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    Yes. City Hall Plaza Must Be Torn Down
    The entire morass of hideous buildings and urban deserts, better known as Government Center is an architectural and urban design travesty. Let the pompous ass self-congratulatory AIA community revel in all their lofty talk of massing, scale and texture and their ridiculous undue praise of the “greatness” of Boston City Hall as one of the Sixth Greatest Buildings of all Time (????!!!!)

    Ladies and gentleman architects, GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES. Boston does not deserve the hunkering, soulless, cold, and uninviting monstrous architectural mistakes found within the confines of this wretched grouping of Brutalist styled buildings. Is the Lindemann Mental Health Center a beautiful and structure oozing warmth and comfort for those afflicted with mental illness? Hardly; this structure could cause instant and severe depression even in a cheery upbeat person at the very sight of its hideous and nightmarish facade. And how about that City Hall Building – the one that the architect Kallmann still praises to this day. Forget it about Mr. Kallmann – your City Hall building is a confusing, gray, drab worthless mass of twisted reinforced concrete sitting upon an urban desert wasteland that is so FAR REMOVED FROM THE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT OF THE REST OF THE CITY with regards to Boston’s rich architecture and and COLORFUL history

    None of the elements of Government Center works – it was an ill-conceived nightmare in the 1960′s, it is urban blight now in the year 2006-almost 2007. City Hall Plaza is an urban desert devoid of character, devoid of appeal and devoid of people; to be a bit over-obvious here, a city is all about PEOPLE, not concrete and brick expanses (all 11 acres worth of it) that no soul wants to even walk through.

    Even though previous attempts have failed, the renewal of Scollay Square absolutely must happen for the betterment of this city, region and Commonwealth. City Hall Plaza and City Hall are extreme embarassments for those of us who live in the Boston area. It is time for Government Center to be torn down. Time to start over again.

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  • Don S Okeefe

    Boston city hall plaza is the product of a deeply misguided understanding of the way the urban environment works. Something must be done to correct this mistake. However, the exposed concrete modernist style (known in america as “brutalist”) can be extremely beautiful if employed correctly. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either tasteless or uninformed. It would be desirable to preserve Boston City Hall if possible, but not at the expense of the urban fabric of the neighborhood.