Millennium Tower Boston is a new 60-story tower in the heart of the city. The project replaced the "Big Hole," a partially excavated site at the corner of Washington Street and Franklin Street in Downtown Crossing.

The national consolidation of department stores coupled with competition with Big Box operations and a steady increase in internet shopping led to the collapse of the Filene’s brand in 2006. As part of a large mixed-use project by another firm, Daniel Burnham's 1912 Filene’s Building on the adjacent site was gutted, and excavation was begun on what would be the Millennium Tower site. In 2008, the Great Recession intervened; not unlike the recession of 1991-92 which stalled Boston Crossing and Commonwealth Center, the Great Recession halted this work in its tracks. The resultant “Big Hole” became a stark reminder of all that had been lost in this important district of the city.

In 2012, Handel Architects was engaged to renovate and restore the Filene's Building, and to design a new mixed-use residential tower that would redefine the Boston skyline. The new massing strategy recognized the Burnham Building as an urban set piece, unique in form, and capable of defining the immediate surroundings through scale, materiality, and articulation. The new Millennium Tower is “joined at the hip”, connecting the first three floors of the Burnham Building with retail uses, but clearly perceived as independent along the street wall and on the civic scale.