Re: City Hall Plaza Polar Bar / City Bistro
city hall is 50 years old, right? The few times i've been in it -not just the lobby but some meeting rooms - it seems totally outdated and structurally aging fast.
Proposals like this seem all like silly handwaving. What is stopping City Hall from being the anchor tenant and driver for an iconic and conveniently located development (Withrop Sq, South Station Tower, Gov't Center Garage, North Station). Then if they can do a specific rezoning, parcel subdivision and staggered auction to developers, it seems like the value of the current GC & plaza space would cover the move to a modern facility.
If you want to just ditch the city hall building altogether and start with a blank slate approach, then just move the mayor, city council, department heads and some key administrative teams back to the old City Hall. The city doesn't need a new city hall if they can move back into the old one. I believe it is still owned by the city, but just leased out through a private corporation.
And then make sure that there are offices in every neighborhood and online that can handle day to day transactions such as license applications, renewals, fee collection, etc. The days of having a massive government building that is primarily for office space should be long over.
If there was an actual "Hall" at City Hall, then that would be different as it would be good to have some auditorium that was bigger than Faneuil Hall available. Putting office space at the center of a civic center is a waste.
But before just giving city hall and the plaza over for just another development there are a lot of ways that it could be redone that keep it primarily a civic space, albeit a better defined one.
