Called "The Batterymarch Building" | Now A Hotel | 54-68 Batterymarch | 1928 | Harold Field Kellogg
This 14-story steel and reinforced
concrete skyscraper with brick cladding has three 5-bay towers and two 3-bay
setbacks. This building is
significant as the first Art Deco skyscraper in Boston, but it was designed
just before the 1928 zoning law which permitted higher buildings to be built,
provided they were set back. It
was declared a landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1995.
The style of this building has been called "Mayan Revival", because it makes use of Mayan geometric patterns. However, the false balconies have a Moorish flavor, and at the summit are heads of New England pilgrims, covered in gold leaf. Over the doorway arch is a mural of a colonial soldier uncovering a cannon, as indeed American revolutionaries hid cannons from the British on the site by burying them. One was uncovered when construction for the new building started in 1928.
A
stunning feature of this building is that the architect used 30 different
colors of brick, graded from intense heather brown at the bottom to light buff
at the top, making the building appear as though it is continually bathed in
sunlight.
In 1999, the building was totally
transformed into the Wyndham Boston Hotel, with extensive restoration of the
building's exterior elements.
While the first floor/interior had already been renovated several times
and had lost most of its Art Deco beginnings, the thoughtful renovation by the
hotel restored some of the Art Deco feeling. Restored were the first floor elevator lobby, six elevators
featuring bronze doors, floral motifs and mahogany moldings; a bronze mailbox
with floral motif; and the Presidential Suite (formerly the penthouse). Note
also the Art Deco style mural near the restaurant, and the original terrazzo
floor in the bar/café.
