up a new one is set to lapse.

The meeting is virtual only. The notice lists design review hearings beginning at 4 p.m. and the commission's business hearing beginning at 6 p.m.

At 133 Federal St., the agenda describes a proposed residential conversion of the upper floors with retail kept on the first floor. The listed work includes installing secondary glazing behind existing windows, creating new window openings on the 13th floor and adding rooftop mechanical equipment.

The building has a pedigree the commission has already put in writing. A study report prepared for the commission describes the 13-story tower, completed in 1960, as architect Paul Rudolph's first tall building. Rudolph is one of the best-known figures of postwar American modernism. The study report notes the petition to designate the building, petition 255.16, dates to 2016. Landmark designation means exterior changes must be approved by the commission.

The owner's plan has been reported in outline. Bisnow reported Sept. 28 that Kendall Capital proposes 155 units in the building, which it bought for nearly $16 million in December from B.E. Realist. Bisnow reported that the project is one of 28 applications in the city's office-to-residential conversion program and that the developer expects studios to rent from about $2,500 to $4,500 a month. The commission's role is limited to the exterior and the designated features; it does not rule on unit counts or rents.

The design questions are specific. Secondary glazing, a second pane installed inside the original window, is a common way to improve insulation and sound in historic buildings without replacing original frames. New openings on the 13th floor would alter the facade of a designated building, and rooftop mechanical equipment can change how a building reads from the street. Those are the kinds of details the commission typically weighs against the study report's description of what makes a building significant.

The second item concerns the Richardson Block at 149 Pearl St. According to the notice, the applicant is asking the commission to extend, for one year, its Oct. 24, 2024, approval to demolish the building and construct a new six-story building, which would move the expiration to Oct. 24, 2027.

The commission's study report says the Richardson Block was designated a Boston landmark on Dec. 12, 2023, and was designed by architect William G. Preston. It dates to 1873, part of the rebuilding of the leather district after the Great Boston Fire of 1872. The building was designated and then approved for demolition within about 10 months.

The notice lists provisos attached to the extension request: no demolition may take place until a building permit for the new construction is secured, and a commission subcommittee of Angela Ward Hyatt and Ernest Coston would review the project. A proviso of that kind is meant to prevent a landmark from being knocked down and the site left empty if financing for the new building falls through.

Other items on Tuesday's agenda include proposed garden work at 1962 Beacon St. in Brighton and the removal of a shelter at the William Devine Golf Course in Franklin Park, according to the notice.

Still unresolved: whether the commission will approve the 13th-floor openings as proposed or ask for revisions, and why the Richardson Block project has not secured a permit in the two years since its demolition approval. The notice says the public may comment during the virtual hearing.