City Hall Plaza

Very interesting, because I always thought it odd they would use the word "brutal" as part of an official term describing architecture. Thanks for the enlightenment.
 
lapradetom said:
....But then again, City Hall, if demolished, just may be missed if it weren't there any more. Could this someday ring true for us?: "you don't know what you got, till it's gone".
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I feel like any replacement building would be welcomed with open arms - for a few years at most just because it would be something new.

I fear we'd end up with something as cold and uninviting as the Municipal Court Building or the Moakley Courthouse.

The real problem is the ground floor of City Hall and the plaza that surrounds it. When people bitch about City Hall, I think a lot of the anger is really directed at the area surrounding it and how people are forced to interact with the building (not that the building itself is without issues).
 
Walsh to ink $400G deal to brighten up City Hall
Let there be light!
Friday, July 10, 2015
By:Jack Encarnacao

Mayor Martin J. Walsh has a bright idea to give the much-maligned, “ugly duckling” City Hall a makeover — shower it in lights.

Walsh is set to ink a contract for $400,000 a year to alter the gray concrete behemoth into an oasis of color in the heart of downtown by installing permanent light fixtures. It’s a move one lighting consultant said could flip the switch of public opinion.

The contract is expected to be finished next week and the lights to go on as soon as next month.

“The goal of this is when the special event happens — whether it’s breast cancer awareness, whether it’s the Bruins or the Red Sox or the Patriots in a championship, July 4th red white and blue — we want to be able to activate and make the building a little more appealing,” said Ken Brissette, the city’s director of tourism, sports and entertainment.
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continued ... http://www.bostonherald.com/news_op...lsh_to_ink_400g_deal_to_brighten_up_city_hall
 
lapradetom said:
Very interesting, because I always thought it odd they would use the word "brutal" as part of an official term describing architecture. Thanks for the enlightenment.
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All of these words share the same French root. You weren't wrong.
 
bolehboleh said:
Lipstick on a pig.
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Lighting on City Hall is a great idea! Hopefully, like the Empire State Building, it will be lit up every night, not just for special occasions. And so what if it's lipstick on a pig, this 'sow' is gonna be around for a long, long time! Light her up!
 
atlantaden said:
Lighting on City Hall is a great idea! Hopefully, like the Empire State Building, it will be lit up every night, not just for special occasions. And so what if it's lipstick on a pig, this 'sow' is gonna be around for a long, long time! Light her up!
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This, indeed, is the spirit. Do for the building at night what it's impossible to do in the daytime -- liven the damned thing up. If done right, you could even imagine a lit-up City Hall being one of the B-roll bumps that national sports broadcasts use when they return from commercial and send us live to TD Garden (assuming either team there has any games forthcoming that a national audience would ever want to see, of course).
 
I seem to remember a photo from a while back of City Hall bathed in a blue light. It was a great photo but Google isn't helping me.
 
They've been lighting up City Hall for Boston Calling and it looks damn good lit up.
 
Lights make everything look better...it's the dang electric bill that get's uglier. But I'm for the lights anyway.
 
True, LED's are much cheaper to run. They also expand on options available since the days of neon lighting. City Hall's unique shape should look wicked awesome illuminated.
 
every time that I come across the "City Hall Plaza" dilemma" I often conclude that it should be either tore down completely & set an international competition for its design OR just get rid of the so called "Plaza" and build new structures around City Hall itself.

When MW inks a 400K deal to "uplift City Hall's Image" is simply useless & unpractical- instead, that money could well be used to do the points I mentioned above.
 
bolehboleh said:
Lipstick on a pig.
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Take your favorite building in Boston--let's say, Atlantic Wharf.

Imagine what would happen if you failed to properly maintain the building for over forty years, closed-off a number of it's main entrances, fogged over the windows, failed to in anyway update its lobbies or common areas, closed off it's central courtyard and balcony's, and didn't clean it's masonry... do this to any building and it fails to be appealing. Do this to a modernist building and it becomes flat-out unappealing. This is what we have done to City Hall.

Boston City Hall is a great building that for decades we've misused, underutilized, and utterly neglected. I hope its detractors can take half-an-hour out of their lives to read a basic description of why the building was built in the way that it was and perhaps you'll better understand its past appeal and future potential. Basic care of the building and a modest efforts at public engagement will bring the building a long way toward once again being the a source of civic pride (it was an international phenomenon when it opened).

Past commentors nailed it. If we knocked this building down, it would be one of those major "what were we thinking?" demolitions, just like the West End and Scollay Square.
 
Revitalist said:
Take your favorite building in Boston--let's say, Atlantic Wharf.

Imagine what would happen if you failed to properly maintain the building for over forty years, closed-off a number of it's main entrances, fogged over the windows, failed to in anyway update its lobbies or common areas, closed off it's central courtyard and balcony's, and didn't clean it's masonry... do this to any building and it fails to be appealing. Do this to a modernist building and it becomes flat-out unappealing. This is what we have done to City Hall.

Boston City Hall is a great building that for decades we've misused, underutilized, and utterly neglected. I hope its detractors can take half-an-hour out of their lives to read a basic description of why the building was built in the way that it was and perhaps you'll better understand its past appeal and future potential. Basic care of the building and a modest efforts at public engagement will bring the building a long way toward once again being the a source of civic pride (it was an international phenomenon when it opened).

Past commentors nailed it. If we knocked this building down, it would be one of those major "what were we thinking?" demolitions, just like the West End and Scollay Square.
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I think I have commented on this before, but we need to turn lose a firm like Architectural Resources Cambridge on a renovation/upgrade. There are solid modernist bones there at City Hall, but with upgrades you can get pretty amazing results.

Look at the vertical expansion of the Tufts Dental School building, corner of Washington and Kneeland Streets for inspiration about the possibilities.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I think I have commented on this before, but we need to turn lose a firm like Architectural Resources Cambridge on a renovation/upgrade. There are solid modernist bones there at City Hall, but with upgrades you can get pretty amazing results.

Look at the vertical expansion of the Tufts Dental School building, corner of Washington and Kneeland Streets for inspiration about the possibilities.
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Also the BU Law Tower addition. They humanized/modernized the base of the tower, but left Sert's brutalist elements visible from inside. It's a beautiful homage.

That's what City Hall needs. An addition to the Plaza side with a cafe and improved access to the high traffic areas like the main concourse on Level 2 with the parking clerk, marriage licenses, elections etc. On the flipside, at Congress St. level, it needs to take out those brick walls and activate the sidewalk somehow. That likely means ditching all or some of the parking garage.
 
Shepard said:
What actually exists behind the Congress Street brick wall of doom? Is it all parking? Utilities?

A Congress Street road diet and City Hall-side retail would help what is now a very ugly and unwelcoming corner of downtown.
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I've been beating this drum for awhile now. The Congress St ground level is far and away City Hall's most egregious sin.
 
So what's the entrance across from North Street? And, do you know what's directly behind the brick wall of doom? Is it parking, or utilities?
 
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