Close But Oh So Far

On my recent trip to Boston, I came across a new building with a canopy supported on exposed-steel columns:

Various types of cruciform-section columns have been used over the past 150- years or so, first in wrought iron and then in steel. But when I got close, I saw I had been fooled:

There is nothing connecting the four angles to one another between their top ends at the canopy and their bottom ends at the base plate and footing. In other words, this is not a cruciform column, it’s four angle columns enjoying each other’s company without getting too familiar. If you can’t transfer load from one angle to another, then they don’t work as one column. The canopy load is small enough that having four relatively weak angle columns instead of one stronger cruciform column is apparently okay. My guess is that this form was chosen solely for its appearance, and the spacer plates and bolts or welds required to connect the angles were considered to be unappealing to view.