City Hall Plaza

Tremont, Court, and Cambridge Streets
Boston, MA

Contributed by Project for Public Spaces

This notorious product of late-'60s "urban renewal" is over 30 years old - can a renovation solve its deep-rooted problems?

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06/27/02 Mary Holmes said:

I worked for the American Bicentennial Commission in Boston (Boston 200)from 1974-77. During that time City Hall Plaza was alive with colorful umbrellas of food vendors at lunchtime. Thousands of folks who worked downtown would flock to the site to buy an array of ethnic foods and beverages. It was a model I tried to promote to the Rock Hall of Fame here in Cleveland until I learaned by calling Boston City Hall that the practise had stopped in Boston because of grease stains on the brick. I have a splendid picture of the arrival of Her Majesty, the Queen of England, at City Hall Boston surrounded by hundreds of Revoluntionary "militia" in full costume for the event. The plaza has had some glory days.

07/17/02 T. Nielsen Hayden said:

It's almost a shock to leave the busy, human-scale streets of Boston and enter City Hall Plaza. It's a horrible vast blank space, with a building in the middle that looks like its sole design consideration was to be as defensible as possible.

03/18/03 michael williams said:

I walk past this plaza daily and always feel the disappointment of seeing a lost opportunity on a grand scale. What would it take to animate the plaza? How can a city care so little about a space with such promise as to erect a giant white plastic sprung structure for a Christmas exhibit then leave it there for most of the year as if this civic space were a storage yard? Several years ago the City held an international design competition to gather ideas for improving the plaza. Entries were submitted from around the world. It picked as the winner a tongue in cheek entry that had no chance of being built, reducing the whole effort to a joke, and in the process diminishing those designers who took the effort seriously. So what would it take? I like the previous comment about how the plaza once was more of a festive space, with umbrellas, food, bustling with urban life. First the City has to care. Second, a small effort could go a long way. I think of all the great examples in Whyte's "Social Life of Small Urban Spaces"-- the idea of triangulation, in particular the Louise Nevelson sculpture that was successful when put in a place where people could gravitate to it on their way by. Or in Chris Alexander's book a Pattern Language-- "Something Roughly In The Middle" is consistently an element of a successful large space. So maybe we should put something roughly in the middle and see what happens. We have learned so much about urban design and public spaces that it is a shame that we cannot do better in a great city like Boston. (A couple of minor notes-- the second picture, showing the white structure is reversed; and the way to remember the order of the tricky vowels in Faneuil, I was once told, is to think "Englishmen United In Liberty". I'd love to see more comments and interest, and ideas about this potentially great space. Someday we'll get it right.

06/18/03 Andrew Shalit said:

Years and years of efforts to agree on a grand redesign have failed to produce anything. We still have a desolation of brick. I have never understood why the city doesn't just replace the brick with grass, and perhaps a few ornamental trees. Even if this did not realize the full potential of the space, it would be a vast improvement over the current situation.

12/26/03 Richard McDonough said:

An interesting piece of sculpture, City Hall, is surrounded by a Soviet space. Boston has yet to learn that the wall has to come down between people and places. This is a vast, empty, hostile space.

04/06/04 Keith Spofford said:

I think it DOES work and still DOES. It’s a great place for a walk and to enjoy some "open space" and not feel like a sardine. There are numerous activities during the summertime held on the plaza and I for one would hate to see it "developed." We need more open spaces like it!

07/26/04 Warren Lee said:

In the post 9/11 era, this is could be the future of public spaces. A great defensible position with a wide killing zone..... Ah "I love the smell of napalm in the morning".....

But seriously....It's a pretty useless space unless one of the Boston sports team happens to win a championship. It's so vast and wind swept...makes one reflect about the lower class residents of Scollay Square and how some high minded movers & shakers thought they could create a better space. The weight of the opinions and desires of the have nots vs the haves......

08/25/05 Traci Roloff said:

I have lived in Boston for seven years and work as an architect nearby and I, too, find City Hall Plaza terribly out of scale and out of touch. Especially in the winter months, it is a cold, windy place that people pass through but never spend any actual time in. The city has made feeble efforts to bring people in, including a farmers market, concerts, and events such as the scooperbowl and holiday village. But at the end of the day, most people avoid the plaza, opting for any other park or public space nearby. When I think of the vibrant and beloved neighborhood (the West End) that was razed to make way for this hole, it breaks my heart.

02/03/06 William Wolf said:

What could be done?

First, get some people to come there and stay. Street vendors, as in 1976, should be brought back. I'd also suggest a cafe or restaurant with mostly glass walls in encourage visibility in and out. The city will find it easiest to attract people during the summer but should also aim to change the architecture of the place so that even in the colder, wetter months, people will come here regularly. Encourage zoning that allows more people to live along the edge of the plaza. Too much of the space is devoted to 9-5 employees. Make sure that the ground floor of any apartment building is a public, preferably commercial, space visible to and accessible from the sidewalk. No shopping mall design with one grand entrance to dozens of shops hidden inside and without any entrance of their own onto the sidewalk.

Second, vary and soften this immense, hard space. Add some flower beds with benches around the permiter and moving water inside. People pour through here at least twice a day--in the morning rushing to work and in the evening racing back home--and there should be some reason for them to want to pause here. Some of these flower beds should be stand-alone, others should be alongside cafes or restaurants.

Third, try to overcome the ways the surrounding streets isolate the entire plaza. The most expensive way would be to build pedestrian/bike overpasses, but that should probably wait until the Plaza has been shown to have attractive power. It would be easier to rezone and allow small shops along the perimeter of the plaza. Florists, newstands, cafes, delis, beauty salons, gyms, bookstores, creches could all be places here. Emphasis should be placed on making these places visible to others and also easy to linger in.

04/18/06 John Tyson said:

I agree with the previous poster, those are some good suggestions. Another thing to think about would be reopening Hanover Street, which would do a lot to connect Beacon Hill and the North End. Also, they should flatten the damned thing out, as the changes in grade really ruin the usefulness of such a space.

06/03/06 J T said:

Grow a space to congregate at lunchtime. Start with solid wi-fi coverage and places to sit down. Bring up connection points for electricity, water, and sewer for mobile vendors.