Boston Athenaeum

Beacon Hill

Boston Athanaeum

Founded in 1807, the Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. The Athenaeum created its permanent home at 101/2 Beacon Street in 1849. The Italian Renaissance-style building was designed by Edward Clark Cabor and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The Athenaeum safeguards a collection of more than 600,000 volumes and 100,000 works of art. Today, it welcomes members, visitors, and guests to enjoy its collections and programming of book clubs, exhibitions, lectures, and concerts.

Prompted by a growing need for multipurpose and flexible space, the Athenaeum took a long lease for additional 19,000 SF of space at the adjacent 14 Beacon Street buildings. Annum Architects was selected to design the new space and address deficiencies in the original building while preserving its historic character along with contractor, Consigli. The result: two gathering spaces connected to two meeting spaces; storage space; and a new gallery all spatially organized with a cadence of pilaster and beam soffits, as well as detailing and paint colors based on other historic spaces.

After 170 years of its original construction, the Athenaeum has evolved for a new generation. Since the project’s completion, hundreds of publicly accessible events featuring authors, scholars, artists, and museums that reflect the diversity of Boston have been offered.

Owner
Boston Athenaeum

Project Managers
Kilm Brook, LLC
Tom Goemaat Construction Consulting

Architect
Annum Architects

General Contractor
Consigli

Structural Subcontractor
Thornton Tomasetti

MEP Engineer
Allied Consulting Engineering Services

Landscape Architect
Richard Burck

Lighting Consultant
Available Light

Acoustics Consultant
ACENTECH

Audio/Visual
One Diversified

Waterproofing Consultant
Wessling Architects

Fire Protection
Allied Consulting Engineering Services