SIGNS OF CHANGE CORPORATIONS PRIZE A SKYLINE PRESENCE, BUT LOGOS DON'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY

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SIGNS OF CHANGE CORPORATIONS PRIZE A SKYLINE PRESENCE, BUT LOGOS DON'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY
[THIRD Edition]
Boston Globe - Boston, Mass.
Subjects: Commercial real estate; Architecture; Signs
Author:
Collins, James
Date:
Jul 19, 2003
Start Page: D.11
Section:
Real Estate
Document Text
BLUEPRINTS
There's a 33-story office building at 225 Franklin St., and on top of it are 15 big white letters.
The backlighted block characters, visible from much of Boston and Cambridge, spell out the name State Street Bank, the financial institution at the heart of Boston-based State Street
Corp.
State Street is only a tenant - the 477-foot tower is owned by Equity Office Properties Trust, of Chicago - but the bold letters have always ensured that the tower will remain, literally and
in the minds of all who see it, the company's headquarters.
But State Street is doing a lot of moving around these days. In fact, it's relocating about 2,000 workers to a new $350 million tower at One Lincoln Street, where there is a large sign
renaming the 36-floor building State Street Financial Center.
About the same number of employees will stay at 225 Franklin, along with most of the company's corporate brass.
What's more, the Globe reported this week, Equity Office plans to sell part of the Franklin Street building.
All of which leads one to wonder: If State Street does leave 225 Franklin at some point, what would happen to the sign?
The letters, placed atop the building when it was constructed in the 1960s, could find themselves at the center of an architectural debate.
David Carlson, senior architect with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, would just as soon see the sign disappear into the morning mist.
"The city skyline ought to be noted not for the lettering on buildings, but for the architecture," said Carlson, who has worked at the BRA for 18 years. "As long as it's there, it's kind of
grandfathered and it can stay there . . . but you don't need words to spell out what the use of architecture and lighting ought to do for you."
After a bout with gaudy signage in the 1950s and 1960s - when the city was so desperate for development downtown that it granted companies concessions for just about anything the city has tried to tighten its standards.
These days, when a developer sets out to renovate a building that sports one of the offending signs, the BRA will negotiate to cut its size in half.
"It's no longer necessary to give away that height of presence in order to secure somebody's desire to build in the city," Carlson said.
So why hasn't the BRA sliced into the shimmering red-and-white Citgo sign in Kenmore Square?
Carlson said its age has made it a landmark.
And that's exactly why the State Street signage deserves to stay, said preservationist Arthur Krim, who belongs to an organization called the Society for Commercial Archeology.
Krim led the effort to save the Citgo sign and later unsuccessfully crusaded to save a landmark Coca-Cola sign atop the former bottling plant on Soldiers Field Road.
"Letters on buildings . . . do represent connections to the public," Krim said. "The letters have more significance than simply letters. They represent a connection with the past, so to
have the letters taken away from the streetscape is often as significant as having the building itself lost."
Krim and Carlson both have valid gripes, said Hubert Murray, a Cambridge architect.
Almost all little stores and businesses need some sort of sign - and some certainly do qualify as landmarks worthy of preservation, Murray said. But there are plenty of buildings that
would be better off without signs.
To mar the John Hancock Tower in Boston with a sign, for example, would be like "putting a big gash of lipstick on your aunt's face," Murray said. "To slap a sign on it would be fairly
crass."
Murray's advice to the business world: Choose an architect who will incorporate your image into the building, without a sign.
DaimlerChrysler, for example, doesn't have much to do these days with the 77-floor Art Deco Chrysler Building in New York. Until the company recently began leasing space in the
distinctive spired skyscraper, it had maintained no claim to the building for several decades.
That is, no claim except for the name - which, as Murray noted, is sometimes worth everything: "If you can do without signs, the better."
So what about the State Street Bank Building? It's "OK," Murray said.

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SIGNS OF CHANGE CORPORATIONS PRIZE A SKYLINE PRESENCE, BUT LOGOS DON'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY

11/30/15 11:10 AM

Then again, so much of the debate over 225 Franklin St. is for naught: State Street isn't even moving out. It has signed a lease in the building through 2016, said Lindsey Cronin, a
spokeswoman for Equity Office Properties.
James Collins can be reached at collins@globe.com.
Illustration
Caption: 1. The State Street Bank sign stands out on Boston's skyline - yet the company is moving about half its employees out of the building. / GLOBE FILE PHOTO 2. Arthur Krim
(above) says fixtures like the Citgo sign help to connect people to the past. / GLOBE FILE PHOTO 3. The new One Lincoln Street tower (below) has a new name: State Street Financial
Center. / GLOBE FILE PHOTO
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

Abstract (Document Summary)

"Letters on buildings . . . do represent connections to the public," [Arthur Krim] said. "The letters have more significance than simply letters. They represent a connection with the past,
so to have the letters taken away from the streetscape is often as significant as having the building itself lost."
Krim and [David Carlson] both have valid gripes, said Hubert Murray, a Cambridge architect.
1. The State Street Bank sign stands out on Boston's skyline - yet the company is moving about half its employees out of the building. / GLOBE FILE PHOTO 2. Arthur Krim (above)
says fixtures like the Citgo sign help to connect people to the past. / GLOBE FILE PHOTO 3. The new One Lincoln Street tower (below) has a new name: State Street Financial Center.
/ GLOBE FILE PHOTO
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

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