Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)
Any more recent rendering of the "approved" dorm? Also, dshoost88, you've suggested it will be 17 stories and the Herald say 16: why the discrepancy?
Don't believe everything you read in the Herald. Sloppy reporting.
@Ron: Back in the 1960's, the City Hall Plaza was praised as a fantastic urban enhancement for Boston. Finally, there would be a gathering place for Bostonians! It was likened to the large urban squares of European cities. There would be festivals, concerts, celebrations there. Remember that this was the idealistic '60's. From the start though, the perimeter of the plaza was compromised. The bland JFK building, the widened Cambridge St., the empty side of the plaza towards Haymarket Square etc.
Keep in mind that in the 1960's Boston was a backwater in every sense of the term. The plaza was seen as a break from the dumpy, crowded, depressed city that existed then. As for the possible evolution of Scollay Square had it survived, most likely it would have been another Combat Zone, languishing for decades as a second bookend on a depressed downtown.
Interestingly, Montreal has recently built a Place des Spectacles adjacent to the city's cultural hub. It is used in a way that City Hall Plaza was intended to be used. Go to their Jazz Festival this summer to see what could have been in Boston.
http://www.quartierdesspectacles.com/a-propos/
By the way, I agree that the loss of the old West End was a tragedy but not Scollay Square.