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How Boston City Hall was born

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Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#61

Post by MiddleEndian »

mlinhares wrote: post #54
MiddleEndian wrote: post #51

I like Boston City Hall. Compare it to 28 State St, right next to it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jjHpGGuPkxgjXiPT7 28 State St is kinda ugly, but bland and forgettable. Boston City Hall is so hideous and frightening that people outside of Boston know about it. Its appearance is a recurring topic in the news. That is impressive.

Yeah, if you're going to make it ugly, make it newsworthy ugly. That thing is such an eyesore.

In the same vein, I am jealous of Maryland's flag. Some state flags have some nice patterns, but most state flags are forgettable with seals. But the Maryland flag is so garish that it's recognized by pretty much everyone.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#62

Post by psunavy03 »

jcstauffer wrote: post #34

I always think of the building (and brutalist architecture in general) as absurdist architecture, and I find City Hall to be quite humorous in that light. The general shape lifts up and is trying to appear as if it's floating, in contrast to the material selection. Think of an Elephant ballerina, or Douglas Adams "It hung in the air in exactly the way bricks don't". Another example is the Holman government building a…

More totalitarian than absurdist. The whole idea seems to be elevating the vision of "The Genius Architect" over the needs and wishes of the people who would actually use the space, with a borderline contempt for what non-architects and even non-Brutalist architects think.

I'm reminded of the time I ended up crossing the Empire State Plaza in Albany once in the dead of winter. Such a horrid experience. Surrounded by soulless impersonal concrete with wind and snow blowing and howling. I felt like a freaking ant. It's not the type of architecture that inspires and uplifts in person. It psychologically oppresses and beats down.

Compare that to a place like Saint Peter's, which even as a non-Catholic almost took my breath away to experience in person.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#63

Post by munk-a »

botswana99 wrote: post #36

I like brutalist architecture. And I am not the only strange one: r/brutalist has 174K members and the original fuckyeahbrutalism on tumbler. Think of it like being a fan of 486 PCs or pixel art. I do hate this architecture, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowellism

I really appreciate how functional the building is. It's extremely visually distinct while having really engaging vertical elements (I've always thought it evoked waterfalls) and lacking the functional flaws I've seen with other highly visible architecture (I'm especially thinking of the Gehry Building at MIT - that's whimsical in appearance but an absolute nightmare of usability with awkward unusable interior spaces and a long legacy of mold and maintenance issues).

It's especially amusing that Boston City Hall is within a stone's throw of the only block that survived the fire of 1872 and throws a shadow over Faneuil Hall.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#64

Post by ghaff »

munk-a wrote: post #63
botswana99 wrote: post #36

I like brutalist architecture. And I am not the only strange one: r/brutalist has 174K members and the original fuckyeahbrutalism on tumbler. Think of it like being a fan of 486 PCs or pixel art. I do hate this architecture, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowellism

I really appreciate how functional the building is. It's extremely visually distinct while having really engaging vertical elements (I've always thought it evoked waterfalls) and lacking the functional flaws I've seen with other highly visible architecture (I'm especially thinking of the Gehry Building at MIT - that's whimsical in appearance but an absolute nightmare of usability with awkward unusable interior spaces…

Stata at MIT has sort of grown on me from an abstract architectural perspective. But it cost a lot and I've never really heard good things about it from people who actually use the building though I've never been in it myself aside from the ground floor. It was also sort of justified as a landmark northeast entrance to campus but was soon pretty much literally overshadowed by a lot of newer construction in the area.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#66

Post by fsckboy »

otras wrote: post #32

> It was in this context that the city decided to demolish the neighborhood known as Scollay Square and build in its place what would come to be called Government Center. It’s interesting (and sad) to imagine what Boston could have been like without the damage of urban renewal. These neighborhoods could have easily become the quaint North Ends people love today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_End,_Boston https:…

> It was in this context that the city decided to demolish the neighborhood known as Scollay Square

Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) grew up in that neighborhood

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#67

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

Boston City Hall is objectively beautiful and photos of it are all universally awesome (though it could stand a good powerwashing). The problem that locals experience and cannot escape is that it happens to be located on a giant ugly swath of absolutely not a goddamn thing called City Hall Plaza. So the building itself is grand, but the experience of looking at it in person is pretty bad and ominous purely because of the surrounding environment.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#68

Post by rayiner »

tptacek wrote: post #53
rayiner wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because architects went from building monuments to God and creation to building monuments to their own narcissism. Notre Dame ( https://www.britannica.com/topic/Notre-Dame-de-Paris ) was meant to be pleasing to God. And by implication, to man, because man was created in the image of God. Boston City Hall wasn't meant to be pleasing to anyone. It's more important to "make a statement" than to make something that is be…

The point of Notre Dame is to be a monument to God. That's not the point of most buildings. Ironically, the other example of a good building you've provided in this thread, the Taj Mahal, is in fact a monument to narcissism.

The Taj Mahal is covered in arabic inscriptions from the Quran: https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Taj-Mahal/Scriptures-on...

Public buildings historically had a religious significance, and architecture as a field was intertwined with religion. The current british parliament building, for example, is built in gothic revival style, which arises from religious architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Revival_architecture

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#69

Post by hax0ron3 »

nineplay wrote: post #42
otras wrote: post #32

> It was in this context that the city decided to demolish the neighborhood known as Scollay Square and build in its place what would come to be called Government Center. It’s interesting (and sad) to imagine what Boston could have been like without the damage of urban renewal. These neighborhoods could have easily become the quaint North Ends people love today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_End,_Boston https:…

People who opposed demolishing the neighborhoods would be called NIMBYs today and would be blamed for the housing crisis. I'm not saying this to be snarky, just that there is a real push and pull there that I don't think is appreciated. There are some beautiful old neighborhoods near me which are at risk of being torn down and replaced with multi-unit dwellings. The residents say 'save our neighborhoods' and the acti…

Why would people be called NIMBYs today for being against replacing a heavily residential neighborhood with a bunch of government buildings? It would be different if the discussion was about keeping the neighborhood residential and just making it more dense in terms of housing.

Re: How Boston City Hall was born

#70

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #67

Boston City Hall is objectively beautiful and photos of it are all universally awesome (though it could stand a good powerwashing). The problem that locals experience and cannot escape is that it happens to be located on a giant ugly swath of absolutely not a goddamn thing called City Hall Plaza. So the building itself is grand, but the experience of looking at it in person is pretty bad and ominous purely because of…

I love it. It's an underdog of expression surrounded by bland forgettable towers. Maybe that says more about the neighbors but the contrast is striking.
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