Boston’s Luxury Commercial Skyscraper

Rising out of the Bullfinch Crossing section of downtown Boston, One Congress is a one-million-square-foot, trophy office tower offering transformative experiences. This property continues our tour of architecturally stunning properties created by Carr Properties (“Carr”), headquartered in Washington, DC.  Towering 600 feet tall, this iconic building reconnects downtown Boston neighborhoods and propels a heavily transit-served site into a 21st-century global center. Totaling 43 stories, One Congress features breathtaking and unparalleled 360-degree views, overlooking the Charles River, Boston Harbor, North End, Financial District, and Back Bay.

Similar to the other Carr owned and managed properties, wellness, sustainability, and luxury are the core strategies with diverse commercial spaces. Among these environments are a myriad of amenities combining the best of, what we call in the CI industry, resimercial. These spaces include a conference and event facility, fitness center, secure bike room, living room and library, landscaped terrace, exclusive in-building dining, lobby bar, and retail.

Given the scale and diversity, Carr contracted with long-time CI expert, John Carroll, Chief Technology Officer at Nard’s Entertainment. With experience across a majority of Carr properties, Carroll is an industry veteran and valued Carr service provider. His experience creating unique, highly “repeatable” control and automation systems is legendary around the Carr organization. His collaboration with visionary Carr Chief Technology Officer, Ilan Zachar, delivers for both customers and visitors. Known for his creation of sustainable, engaging environments that span from living spaces to offices, Zachar is an industry icon. His leadership brings to life Carr’s tagline of “More Than an Address” while creating technology that lives behind the scenes and enables unique experiences.

With numerous subsystems and countless staff and consumer daily touches, Carroll knew that a single, unified, simple-to-operate control system was needed.  With thoughtful design, Carroll leveraged URC’s Total Control® to seamlessly blend control and automation across both interior and exterior environments. This system featured the key players from URC’s portfolio including a variety of system controllers such as the MRX-30, an iconic workhorse in URC’s portfolio. With style and functionality critical, Carroll used nearly 20 URC touch screens and handheld remotes including the TDC-9100, with its 10-inch touch screen and the TDC-8600 featuring an 8-inch in-wall touch screen and industry-leading voice control.

High-definition audio plays a critical role across amenities and conference environments. Again, Carroll installed URC’s HDA (high-definition audio) with easy integration, built-in DSP and extensive low-voltage features. The sheer size of this project called for a massive system including ten (10) HDA-1600 amps featuring 600 Watts per channel @ 8Ω; 1200 Watts / channel @ 4Ω / 2 x 600 Watts @ 70-Volt, and 96 kHz / 24-bit streaming high-definition audio quality. Each zone supports a full 5-band parametric EQ, full ducking and paging event support, and storage of up to 10 .WAV Files in each chassis. With powerhouse features and performance, URC’s HDA was a natural fit for this installation.

Given the scale of this project, the ease of integration available in URC’s Total Control platform was a key selling point and value component. This project included some of the primary brands from throughout the CI and CE industry including Bose, Draper, Just Add Power, Legrand, Luxul, NEC, Panasonic, Sony, Vaddio, Danco, Vanguard, and Zeevee… among several other brands.

During an interview, Carroll shared his perspective on the features critical to installations like this one. One Congress created some unique challenges from scale to complex subsystems. Simplifying operation is critical, so Carroll starts at the user interface. “We start at the URC keypad and design the interface with the fewest buttons, touches or voice commands, for this system to work,” stated Carroll. Working backward, Carroll and his team from Nard’s craft the system with audio equipment, then video equipment. Regarding audio, Carroll continued, “HDA includes a comprehensive solution including built-in mixers… all native to Total Control.”

One Congress continues the Carr strategy of blending incredible outdoor spaces, comfortable amenities spaces and, in this case, impressive views of Boston. Zachar’s vision blending the best of green technology, inspiring environments, and ease of use is clear. These elements are core to all the Carr properties we have visited.

The future continues to be bright for this powerhouse collaboration. Transformative experiences using the latest control and automation technology is the plan. Off to visit our next Carr property!

About Nard's Entertainment

Since the days of vinyl disc players, Nard’s Entertainment has provided quality entertainment services in the Washington, D.C. Metro area. We provided small to large-scale audio-visual systems. Our team offers a professional set up and installation of your televisions, soundbars and more. Our goal is to give you the highest quality entertainment experience.

Nard’s Entertainment caters to all types of businesses. Our comprehensive AV and IT solutions will keep your customers entertained. Our team stays up-to-date on the latest trends to bring you the best customer service in the industry. Allow our friendly staff to install digital television services like DirecTV and sound systems that bring the theater aesthetic to your place of business. We provide huge entertainment value and state-of-the-art technology at reasonable rates. Our friendly technicians will meet your entertainment needs with the highest level of customer service. If you have any questions or ready to schedule your consultation, give us a call today at (703) 821-8629!
www.nardsentertainment.com