Boston City Hall is an icon of Brutalism to some, and to others a concrete monster that has destroyed the built environment of one of the oldest cities in the US. Because of its heavy and complex form, the building dominates the skyline of City Hall Square. The new city hall is the result of an urban regeneration plan commonly used in the 1960s in the US, which involved demolishing old, urban fabric and replacing it with open spaces along with modernist buildings. The old town hall building still exists, and a new one has been built on a different site. Some critics have called Boston City Hall the ugliest building in the world. Does Boston City Hall really deserve such a title? We publish a poll below the article.
New America
Local urban renewal programmes spread across the United States in the 1960s. Modernists began demolishing entire residential districts and even historic city centres. Open squares were built on the empty space to serve the administration and residents. However, it was much more common for city-dividing highways to be built on the rubble of tenements. Obviously, such action was dictated by the fashion for cars in cities, which resulted in the dispersal of the urban fabric.
While the loss of the fine historic buildings of the cities of the middle of the country was not such a great loss, the demolition of the old parts of New England cities is very acute to the identity of the USA. It was Boston that was one of the oldest cities in the British colony, and in the nascent United States the city played a role as a centre of opposition to the king. For such a young country, even a simple Gothic brick will be a significant historical artefact.
The magnificent new City Hall
From the first half of the 19th century. Scollay Square was a bustling meeting place for local residents. Over time, the square was subdivided by a tram line and several-storey townhouses grew up around it. However, in the 20th century, Scollay Square was mainly associated with crime and the red light district. In the 1950s, city planners came up with the idea of demolishing the entire residential area and replacing it with a new administrative centre for Boston. By the way, the old City Hall, built in the second half of the 19th century, was already too small and outdated.
The idea was also motivated by the desire to displace poorer residents from the city centre. More than 20,000 people were displaced and almost a thousand old buildings were demolished. The architects Gerhard Kallmann and Michael McKinnel were given a huge amount of space by the city. A huge 18,500sq m brick plaza was designed on the demolished site. Boston City Hall Plaza was to be the new centre of the city’s social life. The problem is that the brick slab heats up in the summer and the winter wind can make it unpleasant to be in the plaza.
Around it were large, heavy administrative edifices designed in a Brutalist style. However, the main star of Kallmann and McKinnel’s design is the concrete town hall. Standing on the eastern side of the square, the building dominates the space with its heavy Brutalist form. The architects wanted to create a unique building reminiscent of the work of Le Corbusier. Interestingly, a similar edifice was built in the English city of Birmingham in the 1970s. According to some, the Boston City Hall was to be the inspiration for a Brutalist library in England. You can read more about this equally hated and demolished building HERE.
Pyramid of power
Built in 1968, the edifice was intended to invite citizens into its lower levels. For this reason, the facade wall is supported by concrete pillars that open the building up to the rest of the square. Hanging above the ground, the façade elements are asymmetrical, but going upwards, the individual floors begin to form an inverted pyramid. The suspended and varied forms of concrete are just that Lecorbusier spirit. Another interesting element is the red brick climbing up the lower walls of the edifice, alluding to historic New England buildings.
There is also an allegory to the power structure behind this arrangement of the façade. The varied lower sections represent society, while the orderly top symbolises solid and reliable power. Interestingly, the variety of the façade also applies to the elements protruding from the block and those hidden inside. The bay windows, visible from the outside, expose the workplaces of the city council and mayor. This is a form of architectural bringing the authorities closer to the people.
Brutalism liked to imitate classical forms and play with them in unexpected ways. Boston’s city hall uses concrete coffers, bay windows, cantilevers and a central courtyard. An interesting reference to classical architecture is the architrave with simple geometric ornamentation. These elements are continued inside the building.
Concrete maze
The interior is dominated by concrete. The high ceilings are divided by coffers and the gradually rising floor is lined with brick. The large room greets citizens with its power, but also with interesting forms. The concrete blocks take on less classical shapes and rise stepwise upwards. From the lobby level, one can access the library, the offices, the city council chamber and the mayor’s office. Getting around the building is not the easiest part, as not all lifts reach each of the nine floors.
The mayor’s office is a spacious room with a bay window. From the window, the mayor can admire the historic buildings of the city that have survived from the time of the great demolitions. Some officials also look out over the edifices of old Boston. It was intended that the historic buildings visible from the new building would connect City Hall with history. On the other hand, it is difficult to speak of a connection to the past when urban planners demolish the city’s history in order to erect an unusual edifice.
The ugliest in the world?
Many architecture critics appreciated the modern character of the building and the philosophy behind it. However, Boston City Hall seems to have more opponents than supporters. Popular newspapers like The Telegraph have hailed the building as the ugliest in the world. Even some officials have expressed their opposition to the construction of such an edifice. The bad reputation of the town hall persists among residents to this day. Despite the negative reviews, the building was placed on the city’s Register of Historic Places in January 2025, meaning that the building will stay with Boston for a very long time to come.
Weighing in at 100,000 tonnes, the building did not live up to the demands of the residents or fulfil the architects’ intentions. While the edifice is functional, it does not reflect the spirit of historic Boston. The complicated massing is also the source of many technical problems that translate into the cost of renovations. In turn, the unfriendly, cold plaza has not been warmly welcomed by residents, so the whole adds up to a rather poor image of administrative architecture. However, for fans of Brutalism, it will be a timeless icon of this modernist style.
Loading ...Source: Architizer
Read also: Architecture | Curiosities | Brutalism | Metamorphosis | United States | Concrete | Urbanism| whiteMAD on Instagram
