Blue Cross Blue Shield building

The Blue Cross Blue Shield building was completed in 1960. Rudolph worked with Anderson, Beckwith & Haible as associate architects and LeMessurier & Assoc. as structural engineers on this building, continuing Boston-based relationships that started with the Jewett project. 

Rudolph was very interested in doing a high-rise tower somewhere. At the time this building type was associated with modernity and was still considered an exciting new frontier for architectural design. At 13 floors the BCBS building is hardly a skyscraper, but it was a larger building that allowed Rudolph to experiment with the type.

Steel and glass curtain wall construction was popular for new tower projects, but Rudolph thought that was exactly the wrong approach for a city like Boston, where neighborhoods were already populated by older masonry structures. At this time he was interested in materials that had some correspondence to the existing character of a site - a philosophy that makes sense when you consider the way he handled the design of the Jewett Arts Center relative to existing Wellesley quad buildings. Rudolph's approach to this aspect of building design did later evolve, but permits for the BCBS project were issued in 1958, right after Jewett opened, so he was still very engaged with the problem of how to relate modernist structures to older architecture.

For the BCBS building facade Rudolph chose Mo-Sai, a precast concrete aggregate panel material. Mo-Sai was manufactured with a number of different aggregates; the panels used here are white quartz. The material is hard-wearing and is meant to weather in ways that resemble traditional stone, especially from a distance. The white quartz aggregate of this particular variety provides some reflectivity to the building surface while avoiding the harsh glare that may come off of glass-walled structures.

Rudolph was already experimenting with the effects of concrete aggregates on Jewett. Exposed concrete aggregate shows wear differently from finished or polished concrete, and can hide some staining. It introduces a textural element to surfaces where it is used. On ground surfaces it offers increased traction. It combines the modeling posibilities of a man-made building material with some of the varied appearance of natural stone. All these effects are visible in different locations around the Jewett Arts Center: on the columns, on the outdoor stairs, on the plaza surface. Mo-Sai offered a slightly different approach to the same set of problems.

The distinctive Y-shaped columns that surround the lower levels of this building serve multiple purposes. They add dimension and visual interest at and near street-level, again marking the building as distinct from a glass curtain wall structure. Like Jewett's cloverleaf columns, they are another sculptural compromise between the minimalist demands of modernism and Rudolph's design sensibilities. But they also have a practical function. Heating and cooling ducts run up the columns that extend from the arms of the Y; the building's HVAC systems are built directly into its major design elements, both reducing the need for additional ductwork inside the building and wedding the facade to the function of the building (a move distinctly modern in attitude, even if aesthetically Rudolph was working against the prevailing International Style tides).

In 2024 the building was designated a local landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission, allowing it to be protected and preserved.