Embattled City Hall defenders change strategy
By John C. Drake, Globe Staff | July 11, 2008
The architects and academics who see beauty in Boston City Hall have come to realize they are in a small minority. So they are dropping their rhetoric about the hidden charms of its 1960s brutalist design and changing strategies in their bid to save it.
Their new message: It's conveniently located.
Members of the group Citizens for City Hall, which is opposing Mayor Thomas M. Menino's plan to build a new City Hall on the South Boston waterfront, are collecting stories from people who regularly travel to the building.
They plan to build a case that moving it to South Boston would be a major inconvenience for tens of thousands of city residents.
The group also is looking at ways to calculate the number of trips taken on public transportation to City Hall, located near four subway lines.
"There are plenty of people who are involved who say, 'I don't necessarily love the building, but I'm opposed to having to go to South Boston,' " said Gary Wolf, a Boston architect and member of Citizens for City Hall, who filed a petition with the city's Landmarks Commission to grant the building protected status.
The refocused preservation effort comes as Menino pushes ahead with a plan to study the feasibility of relocating City Hall to South Boston. Separately, state Senator Jack Hart, Democrat of Boston, has floated an alternate idea to move City Hall to the site of the New England Aquarium, an idea that has not gained traction with Menino or aquarium officials.
Menino's administration is determined to pursue the South Boston idea, despite advocates' pleas. The mayor included in this year's budget a $2 million study of the Marine Industrial Park site Menino is eyeing as a possible new home.
"The South Boston waterfront, while today may not have the vast number of subway lines, is a growing neighborhood," said Dorothy Joyce, Menino's spokeswoman. "We are confident it will have ample transportation opportunities when City Hall is up and running."
Opposition to the mayor's proposal has come from several sources. There are those, such as Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty, who say a seat of city government on the South Boston waterfront would not blend with the rapidly developing area's character.
Others, such as former city attorney Herb Gleason, say the problems with the existing City Hall are easily fixed by making it more accessible and energy efficient.
But the most persuasive case may be that the current Government Center location has ample MBTA service, unlike the waterfront.
Councilor Michael Ross, one of several members of the City Council who oppose moving City Hall, said the advocates are smart to shift the focus away from the building's architecture.
"They lose me with that," Ross said. "I don't understand the architectural thing as much. This is all about accessibility to the public."
But to date some of the most passionate defenders of the building are architects like Wolf who point out that City Hall is one of the worlds' most prominent examples of a bygone architectural style.
In addition to making an argument about convenience, they also are shifting strategy by trying to defuse disagreements over its appearance and turning the discussion to historic preservation and its prominence in the community.
Historic preservation got its start as an American movement in Boston in the 19th century, and demolishing a landmark building because it has gone out of style would run counter to that legacy, the argument goes.
"To consider tearing down a world famous building associated with the city for 40 years doesn't really mesh with this notion that Boston is where some of the greatest strides (in historic preservation) have been made," he said.
Citizens for City Hall has asked the Landmarks Commission to designate the structure a historic building, which would offer it protection from demolition but would not prevent city government from moving out.
A commission official said yesterday the petition had been recommended for study, but probably would not be considered by the panel unless a plan to demolish the structure was imminent.
A flier distributed by Citizens for City Hall signals the new approach: "Love it or hate it, City Hall is considered one of the most important buildings of the 20th century and is one of the best known buildings in the world."
John C. Drake can be reached at
jdrake@globe.com.
