Ritz-Carlton, Boston

Millennium Place single-handedly transformed an undesirable urban neighborhood known as the "Combat Zone" into a high-quality, mixed-use destination. The project fits seamlessly into Boston's urban fabric; it complements the neighborhood's existing mix of uses and encourages 24-hour activity, while creating an incontrovertible sense of place and anchoring the emerging district. Encased in the complex's two towers are a hotel, residences, cinemas, fitness facilities, restaurants, retail, parking, and extended-stay suites.

The architecture is both unique to its local context and emphatically forward-looking. The buildings work at multiple scales: tower and city, block and street, façade and pedestrian. Further, the architecture resolves a complex program of uses in that it provides distinctive accommodation for all the components and a singular contemporary identity for the project.

The project has been a critical success. The theaters are the highest grossing in Boston; the apartments sold quickly; and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel has the highest occupancy rates in the city. There has been substantial redevelopment of neighboring properties.

Awards

2003 AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE, Urban Land Institute

2003 PROJECT OF THE YEAR, National Commercial Builders Council

2002 CHARTER AWARD, Congress for the New Urbanism

2002 AWARD OF MERIT, Concrete Industry Board

2002 FINALIST, DESIGN EXCELLENCE, Urban Land Institute

Client

Millennium Partners

MDA Associates

Publications

"Going Up: High-tone Ritz Towers lifting downtrodden area," The Boston Globe, 26 January 2003.

Recombinant Urbanism, John Wiley , 2005.

"Bright Idea, Big City," The Boston Herald, 02 December 2001.

"...Extended Stay Suites at Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Towers," New England Real Estate Journal, 29 June - 05 July 2001.

"Revival Plans for Boston," International Construction Review, February / March 2000.

"Designs on Independence," The Boston Globe, 07 August 1998.