Paul Rudolph-designed building awarded Boston landmark status in 2024
CoStar
Andy Peters - December 11, 2025
Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross Blue Shield complex opened in 1960 as the first new office building in Boston's central business district since the 1920s. (Sam Adams/CoStar)
A downtown Boston office building designed by one of the leading figures in modern architecture has traded hands.
Kendall Realty acquired Paul Rudolph's Blue Cross Blue Shield complex from Trans National Group Services for $15.75 million, according to public records. Hingham Institution for Savings provided Kendall with a $10.5 million loan to finance the purchase. The 132,589-square-foot property is home to nine tenants with space available for lease, according to CoStar data.
Kendall and Trans National did not respond to CoStar News' requests for comment. Kendall owns 11 office and retail properties in the Boston area, according to CoStar data.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield building opened in 1960 to house office workers for the healthcare company. It was the first new building to be constructed in Boston's central business district since the 1920s, according to the New York-based Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. The property was also Rudolph's first design of a tall building.
Rudolph intended for the brutalist structure to stand in contrast to the glass curtain-wall buildings that prevailed in office architecture in the 1950s, Kelvin Dickinson, president of the Paul Rudolph Institute,
told CoStar News.
"The legacy of Rudolph's building lies mainly in its innovative facade that contains the mechanical and structural systems, thereby freeing the interior floor space for office use," ThoughtCraft Architects said in
a 2007 report that the Somerville, Massachusetts-based firm created for the building.
The open floor plates should make the building suitable for conversions to other uses, Dickinson said.
The office building faced the threat of demolition starting in 2006. Local preservation groups protested its planned demolition, and the Boston Landmarks Commission designated it a local landmark in 2024, setting up a potential roadblock for future demolition attempts.
"We testified that it should be landmarked because it's a really significant part of Rudolph's career," Dickinson said.
Rudolph, who served as dean of the Yale University School of Architecture from 1958 to 1965, was known for his designs of the Boston Government Service Center and the former Burroughs- Wellcome headquarters building near Raleigh, North Carolina, that was demolished in 2021.
Go to the original article here.