The Boston Preservation Alliance has named 179 Lincoln St. as the recipient of the 2009 Preservation Achievement Award. It recognized Millennium Partners - Boston's substantial restoration of this five-story, architecturally distinguished Beaux Arts-style building as this year's Best Adaptive Use of an Historic Industrial Space in the City of Boston. The 220,000 s/f office building that formerly served as Teradyne, Inc. headquarters occupies a full city block in the Leather District and incorporates a new porte-cochere entry facing the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
"We are very honored to receive this significant award from the Preservation Alliance. It addresses the superb quality of the building and the first-rate caliber of the restoration," said Anthony Pangaro, principal of Millennium Partners - Boston. "With the help of the City of Boston and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, our effort has served to preserve this signature historic property by transforming it into prime office space."
The building is prominently located near the Financial District, only three short blocks from South Station, with easy on/off access to I-93. A cadre of important new tenants has been attracted to the building, including Bovis Lend Lease LMB, Power Advocate, and The TriZetto Group, which have joined the property under exclusive leasing arrangements with CB Richard Ellis/New England. Some prime space is still available.
Millennium Partners - Boston, which acquired the building in 2006, engaged CBT Architects of Boston to design the substantial renovations, complying fully with federal and state historic rehabilitation standards which preserve the property's status as a "significant contributing structure" in Boston's Leather District. The work was planned to comply with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System Certification Requirements. It is believed to be the first Green Building rehab of an existing structure for office use in the country.
179 Lincoln St. was built in 1899 by Norcross Brothers to the design of the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns and was originally known as the Albany Building, an investment under the trusteeship of Boston figures Augustus Loring, J. Morris Meredith, and Philip Dexter. Loring was the author of A Trustee's Handbook which first appeared in 1898 with multiple editions since, most recently in 2003. As 179 Lincoln covers an entire city block, all four facades are ornamented. Initial tenants included the United States Shoe Machinery Company, the U.S. Thread Company, and the Frank W. Whitcher Company, dealers in leather manufacturing.
The Boston Preservation Alliance recognized Millennium Partners - Boston's commitment to preserving such surviving architectural details as the three stairways, mail chute system, and the classical ornamentation (replete with swags and cartouches) on the building's limestone and cast iron exterior. Recently completed renovations at 179 Lincoln St. also include a new lobby and entrance, a sky-lit central atrium with coffee shop, upgraded building systems, a below-grade parking garage, and substantial interior upgrades. This imaginatively updated building combines new technology and mechanical systems with large floor plates, high ceilings, and sunny interiors made possible by the original oversized exterior window walls.