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Yeah, I've just never seen it so bad. Literally every hotel bar none sold out. Good for the hoteliers, in any case.

Well, here I am in Boston for the first time in a year. Nice to know that there are sooo few tourists. So few, I could stay in my choice of hotel! Just kidding, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING was sold out. Marriot? Nope. Liberty Hotel? Forget it. Anything in the Seaporrt? Nope. The...

Yes, the Rap Chaucer is pretty interesting. Link. I'd be interested to hear what alliterative poetry would sound like in such a medium - rim ram ruf would be interesting in a modern setting....

This is fair enough. One either can read Latin or one cannot. If you are not able to read a language, you cannot understand it. Does this mean by extension that _architecture_ is necessarily a language? Does it mean that by definition, buildings are designed by and for a select few, and it...

But Jason, _I_ am not the one who is belittling and impeding comparison -- it is _you_ who is making the assertion that there are those who "get it" and those who "don't" -- thereby consigning any and all opinions which do not match those held by you summarily to the dustbin. Don't agree? Well...

And who is to say I don't "get it"? You? And why is that? Because my opinion is not the same? You seem to want to assert that there exists a universal truth only available to those who share a given viewpoint. Do you feel that Briv also doesn't "get it"? Why has there been no attempt to...

Right back at you. :) We are not discussing murals on the T, or art in general. The subject is a single building, Boston City Hall, which serves as the seat of government in a representative democracy. You'll not find me level the same criticism of Rudolph's Art and Architecture building...

I think someone is having spell checker trouble... :)

I answered the question in a manner relevant to the subject at hand -- Boston City Hall. The Canterbury Tales were not paid for by the government as a symbol of government. Moreover, what would a redneck do with a Cornell paper on the Canterbury Tales? How would a rigorous academic discussion...

The redneck isn't forced to read Canterbury Tales if he doesn't want to. Said redneck, however, is forced to look at City Hall every time he goes downtown. Not only that, he's forced to pay for it with his tax dollars. That is a wholly different matter. And ZenZen: Do you think that that...

I certainly do not mean to condemn architects or intellectuals. I spent my time in academia studying medieval literature -- certainly not the most worldly of studies. There is no doubt at all that art and artists built all that makes Boston a top drawer city in the first place. However, one...

Justin, I have an Ivy League education, and have been to more than 30 countries. Does that make me qualified to have an opinion about City Hall? :) In medicine one can prove empirically whether a given hypothesis is correct or not. How does one _prove_ that a building is good or bad? Justin...

I apologize for the poor quality of these two images showing the modern tunnels under construction, but I don't have a scanner, and so have to take a photo of the book in which these are found: It does look to me as if the tunnels are very close to the surface; I'm not sure that the...

Who owns the land under the Post Office Annex? Is it federal government property? This is to be closed in the near future, I believe. While they are at it, lets move the Holocaust memorial to a different location, along with the statues and benches along Union Street. The west side of the...

great shot!

How about the post office annex next to South Station? One could construct a couple of mid size towers there to relocate not only the city government, but also consolidate all the half empty federal buildings into a single, high security building.

Consider Toronto City Hall. Built two years or so later, Brutalist in style. Are there legions of people out looking for it to be torn down? No there aren't, probably because it does indeed stand tall, does draw the observer in, does symbolize a city on the rise. It isn't a bunker surrounded...

I, for one, would return to Boston from wherever I might be to see the day this comes down. My 10 cents is that unfortunately the definition of "cutting edge" often seems to be "average people hate it", as if public disapprobation is a gold seal of approval. Perhaps removing this building will...

Did you spend any time downtown? Gaslamp district etc? I quite liked San Diego when I was there. Virtually every parking lot has a 'coming soon' sign on it for some new development. In a few years the downtown will be quite developed. When I left Boston I considered only San Diego and San...

I also note from that article that they do indeed plan to raze Rudolph's stumpy building next door to build this tower. That's the first time I have seen that confirmed.