City Hall Discussion - Redevelopment - Preservation - Relocation

FK4 said:
Totally agree! Most people don't even know about that beautiful building because they have never seen it.
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It's gorgeous but it was also always blocked off. Yes, there was a street leading up the main entrance but it was narrow and lined with 10+ story buildings, and awkwardly angled relative to streets below:

pemberton%2Bsq%2B1920.jpg

pemberton%2B1938.jpg

images


You can find more info about Pemberton Square, including those photos and more, here: http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2011/07/pemberton-square.html

Of course, Center Plaza is still worse than what was there. I've come around to it being a major issue with Government center. More interesting buildings there would greatly improve the feel of the plaza itself.

Also, the attached courthouse tower includes some interesting art deco elements inside, but has deteriorated, been renovated, and damaged/carved up through renovations to the point where it probably doesn't have much value anymore.
 
Center Plaza is yet another, poorly conceived, badly shaped neighborhood killer.
 
SlothofDespond said:
It's gorgeous but it was also always blocked off. Yes, there was a street leading up the main entrance but it was narrow and lined with 10+ story buildings, and awkwardly angled relative to streets below:

pemberton%2Bsq%2B1920.jpg

pemberton%2B1938.jpg

images


You can find more info about Pemberton Square, including those photos and more, here: http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2011/07/pemberton-square.html

Of course, Center Plaza is still worse than what was there. I've come around to it being a major issue with Government center. More interesting buildings there would greatly improve the feel of the plaza itself.

Also, the attached courthouse tower includes some interesting art deco elements inside, but has deteriorated, been renovated, and damaged/carved up through renovations to the point where it probably doesn't have much value anymore.
Click to expand...

You have to go back further to understand the street configuration. Pemberton Square was originally laid out in the 1830's as an exclusive residential development (originally called Phillips Place) halfway up the side of Beacon Hill. It was a Row House lined Garden Square, with the single entrance up into the enclave. That was all destroyed for the Adams Courthouse in the 1880's.
 
SlothofDespond said:
It's gorgeous but it was also always blocked off. Yes, there was a street leading up the main entrance but it was narrow and lined with 10+ story buildings, and awkwardly angled relative to streets below:

pemberton%2Bsq%2B1920.jpg

pemberton%2B1938.jpg

images


You can find more info about Pemberton Square, including those photos and more, here: http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2011/07/pemberton-square.html

Of course, Center Plaza is still worse than what was there. I've come around to it being a major issue with Government center. More interesting buildings there would greatly improve the feel of the plaza itself.

Also, the attached courthouse tower includes some interesting art deco elements inside, but has deteriorated, been renovated, and damaged/carved up through renovations to the point where it probably doesn't have much value anymore.
Click to expand...


Even that narrow view of the courthouse was worth it.
 
^ Hardscape, often random official and non-official vehicles parked haphazardly
 
It also looks like a giant convenience store. A huge 7/11 sign would be appropriate.
 
It looks like a spaceship that landed on top of a red brick building, and has partially begun assimilating the red brick building.
 
The plaza in ALIEN Covenant looks kind of similar, except there everyone is really dead, not just emotionally dead from the red brick desert.
 
We should have a poll

Keep or demolish city hall
For some insane reason I'm for keeping this structure
 
If the human race can move on from losing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Library of Alexandria I'm sure we can cope with losing the worst building in America.
 
Love it or hate it, City Hall is a significant piece of architecture - arguably, perhaps, for some, and maybe for many here - but significant nonetheless, held in some esteem by historians and architectural congniscenti. Make improvements okay, particularly to the plaza, but don't alter this glimpse of the past or its reflection of another era and style. Reasonable minds can disagree, of course, but reasonable minds can also appreciate a difference of opinion, especially in matters of (taste?) beauty. Has losing Scollay Square taught us nothing? Isn't a vibrant city diverse in many aspects? It seems to me we demolish too easily these days.
 
I actually hate it but the architecture says something about the history of Boston that is why I'm for keeping it.
 
there isn't a conventional bomb big enough for what i'd like to see done to this offense against humanity.

It is also a totally, absolutely lousy building for conducting the daily business of Boston.
 
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nm88 said:
Love it or hate it, City Hall is a significant piece of architecture - arguably, perhaps, for some, and maybe for many here - but significant nonetheless, held in some esteem by historians and architectural congniscenti. Make improvements okay, particularly to the plaza, but don't alter this glimpse of the past or its reflection of another era and style. Reasonable minds can disagree, of course, but reasonable minds can also appreciate a difference of opinion, especially in matters of (taste?) beauty.
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There are other examples of brutalism in the city that are worthy of being preserved, the BPL extension and the Christian Science plaza for example. City Hall and City Hall Plaza not particularly functional and there is so much positive potential for the city to build something new here? To move on from the tragedy that caused these buildings to be forced on us?

nm88 said:
Has losing Scollay Square taught us nothing? Isn't a vibrant city diverse in many aspects? It seems to me we demolish too easily these days.
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The #1 problem with City Hall and City Hall Plaza is that they aren't vibrant. There is so much potential for the city i bringing back an actual Scollay Square instead of shitty, drab Government Center. It would be a shame to keep the center of the city as a museum piece instead of a useful city center.
 
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