NRHP Reference # 04001462 Height 65 m Floors 14 Architectural style Modern architecture | Added to NRHP January 21, 2005 Opened November 1963 Area 1 ha Architect Max Abramovitz | |
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Location One American Row, Hartford, Connecticut Similar Cheney Building, Bulkeley Bridge, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, City Place I, Travelers Tower | ||
The Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building, locally called the "Boat Building", is a notable Modernist office building located on Constitution Plaza in Hartford, Connecticut. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the world's first two-sided building. It is home to The Phoenix Companies.
The building was designed by the nationally renowned architect Max Abramovitz of Harrison & Abramovitz, whose previous work included coordinating the work on the United Nations headquarters and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The contractor was George A. Fuller Company. Groundbreaking was in 1961, with construction complete in November 1963. The 13-story tower has only two curved sides, in an unusual and striking shape variously termed an elliptic lenticular cylinder or lenticular hyperboloid. Its height is 212 feet (65 meters); it measures 225 feet on its long axis, and 87 feet wide at its maximum width. The ends point east and west, with sides facing north and south. The building has been an architectural landmark in the city since its construction, occupying a highly-visible location near the Connecticut River and major highways.