City Hall Discussion - Redevelopment - Preservation - Relocation

Aside from the clear issues with the plaza, security is one of the main issues with the current City Hall itself. It was designed as a public space with the third floor essentially being 100% open. Go up those daunting stairs inside and there's an internal plaza (formerly) freely accessible from the stairs wrapping around from Congress St and from the plaza; both of which are now closed off. This idea that being safe means keeping someone a few feet further away is a little silly. It was sort of like City Hall was to hover above the plaza.
 
Justin7 said:
The redone plaza is pretty nice as well.

DilworthPark3.jpg

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Nice subway entrances. Why can't we get subway entrances like that instead of the massive cathedral rising at Government Center? These are still light and airy and glassy, but they are also unobtrusive and functional.
 
HenryAlan said:
Nice subway entrances. Why can't we get subway entrances like that instead of the massive cathedral rising at Government Center? These are still light and airy and glassy, but they are also unobtrusive and functional.
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Because we apparently couldn't settle for just stairs. We had to have a skylight at Gov't Center. To be honest, it's kind of cool even now to pass through on the Green Line and see light streaming in. But I agree the head house is extraordinarily over-sized. The same effect could have been achieved with a much smaller structure (and I'm not sure we even need that effect at all).

The current structure looks so much like an Apple Store ripoff, I actually want the signage to simply be the typical Apple logo with an MBTA "T" in the middle. Maybe Apple will even pay for naming rights. "Apple Landing" sounds great, right?
 
Still the best possible option I've seen suggested.

I assume the boring glass blobs are placeholders though. Otherwise, the concept is perfect.
 
statler said:
Still the best possible option I've seen suggested.

I assume the boring glass blobs are placeholders though. Otherwise, the concept is perfect.
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I think you need to focus on programming the building and plaza and then go back and forth with the facade and interface with the plaza. With electronic records and networking people should be able to do transactions online or go to neighborhood based city offices. People shouldn't have to go to this building except to attend public meetings or medium to large size public events. To me that means you can clear out the lower levels.


I think in general the big blank brick walls at ground level simply need to go and be replaced with some leased ground level retail/cafe space. Still keep it mostly civic space, but people gotta eat... and drink.

Or heck just plant some Boston Ivy at the base and let them cover it up.
 
Boston Ivy is almost literally lipstick on a pig. The walls need to go.

The reason I like the museum idea is that turns the plaza into an outdoor room which is really the best possible design for an urban plaza.

I also like the idea of preserving City Hall by giving it to a group that will appreciate it for what it is give it the respect it deserves.

It might be a shitty City Hall but it's a fascinating piece of art.
 
If I had to drink every time someone said lipstick on a pig I would have to have my stomach pumped.

I think we should find a different phrase, its not kind to either delightful alcoholic drinks, nor pigs.

cca
 
Fine.

"Ineffective cosmetic change that does nothing to resolve the underlying problem."

Better?
 
statler said:
Boston Ivy is almost literally lipstick on a pig. The walls need to go.

The reason I like the museum idea is that turns the plaza into an outdoor room which is really the best possible design for an urban plaza.

I also like the idea of preserving City Hall by giving it to a group that will appreciate it for what it is give it the respect it deserves.

It might be a shitty City Hall but it's a fascinating piece of art.
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Plenty of room to include a museum, retain central city hall functions and do other stuff
 
Padre Mike said:
There is no reason why the plaza can't be filled with small buildings cuddling up to the lower stories of city hall, just as Medieval towns grew up around the cathedral. I suggest that an organic redevelopment of the hall itself will emerge as the area around it comes alive as a viable place of commerce and social life...think of an extension of the Blackstone Block. Leave the hall as is until the street life begins to take over inside and around and define how the building could be used. I also see studios for artists in the upper floors, with galleries for artists of all kinds of media, taking over the larger chambers. And why not a culinary school? A ceramics studio (no fear of kilns burning down the building!)? But the key is opening it up from the outside, in.
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Padre -- sort of Paris avant de Baron Haussmann
 
Padre Mike said:
There is no reason why the plaza can't be filled with small buildings cuddling up to the lower stories of city hall, just as Medieval towns grew up around the cathedral. I suggest that an organic redevelopment of the hall itself will emerge as the area around it comes alive as a viable place of commerce and social life...think of an extension of the Blackstone Block. Leave the hall as is until the street life begins to take over inside and around and define how the building could be used. I also see studios for artists in the upper floors, with galleries for artists of all kinds of media, taking over the larger chambers. And why not a culinary school? A ceramics studio (no fear of kilns burning down the building!)? But the key is opening it up from the outside, in.
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So essentially recreate Scollay Square, and its neighborhood, which was all bulldozed to created the plaza?
 
JeffDowntown said:
So essentially recreate Scollay Square, and its neighborhood, which was all bulldozed to created the plaza?
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except we take away the tattoo parlors, cheap gin joints and the "houses" beloved by the sailors on shore leave and replace them with nice if medievil hovels occupied by hard working peasants making beer coasters by hand
 
whighlander said:
except we take away the tattoo parlors, cheap gin joints and the "houses" beloved by the sailors on shore leave and replace them with nice if medievil hovels occupied by hard working peasants making beer coasters by hand
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Can we at least bring back the Old Howard?
 
Some nice pics in the article

No, that wasn’t a revival meeting at City Hall Plaza the other night. It was Diner en Blanc, a pop-up picnic attended by 1,400 people, all of them dressed in white. Begun in Paris 25 years ago, Diner en Blanc has become something of a phenomenon around the world. The way it works is this: Guests sign up online and then wait to be told where and when to show up with a table, chairs, and picnic basket. Attendees met in locations around the city and then descended en masse on to City Hall.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyl...diner-blanc/nrrBmPq3diDrgbMbXQqYQI/story.html
 
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