City Hall Discussion - Redevelopment - Preservation - Relocation

City Hall plans move step forward

I gotta say, the only thing I like about moving City Hall to the waterfront would be if they can get other city agencies to join them under one roof - specifically, the School Committee and ISD.

Hall monitors: Study is first step toward move
By Scott Van Voorhis

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Mayor Thomas M. Menino on Monday will take some of the first concrete steps toward making his vision of a new headquarters for city government a reality.

A local design firm will begin a survey of city departments located at City Hall and other city-owned buildings in the Government Center area.

The firm, Stull and Lee, will examine how much office space is currently used by an array of 46 departments in these buildings, said Dot Joyce, the mayor?s press secretary.

Meanwhile, city officials will be ordering new property assessments, updating the value of the 1960s era City Hall as well as other city buidlings nearby. These include the school department?s headquarters at 26 Court St., and other buildings located on North, Hawkins and Richmond streets. Farther out, 1010 Massachusetts Ave. is also in play.

In addition, city officials are exploring the South Boston waterfront site Menino has chosen as the location for a new city complex and what can be built there, Joyce said.

Menino?s proposal has intrigued developers, with intense interest in the idea of selling off City Hall and the plaza in front. It is considered prime real estate in the heart of downtown Boston.

Such a deal might even make Menino enough money to pay for a new waterfront City Hall and even turn a profit, said Larry DiCara, a top Boston lawyer and former city councilor.

?It?s a classic real estate play,? DiCara said. ?They might even make money in the process.?

Source: http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=190524
 
The Globe said:
Simple visions for new City Hall

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | March 28, 2007

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's plan for a new jewel of a City Hall on the South Boston waterfront may have gotten sideways looks from a few historians, architects, and city councilors. But the bureaucrats inside the dark and drafty seat of Boston government are already dreaming about the amenities of a new home.

Ordered to imagine the City Hall of the future, about a dozen Boston officials are putting together a wish list that includes things like exotically powered heating and cooling systems and automated services.

But some officials who have spent their entire careers working inside the Brutalist concrete mass at Government Center are downright ebullient at the prospect of simpler things, such as meeting rooms that are easy to find and signs that clearly indicate to the public where they need to go for City Hall functions.

"There will be an electronic sign, and when you come in, it'll be like a hotel: 'Board meeting in the 2-B conference room,' " said Michael Galvin , chief of basic city services. "It's just that exciting."

Boston's City Hall of about four decades -- built to symbolize a new era that celebrated common people -- has been widely criticized as being forbidding. Officials say they want an inviting building, if Menino's vision is realized. But a new City Hall would also be designed to accommodate fewer people.

With the numbers of people who actually go to City Hall to conduct business appearing to decline in recent years, officials say a new building would rely heavily on virtual transactions and less on person-to-person contact.

"In 10 years, it's going to be dramatically different," said Bill Oates , the city's chief information officer. "Online transactions will certainly be the majority."

City officials also imagine a cultural center in conjunction with a new City Hall, one that would replace the current brick plaza with a tent area where residents can enjoy views of the skyline as they listen to jazz, oldies, and hip-hop. A new bike path would connect Roxbury to the new City Hall.

The city is in discussions with state officials over possibly creating a new underground MBTA stop along the Silver Line that would service a new City Hall.

The public's use would be concentrated on the first two or three floors, to eliminate the misdirection and wandering around that goes on in the current building.

"You can have some great art galleries there, too," Menino said. "In the back you could have a veranda where people can come enjoy themselves in the summertime."

"We're going to use as much technology and green stuff as we can so this will be an example not only in Boston but throughout the country," he added. "But I also want to make sure that as we do this, we don't get impersonal. We have to make sure there are places people can go to talk to someone from an agency."

Stull and Lee Architects this week began interviewing department heads as part of a $100,000 study to update the space needs of 43 city departments. By mid-summer, city officials are hoping to have planners and architects meet to begin designing the new City Hall.

The city is also planning to renovate the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square, where several departments and about 1,500 employees will be housed.

The architects and city employees are evaluating everything from how many fax machines and photo copiers will be needed on each floor to what types of service centers will be needed for residents to pay bills or lodge complaints.

A major focus of the effort is also examining how and why people use city hall, and how that is changing with new technology. Online transactions have skyrocketed in recent years as residents have grown more comfortable using the Internet to pay their taxes and parking tickets.

There were 434,578 online transactions last year -- about 20 percent more than in 2005 -- and the city collected $39.6 million, twice the amount in 2005. But the majority of payments are still paid in person or through the mail.

Oates said the city plans to mount a marketing campaign to encourage residents to use the city's website for bill payments and other services.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
 
The Herald said:
$$$ out the door: $245G entries for Hall that may close
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Exclusive
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

You would think Mayor Thomas M. Menino would be busy enough planning his new municipal dream office on the waterfront.
But Menino is just bursting with spring renovation fever when it comes to a building that everyone in Boston who is not an architect loves to hate: City Hall.
Even as he talks about selling off the crumbling monument to bad 1960s architecture, Menino is authorizing a million-dollar-plus revamp of Boston?s ugliest building.
The latest project: $245,000 to redo the entryway doors at City Hall. Doors slated for replacement include those at entrances on the Plaza and the one on Congress Street across from Faneuil Hall.
There?s a deadline for the new doors to be in place: roughly two years, according to a bid advertisement. So that gives the public a good year or two to admire City Hall?s shiny new doors before the mayor turns the keys over to developers with bulldozers ready.
?It?s putting lipstick on a pig,? said John Tobin, a city councilor who has lobbied for City Hall?s demolition. ?It?s not like you are selling a house and making improvements to make it more attractive. Whoever comes in and buys it, I would assume they would level it.?
All of this is quite a shift from Menino?s comments late last year. In the days after his landmark announcement that he would build a new city headquarters on South Boston?s waterfront, Menino didn?t mince words.
He called spending money on fixing up City Hall ?throwing good money after bad.?
The $245,000 for new doors is just the top of the mayor?s City Hall fix-it list.
The building is also getting a new, $700,000 security system - courtesy of federal tax dollars provided by the Department of Homeland Security. New cameras by all elevator banks and door locks controlled by key pads are some features of the new system.
Work kicked off in January, a month after the mayor stunned Boston with his bombshell announcement that he would sell off City Hall and build a new, state-of-the-art headquarters on South Boston?s waterfront.
Sadly, the most expensive part of this system - extensive internal wiring - isn?t portable to the waterfront.
At least the sprinklers that were installed shortly before the mayor?s big announcement - at $1.8 million - appear transferable. Ditto for the new energy efficient lights being contemplated, for a mere $1 million.
There?s a big electric company rebate savings to be had, city officials contend.
Menino wasn?t available to talk to me yesterday about his City Hall renovations.
But Michael Galvin, the city?s property maintenance chief, bravely took the call.
The doors, now forty years old, are a ?safety issue,? the security system was recommended by the feds, and the sprinklers were needed to comply with new state fire regulations, he said.
As for the lights, they could pay for themselves in a year with rebates from the electric company.
Well that?s good to know.
In its final years, City Hall will be the most secure, fireproof and energy efficient government building in Boston.
And with new doors to boot.
Link
 
Why oh why ....

The city is also planning to renovate the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square, where several departments and about 1,500 employees will be housed.

Why can't we fit all the new workers in a new city hall?
 
Why? Is there a reason workers will be there, or is this simple pandering?

Dudley's a transportation hub for a big swath of the City and connected to every other part as well. It's also a place that could be much more than it is with a little investment. It could become a new hub of activity for everyone in the city and a growth area. I think it makes a ton of sense for the City to start Dudley's resuscitation.

Pandering is marching in someone's parade or pronouncing February 30th "Dudley Day." This is reinvestment and city building.
 
Great, I want one too

Can't we just build a building that will hold ALL city employees, instead of spreading them around the city?
 
The Ferdinand Building is, as I understand it, city-owned and so it's a pretty unique opportunity as a cornerstone building in a neighborhood that needs the investment.

Also, there isn't a place on your list that holds the potential that Dudley does as a result of its position as a busway (and hopefully in our lifetimes subway - SILVER LINE RAIL) hub.
 
I always thought Dudley Sq would be a perfect place to move the City Hall. Place it on the south side of Dudley St and take all the land that is now a bus depot and turn it into a park with the bus terminal and hopefully a subway under it, like Harvard Sq meets Union Sq, NY.

 
yea i wanna go to dudley to pay my shit. thats a cool place to go.

sb waterfront would make the area better than it is now. there'd be people actually walking around.
 
I think Dudley would be a little bit too far from the central of activities such as Downtown or the Waterfront. I myself don't exactly know where Dudley Square is. I just know that the Silver Line can take me there.
 
Wouldn't that be the point? It would open up the heart of the city and help turn Dudley into an actual place rather than the ghetto dump it is now.
 
DarkFenX said:
I think Dudley would be a little bit too far from the central of activities such as Downtown or the Waterfront. I myself don't exactly know where Dudley Square is. I just know that the Silver Line can take me there.

fairly short hop from Mass Ave one direction, or from Huntington. among other options, you used to be able to get a bus from JFK there. there's interesting cityscape over that way. was a bit gritty last time i was there (early 90s, so actually what do I know?)

i'd vote for city hall over there. leave the prime real estate to the tycoons who want it. city hall is for the people, and tommy's job is to make incremental improvements to city life -- not to spur growth in an area that only needs to lose the red tape in order to become the next big thing. imho...
 
how many people would get mugged on the way to pay their parking tickets? at least on the SBWF i don't fear getting shot in a drive-by.
 
DudeUrSistersHot said:
how many people would get mugged on the way to pay their parking tickets? at least on the SBWF i don't fear getting shot in a drive-by.

You are missing the point of moving the City Hall there. The point would be to redevelop the area, bringing more people and economic development.
 
The Dudley Square concept sounds interesting. Alas, I've been in Boston for a little over two years now and I have yet to go there and explore. Shame on me, but anyway I need to get down there and see for myself what a City Hall could do for that mini-hub.

I'm just not crazy about putting it out on the waterfront.. that place appears to be a total loss, and I'm guessing architecturally it would add to that disaster (one more blockbusting building to sterilize the pedestrian experience), so I say let's put it in an area where it's one-use program will do the least harm.
 
How many of you have actually been to City Hall to conduct "business".?
 
How many of you have actually been to City Hall to conduct "business".?
 
ZenZen said:
How many of you have actually been to City Hall to conduct "business".?

I have, whilst i was operating a business in the city.

City Hall will attract more than Joe Blow paying his parking ticket.
 
Whoa ...

Wow, I wish I hadn't said anything.

I think people are being a bit harsh.
 

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