City Hall Discussion - Redevelopment - Preservation - Relocation

According to The Herald, the City is putting a plan to renovate City Hall and the plaza out to bid.

Dan Atkinson said:
A single firm will be hired to lead design and construction that will eventually include trees on the plaza and a restaurant on the third floor of City Hall .

[...]

The project would include working with the MBTA and inspecting tunnels that run under the plaza

[...]

City Hall would see more renovations, though — including a re-opened entrance across from Hanover Street in the initial phase and plans to remove the main staircase in the third-floor lobby and add a 4,000-square-foot to 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the third floor.

[...]

Walsh said the bulk of the initial project will be “shoring up” the plaza itself, which the plan describes as needing waterproofing and surface replacement.
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JumboBuc said:
According to The Herald, the City is putting a plan to renovate City Hall and the plaza out to bid.
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Proposed (phased build out):

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I believe this is what they're starting off with:

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This seems very pricey at full build out. You can certainly rebuild at a much lower cost, no? The architecture might be worth saving, but is it worth $100mm+?

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Full presentation here.
 
are they gonna give city hall a good scrubbing? It badly needs it.
 
^^10,000 lb bombs would be a nice start....

Maybe bomb Geisel Library for the practice run.
 
When I see these schemes to "fix" City Hall and the Plaza, the phrase "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind.
 
Honest question.

How much do you think this project should cost and what do think you should expect to get for your price?
 
Your right ... we should really do this on the cheap. Good idea.

cca
 
It's good to see that they're planning a new entrance on the Congress St side across from Faneuil Hall, built out with glass underneath that overhang at the corner (see slide 30 of the presentation (pdf) stefalarchitect linked above).

My wish is that they knock down the brick wall of the entire first floor along Congress. Replace that with glass and open it up to the street, and City Hall takes on a whole new life.
 
Well..... for $230-250 / sq ft, you can build a high rise. That's what thery're proposing to spend per sqft on the plaza.

To be clear - I'm not proposing that anyone build a highrise here, and I'm not even criticizing or calling into question the $45M figure ... at this point.

Here's my intention - as someone who is not professionally involved in construction and development, I'm just surprised that this would cost so much. It looks like they're fixing the bricks, adding some ramps, and planting trees (which i know means drainage & irrigation etc.). If we're going for 'evolution' rather than 'revolution', that looks like a pretty good plan to me.

$45M?? What am I missing? (Thats a genuine question)
 
CSTH said:
Well..... for $230-250 / sq ft, you can build a high rise. That's what thery're proposing to spend per sqft on the plaza.

To be clear - I'm not proposing that anyone build a highrise here, and I'm not even criticizing or calling into question the $45M figure ... at this point.

Here's my intention - as someone who is not professionally involved in construction and development, I'm just surprised that this would cost so much. It looks like they're fixing the bricks, adding some ramps, and planting trees (which i know means drainage & irrigation etc.). If we're going for 'evolution' rather than 'revolution', that looks like a pretty good plan to me.

$45M?? What am I missing? (Thats a genuine question)
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From the Hearald:

Boston Herald said:
The project would include working with the MBTA and inspecting tunnels that run under the plaza

[...]

Walsh said the bulk of the initial project will be “shoring up” the plaza itself, which the plan describes as needing waterproofing and surface replacement. TD Bank, which has a three-year contract to operate on the plaza, runs larger programs at other sites like New York City’s Rockefeller Center, but the City Hall Plaza — which sits above an MBTA tunnel cap that required emergency capping three years ago — is not strong enough to support such events, Walsh said.

“We agree with the mayor and the city and the long-term vision and improvement plan for City Hall Plaza,” said TD Bank spokeswoman Tricia McCorkle. “Their vision and investment in infrastructure will deliver a better space for anyone looking to host events and programming at City Hall Plaza.”

Walsh said officials and construction managers would work with the MBTA during the project and said there would be no disruption in service.
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Structural work on the tunnels underneath the plaza would be expensive. This isn't just landscaping...
 
Wait. The events are run by TD North? The bank?

I thought they were run by Delaware North, the food service/venue/events company.
 
JumboBuc said:
It's good to see that they're planning a new entrance on the Congress St side across from Faneuil Hall, built out with glass underneath that overhang at the corner (see slide 30 of the presentation (pdf) stefalarchitect linked above).

My wish is that they knock down the brick wall of the entire first floor along Congress. Replace that with glass and open it up to the street, and City Hall takes on a whole new life.
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Here here... I'd say most of the ground level brick walls can and should go. Open it up on Congress AND on the Plaza.
 
statler said:
Wait. The events are run by TD North? The bank?

I thought they were run by Delaware North, the food service/venue/events company.
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They are probably just confused.

Delaware North is running the City Hall Plaza programming, but they may be doing it through their TD Garden subsidiary company.
 
JumboBuc said:
It's good to see that they're planning a new entrance on the Congress St side across from Faneuil Hall, built out with glass underneath that overhang at the corner (see slide 30 of the presentation (pdf) stefalarchitect linked above).

My wish is that they knock down the brick wall of the entire first floor along Congress. Replace that with glass and open it up to the street, and City Hall takes on a whole new life.
Click to expand...

I totally agree about Congress Street--it would be a great location for a more public function. But that's where city council and the Mayor's bigwigs park so I doubt anything will change.
 
estyle said:
I totally agree about Congress Street--it would be a great location for a more public function. But that's where city council and the Mayor's bigwigs park so I doubt anything will change.
Click to expand...

There aren't many parking spaces down there. Most of space that is close to ground level on Congress St is offices space now. Not sure if the floor is at street level... which could be the issue for having street level space along Congress. But still would be good to open it up a bit rather than have such a long solid brick facade at street level.
 
Do the underground tracks make it a challenge to build anything on the majority of the plaza? What puzzles me is that the lines were there when the Scollay Square buildings were still there.
 
The tunnels beneath most of the Plaza were built in the mid-1960's: namely the northbound Green Line tunnel and the loop tunnel. The only tunnels that are 1910 or so vintage are the ones running right alongside the east side of Cambridge Street and the southbound Green Line tunnel (running where Hanover Street once was).

So, the point being that most of the tunnels are relatively new and shouldn't require much, if any, structural work. The old tunnels might, but no more than all the other old Green Line tunnels that run down Tremont Street and under Boston Common.

If the City were to ever launch a serious redevelopment of City Hall Plaza with new buildings and additional streets, the tunnels would not be a problem. Just slap on a 3 foot grade raise over the tunnel roofs and the entire Plaza area to provide cover and reinforcement for new development.
 
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