Editing Openai/692cb06b-b484-800b-9bb9-7b819ce20d91 (section)

===== - The historic photos of the Ames Building show a tall, very thick-walled granite/stone structure with smallish window openings and a heavily modeled Romanesque façade. =====
* Structurally, sources confirm it’s a load-bearing masonry wall structure, not a steel skeleton.
* This is an almost perfect example of what a “skyscraper” still looks like in Boston c. 1890 if you don’t yet have a steel frame: giant stone walls doing the real work, with interior iron/wood framing stacked inside.

When you look at the façade:
* Think of the stone piers between window bays as literal chunks of structure.
* The thickness at the lower floors would be several feet to carry the load of the stories above.