Harbor Towers

Harbor Towers
A view of the Harbor Towers from Boston Harbor
General information
Type	Residential
Architectural style	Brutalist
Location	East India Row, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′28.64″N 71°02′59.89″W / 42.3579556°N 71.0499694°W / 42.3579556; -71.0499694Coordinates: 42°21′28.64″N 71°02′59.89″W / 42.3579556°N 71.0499694°W / 42.3579556; -71.0499694
Completed	1971
Height
Roof	400.0 ft (121.9 m) / 396 ft (121 m)
Technical details
Structural system	Reinforced concrete
Floor count	40
Design and construction
Architect	I.M. Pei & Partners

The Harbor Towers are two Brutalist-era 40-story residential towers located on the waterfront of the US city of Boston, nestled between the New England Aquarium and the Rowes Wharf mixed-use development. Harbor Towers I, the taller of the two towers, stands at 400.0 feet (121.9 m), while Harbor Towers II rises 396 feet (121 m). The towers are the 27th and 29th-tallest buildings in Boston, respectively.

Initially built as affordable rental housing, the Harbor Towers first welcomed residents in 1971. While the modern looking towers offered unparalleled harborfront and city skyline views, the architectural style, with contributions from renowned architect I.M. Pei, was out of place in the provincial New England port city. The area surrounding the project was at that time a rough, dusty warehouse district with derelict abandoned spaces and more surface parking lots per acre than any other area of the city. Once separated from the city's financial district by a two-story elevated highway, and from the neighboring Italian-American North End by its isolated modern look and feel, the apartments seemed apart from the city. As the area surrounding the Towers developed into a focal point of the city, this once-criticized pair of high rise buildings has become one of the city's most desirable addresses.

The Harbor Towers apartment complex was completed in 1971 by the Berenson Corporation, as an affordable housing option near Boston's financial district. The towers are well known in the architectural community, having been designed by Henry N. Cobb, who also designed Boston's John Hancock Tower and collaborated with Pei on Boston's City Hall Plaza, at I.M. Pei & Partners (now Pei Cobb Freed & Partners). At 40 stories, they are the city's tallest residential towers. Sponsored by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), as a way to bring new life to Boston's waterfront, which was at that time an ugly wasteland area mostly made up of abandoned, trash-filled spaces and parking lots, the project became a cornerstone for future progress in the area.