City Hall Plaza Revamp | Government Center

Charlie_mta said:
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I mean, the playground is nice and well used, but as a whole the plaza still sucks despite all the recent rework.
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Agree. "Well 1/20th of the plaza area is activated and in frequent use, so the plaza is a success" is pretty sketchy math.

I'm glad families and kids are enjoying the playground area (I enjoyed my one trip down the slide) and certainly *any* public value to any portion of City Hall plaza is an improvement, but c'mon.
 
chrisbrat said:
exactly. cool building, shitty use of so much acreage in the heart of the city. as a plaza/piazza it remains a total failure.
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I realize that City Hall has some architectural value and its admirers, but I can't find anything redeeming about the JFK Federal Building, which takes up a great deal more real estate than CH. Certainly not enough positives to justify its continued existence preventing more interesting redevelopment. The Plaza side of the building is bad, but it's even worse along the streetside and sucks any potential life out of Sudbury Street. Particularly with the security measures now necessary for federal buildings, I wish they would just decamp for the suburbs.
 
Implode the JFK Federal Building. Take 1/3 of City Hall Plaza and build a signature tower for Boston north of 700 feet. The greenway and common are both within short walks of City Hall. No need to have such a large plot of undeveloped land in the heart of Boston.

You'd get to keep the playground that is well used and also have area left over for open space. I would plant grass here to create a Post Office Square type spot, or some type of a water fountain/splash pad adjacent to the playground.
 
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shmessy said:
This is what the Russians are building all around the front in Ukraine to guard against the expected spring counteroffensive.

This is NOT a public space.

It is a defensive brick and marble moat.

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I think you're on to something. Brutalist buildings, such as City Hall, I've read, were partly inspired by the desire to have bomb-resistant bunker style buildings, a perceived need stemming from the trauma of World War II.
 
Charlie_mta said:
I think you're on to something. Brutalist buildings, such as City Hall, I've read, were partly inspired by the desire to have bomb-resistant bunker style buildings, a perceived need stemming from the trauma of World War II.
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Sadly Brutalism never did a fantastic job at that - I was inside City Hall yesterday, and noticed spots on the ceiling with crumbled concrete and exposed rebar, deeply inside the building (not at an obvious wear point like near windows). Most Brutalist buildings are infinitely more likely to self-destruct than fall to bombs.
 
This is for all you city hall haters. ;)

My best attempt at being ironic: what a horrible public space, and besides - who uses it anyways? all the views you can see when you visit the open expansive empty space, it’s just so unpleasant when you get to see so many views of the city all in one moment not to mention its like peaceful and quite and you barely can even hear the city bustle - almost a place that a bunch of lazy workers would probably go and bask. I mean - let’s finally admit that of course we should build as many buildings on top of this unused public embarrassment. And those puny trees. They probably won’t even grow bigger.

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Dr. Rosen Rosen said:
This is for all you city hall haters. ;)

My best attempt at being ironic: what a horrible public space, and besides - who uses it anyways? all the views you can see when you visit the open expansive empty space, it’s just so unpleasant when you get to see so many views of the city all in one moment not to mention its like peaceful and quite and you barely can even hear the city bustle - almost a place that a bunch of lazy workers would probably go and bask. I mean - let’s finally admit that of course we should build as many buildings on top of this unused public embarrassment. And those puny trees. They probably won’t even grow bigger.

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If these photos and that paragraph were supposed to convince me that City Hall Plaza isn’t still an awful public space even after the renovations, it didn’t work.
 
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dotdude78 said:
Other than the trees, I barely notice a difference. Still the ugliest building in Boston. What a waste.
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I walk through the plaza everyday. The most impactful difference I have noticed is the change in bird diversity. I now hear bird calls of atleast a half a dozen different bird species when I walk through early in the morning. I know it's probably not going to change a lot of minds about the plaza or the building and honestly I think a lot more could have been done, but I'd like to atleast celebrate this small victory.
 
Is the water "feature" working now? Wasn't there supposed to be a small fountain where the old fountain was located?
 
Boston Pride for the People is scheduled to have an "adult" event on City Hall Plaza on Saturday, June 10th. Hopefully, I'll get to experience the place for the first time since all the changes. There is supposed to be a beer garden, vendor tables, and some musical entertainment. There is a festival on the Common that is supposed to be more family oriented, and City Hall Plaza was billed as more adult oriented. Their website doesn't have many details yet, but there was an article written recently in Boston Spirit Magazine about the event.

About | Boston Pride For The People
 
chrisbrat said:
Fixed that for you. City Hall is a cool building. If the plaza worked, you'd probably either like or just ignore the building.
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A) No
B) Pretty sure it's impossible to "ignore" a soviet brutalist monstrosity

The trees in the plaza are lipstick on a pig. Dollar Tree brand lipstick that causes rashes and swollen lips.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
I mean, I think it's a great building for sure. But that is still one of the worst public spaces in the city.
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The form of the plaza follows the form of the building, which meets the plaza with sheer concrete and brick walls with doors deeply recessed.

Any plaza that was remotely welcoming would be incongruent with City Hall. City Hall is a complete concept failure of a civic space and needs a wrecking ball yesterday.
 
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