Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, the capital of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and the largest city in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, is home to 451 completed high-rises, 37 of which stand taller than . The majority of the city's

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

s and high-rises are clustered in the Financial District and

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...

neighborhoods. The tallest structure in Boston is the 60- story 200 Clarendon, better known to locals as the John Hancock Tower, which rises in the Back Bay district. It is also the tallest building in New England and the 80th-tallest building in the United States. The second-tallest building in Boston is the

Prudential Tower The Prudential Tower, also known as the Prudential Building or, colloquially, The Pru,subscription required'The Pru' everyone calls it: a resigned shrug of a name, as flat and uninflected as the wan moue its pronunciation requires." is an Inter ...

, which rises 52 floors and . At the time of the Prudential Tower's completion in 1964, it stood as the tallest building in North America outside of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Boston's history of skyscrapers began with the completion in 1893 of the 13-story

Ames Building The Ames Building is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes ranked as the tallest building in Boston from its completion in 1893 until 1915, when the Custom House Tower was built; however, the building was never the tallest structure in ...

, which is considered the city's first high-rise. Boston went through a major building boom in the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in the construction of over 20 skyscrapers, including 200 Clarendon and the Prudential Tower. The city is the site of 25 skyscrapers that rise at least in height, more than any other city in

. , the skyline of Boston is ranked 10th in the United States and 79th in the world with 57 buildings rising at least in height. Since August 2017, several major development projects have dramatically altered the city's skyline, including the Millennium Tower, Avalon North Station,

Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, One Dalton Street One Dalton is a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third tallest building in Boston, the tallest residential building in New England, and the tallest building constructed in the city since Hancock Place in 1976. It is located in t ...

, The Hub on Causeway, and Bulfinch Crossing. In addition, there has been a continuous stream of proposals to construct skyscrapers that would rank among the tallest in the city if completed. Overall, there were 64 high-rise buildings under construction or proposed for construction in Boston.

Tallest buildings

Boston skyscrapers that stand at least 400 feet (122 m) tall, based on standard height measurements, including spires and other architectural details, but not including antenna masts, are listed below. (The letter (T) following a rank indicates the same height between two or more buildings. The "Year" column indicates the year when a building was completed.)

Tallest buildings by pinnacle height

Boston skyscrapers based on their pinnacle height, which includes radio masts and antennas, are listed below. As architectural features and spires can be regarded as subjective, some skyscraper enthusiasts prefer this method of measurement. Standard architectural height measurement, which excludes antennas in building height, is included for comparative purposes.

Under construction

Skyscrapers under construction in Boston that are planned to be erected to at least tall, and are not yet completed structures:

Tallest approved or proposed

Skyscrapers approved or proposed in Boston that are planned to be at least tall, and are not yet under construction: * Table entries with dashes (—) indicate that information regarding building dates of completion has not yet been released.

Tallest by neighborhood

Timeline of tallest buildings

For most of Boston's earlier years, the tallest buildings in the city were churches with their steeples. The first skyscraper in the city is generally considered the

, completed in 1893. However, since the 13-story building did not surpass the steeple of the Church of the Covenant, it never became a city record holder. The first skyscraper to have the distinction of being Boston's tallest building was the

Custom House Tower The Custom House Tower is a skyscraper in McKinley Square, in the Financial District neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The original building was constructed in 1837–47 and was designed by Ammi Burnham Young in the Greek Revival style. T ...

, completed in 1915.

References

; General * ; Specific

External links

Boston Skyscrapers and Construction
on archBOSTON
Diagram of Boston skyscrapers
on SkyscraperPage
Boston structures
on Structurae
City of Boston building and land value assessment website
{{Featured list Tallest buildings, Boston