Suffolk County Courthouse Discussion | 3 Pemberton Square | Government Center

I still think the replacement for the Suffolk county court should be built adjacent to the Suffolk county jail in Nashua st - probably a greater efficiency gain from not having to transfer defendants across downtown than from being adjacent to courts for other jurisdictions?
 
^^or the State Service Center site. ...or perhaps, 1 Congress holds the KEY to prevent the necessity for massive inter-agency disruptions and 35 years of land spapping....

This isn't North Korea; Boston also lacks the land for our drunken adventure with brutalism to continue forever. To the people who entertain the idea that a major effort to replace these woeful behemoths won't be launched by the Walsh Administration: It's a speeding telephone pole heading straight for us *(i'd give it until about Marty's third term in office)....

In addition to the absence of a functional street grid, our walled off spaces are destroying the aesthetic of one off the most significant expanses of historic land in the United States. Great people suffer the embarrasment of working in poorly performing buildings–that no longer serve the public interest.

If that isn't enough, there's all them construction jobs.
 
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Boston is sorely lacking in art deco. People really want to take down one of the few examples? I understand people have issues with brutalism (I have my own), but I thought art deco was almost universally loved around here.
 
Boston is sorely lacking in art deco. People really want to take down one of the few examples? I understand people have issues with brutalism (I have my own), but I thought art deco was almost universally loved around here.

I support restoring/renovating the tower, but can admit it's not the best Art Deco building. Proportions are odd & facade language is pretty weak.
 
Though across the river and not a huge building, I think this is a nice example of a recent full restoration of an art deco building...
Link to: Architect's site.

Here's some neat history:
An Art Deco landmark along the Charles River, Building E52 was designed by Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, the architects of the Empire State Building in New York City, and constructed in 1938 as the Massachusetts headquarters for the Lever Brothers Company.

Quoted from: renovation project site.


I bring this up as a really well-done example of a rare Boston-area art deco restoration.
 
Boston is sorely lacking in art deco. People really want to take down one of the few examples? I understand people have issues with brutalism (I have my own), but I thought art deco was almost universally loved around here.

Well there is an example of brutalism on every corner here, though Art Deco is few and far between. Demolish one brutalist structure and there is 50,000 others left. Demolish and Art Deco skyscraper and there is 5 others left.
 
ONE OF THE OLDEST SKYSCRAPERS IN THE CITY.
I'd be more interested in something other than just raw tenure. If it met a criteria like "Best exemplar of Art Deco" or "Last of its era" or "woven with the history of its era" that'd be more important to me. I don't see it really meeting any of those, so I see it as a "nice to have" but not a "must have"
 
Step 1: Build new Suffolk County Courthouse
Step 2: Upgrade and rehabilitate existing structure into new City Hall.
Step 3: Demolish Center Plaza 2 and 3, extending Pemberton Square to Cambridge Street.
Step 4: Redevelop all of Government Center to recoup costs.

I never thought the new Suffolk County Courthouse was much of a looker until I went there for jury duty. The numerous courtrooms are very well done (and would work well transformed into council chambers), and the main entry works better in person than it comes across in pictures.
 
Worcester's been having trouble getting a developer to renovate/redevelop the old Worcester County Courthouse after the new one was completed in 2008. The city got state grants for asbestos and PCB abatement, and a developer that planned on adding 150 apartments and retail to the building, but that recently fell through. And it's a smaller building in better shape than the Suffolk courthouse.

www.telegram.com/news/20170220/cell-service-and-more-inside-old-worcester-courthouse
 
Davem,

Fantastic series of steps.

That solves 3~4 buildings with the least amount of tenant disruption,

leaving the remainder to fall like ducks.
 

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