| Boston City Hall | |
|---|---|
 Boston City Hall in February 2012 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Brutalist |
| Location | 1 City Hall Square Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 42°21′37.16″N 71°3′28.68″W / 42.3603222°N 71.0579667°W |
| Construction started | 1963 |
| Completed | 1968 |
| Inaugurated | February 10, 1969[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | |
| Structural engineer | LeMessurier Consultants |
| Other information | |
| Public transit access |  Blue Line Green Line Orange Line |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall.[2]
It is a controversial and prominent example of Brutalist architecture, part of the modernist movement.[3][4] It was designed by the architecture firms Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles and Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty, with LeMessurier Consultants as engineers.[5][6][7]
Together with the surrounding plaza, City Hall is part of the Government Center complex. This project constituted a major urban redesign effort in the 1960s, as Boston demolished an area of housing and businesses.
The building has been subject to widespread public condemnation, and is sometimes called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Calls for the structure to be demolished have been regularly made even before construction was finished.[8] Architects and critics considered it to be excellent work, with one poll from 1976 finding that professional architects describe Boston City Hall as one of the ten proudest achievements of American architecture.[9]
- ^ "TimesMachine: Saturday February 8, 1969 - NYTimes.com".
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
nytimeswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Throwback Thursday: When Boston's City Hall Was New (and Already Unloved)", Boston Magazine, February 13, 2014, retrieved November 4, 2023
- ^ "Kallmann McKinnel & Knowles / Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty: Boston City Hall". #SOSBRUTALISM. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
- ^ http://friendsofbostoncityhall.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/A-Walking-Tour-of-City-Hall.pdf Archived 2016-06-02 at the Wayback Machine Archived guided tour pamphlet for Boston City Hall, published by Boston City Council
- ^ Survey, Historic American Buildings. "Boston City Hall, One City Hall Square, Boston, Suffolk County, MA". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- ^ "Boston City Hall". DoCoMoMo-US.org. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
- ^ Rennix, Adrian; Robinson, Nathan J. (31 October 2017). "Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture - Current Affairs". Current Affairs (July/Aug 2017). Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- ^ "AIArchitect This Week | for Whom the Polls Toll". Archived from the original on 2013-12-17. Retrieved 2013-12-17. Synopsis of AIA Polls