The Boston Government Service Center (BGSC) is a state government complex in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. The center was designed in the Brutalist style, led by architect Paul Rudolph. It is one of the major components of the Government Center complex in Downtown Boston. The complex is made up of two connected Brutalist buildings: the Charles F. Hurley Building and the Erich Lindemann Building, as well as a courtyard; sometimes included is the newer, 1998-built, Edward W. Brooke Courthouse.
The complex is eligible for listing on the Massachusetts Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places, and as a Boston Landmark. Its association with Rudolph and its distinctive architectural style make it eligible for National Historic Landmark designation, but the buildings do not hold any landmark designations.
Names The complex is officially known as the Joseph A. Langone, Jr. Memorial Center; it was named for the Massachusetts state senator in 1962. Older references have used the names "Government Service Center" (this name is easily confused with Government Center as a whole), the "State Services Center", or the "State Health, Education and Welfare Services Center". Newer references erroneously use the Lindemann or Hurley names to refer to the entire complex.
Site The Boston Government Service Center occupies an site, a superblock at the base of Beacon Hill in Boston. The block sits at the eastern border of the West End neighborhood, adjacent to the Financial District. On the site are two large buildings, structurally separate yet connected, that snake around a plaza, aligned with the street except with three corners squared off, creating three small streetside plazas around the building. One of these, Merrimac Plaza, holds a surface parking lot. The southern plaza was partially created to provide a view of the Old West Church to viewers east of the building.
The Brutalist complex comprises two connected parts, the Charles F. Hurley Building (at 19 Staniford St.) and the Erich Lindemann Building (at 25 Staniford St.) The Hurley section houses the Division of Unemployment Assistance, MassHire, and other labor- and workforce-related offices of state government. The Lindemann building houses the Central Office of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Also in the complex is the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse, completed in 1998. The buildings are all owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Plaza
The building surrounds a large pedestrian plaza, which sits atop a two-level parking garage, largely hidden from public view. The plaza has an irregular and complex design, due to the irregular street pattern. The plaza was originally designed with swirling terraced levels, which were not constructed.
Original plans called for a three-level plaza, sloping 2.5 feet, which would converge on curved stairs. The concrete plaza would be striated, in three different textures from rough to smooth.The plaza, together with the planned tower, was to resemble in shape, size, and feeling, the piazzas del Campo and San Marco in Italy. The plaza was to be decorated in a similar festive way, with benches, sculptures, and plantings, together with the flags of the 50 US states around the perimeter. The buildings surrounding the plaza were to all be stepped-back, allowing in more light and becoming suggestive of an amphitheater with rows of seats. The plaza itself would be a concave shape, complementing the convex shape of nearby Beacon Hill. Its design as an enclosed, well-defined area was made in reaction to Boston City Hall Plaza and other designs by Modernist architects.
Architecture
Design
Paul Rudolph was the coordinating architect on the project, and also designed the plaza, garage, and landscaping. Rudolph was a practicing architect at the time, as well as chair of the Yale School of Architecture. Desmond & Lord designed the Lindemann Building with Rudolph, and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott designed the Hurley Building. Although Rudolph is primarily listed as the coordinator for the project, the design's strength and consistency across the site, as well as its aesthetic, are all suggestive of Rudolph being the most prominent architect for the entire project.
The structure was designed in contrast to the City Hall a few blocks away, and was inspired by the idea of an amphitheater that would allow citizens to experience civic dramas unfolding. Rudolph viewed the grandiose and monumental quality of the structure as appropriate to the aims of the Great Society. Architectural writers have attributed the buildings to the concept of big government, showing that the state has made a large investment in its residents.
Rudolph designed the complex in the style today known as Brutalism, though Rudolph never used the term. He chose this form in opposition to the era's typical glass-walled International style office buildings, which he considered dull and monotonous. The state service center's concrete walls were solid and monumental, and recalled brick masonry.
The interior and exterior of the building utilize ribbed, bush-hammered concrete (also known as "corduroy concrete"), a form Rudolph developed in his earlier Yale Art and Architecture Building. The exposed concrete uses a special aggregate designed to catch light and shadow. The concrete style is one of the building's key defining features. Other representative elements include its several-story-high columns, placed regularly, which contain elevators, staircases, and bathrooms; and the buildings' stepped terraces and concrete sunshades surrounding the central plaza. The exteriors also make use of monumental colonnades and a "cornice" spanning the length of the buildings, one entire story in height. Several of the building's large projecting elements appear biomorphic, including one described as looking like the face of a frog. Interior spaces considered iconic for the building include its chapel and spiral staircase.
The building borrows elements of rectilinearity from the Yale design with dramatic curved shapes similar to those of his Endo Laboratories building in Garden City, New York. Most of the curves are present in the Lindemann section.
The building's proposed Health, Welfare and Education tower was to have 23 stories and house its namesake three state government departments. The tower was to have a public restaurant at the plaza level, encouraging the plaza's public use. It was originally designed by Rudolph and M.A. Dyer, though it was later redesigned, with its floor area doubled to and a new height of 33 stories, by Shepley Bullfinch Richardson and Abbot. In 1994, with the site still vacant, the state government designated the site for its new municipal court. The Edward W. Brooke Courthouse was completed there in 1998.
Art
The Hurley building's lobby features two large murals by Italian artist Costantino Nivola. They face each other in the lobby; one is themed for unemployment insurance and its benefits to families and society; the other is on employment service, and how vocational training benefits workers and the economy. The works utilize the fresco sgraffito process; Nivola's largest work with this technique, taking up the height and length of multi-story walls. They provide a humanizing and colorful contrast to the surrounding architecture, with their bright primary colors and anthropomorphic figures. The works give subtle critiques of 20th century economic and social structures. The Nivola murals are important as some of his few remaining works; numerous have been demolished or walled over. The works are threatened by planned renovation of the Hurley Building.
Another work, Upward Bound, is suspended from the ceiling of the Hurley Building's east portico, facing New Chardon St. and the central courtyard. The 30-ft.-wide, 17-ft.-tall sculpture, by Charles Fayette Taylor Sr., was created in 1970 and installed for the building's opening. It is made using cylindrical brass poles welded together and supported by steel struts and cables. The work has an upward movement, symbolizing the benefit of the unemployment office housed there to support the public with economic and work opportunities.
Lindemann Building
The Lindemann Building houses the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center (ELMHC), a psychiatric facility. Registered as a hospital, the facility accepted inpatients until December 2008, when these patients were moved to another facility. During the center's early years, it had a staff of 150 personnel, including 12 psychiatrists, 9 psychologists, 12 social workers, 24 nurses, and numerous support staff members. The mental health center incorporated numerous activity spaces, including a nursery and spaces for family, group, individual, and occupational therapies. Occupational therapy spaces included shops for electrical, plumbing, and woodwork, as well as a cafe, theater, and model apartment, to let patients develop skills for society in training. An area for children included bedrooms, a dining hall, and outdoor play area. A large gymnasium and swimming pool were built on the first floor, and at one time were open to the public and used by up to 41 community groups.
The Lindemann building also features a small chapel set in its center, set on the top two floors. It has a single large skylight, a large concrete altar, a seating area and balcony, and curved walls of cast concrete. The space was originally open for patients, staff, and visitors, when the surrounding space was used for inpatients. The room has kneelers for Christians, a small alcove potentially for confessions, and an alcove for changing clothes and preparing for services. When the inpatient services were moved out of the building in 2009, the chapel was locked, only occasionally used for services and small patient and staff gatherings.
Hurley Building The Charles F. Hurley Building has . It was named for Hurley due to his service as Massachusetts governor. Since at least 1973, the building has been likened to the state of Massachusetts in shape, with Cape Cod disproportionately larger. Employees would refer to their offices as located in "Harwich" or the "Hyannis area", or mention repairs need to be made in "Worcester". The architects considered this design resemblance a coincidence, with Rudolph stating that "nothing was further from my mind" in designing the building.
Gallery
History Site structures and changes
The site of the Boston Government Service Center was by Bowdoin Square, an area that changed from residential to commercial, as the city grew and as land was reclaimed. Commercial shipping companies made use of much of the present-day Government Center land until more land was reclaimed, and then restaurants and hotels were built at the site. The area went into a slow and steady decline in the late 19th century to mid-20th century, due to its proximity to the Boston Navy Yard, and business moving south and to Back Bay. The Government Center area lost its expensive theaters, restaurants, and hotels, changing to house tattoo parlors, variety theaters, and penny arcades. By 1917, the city's planning board proposed a civic center there due to its good location, poor state of buildings, and low property values.
Little action took place from 1930, when the site was chosen for a civic center, through to 1949, when it was classified as an urban renewal area. The Housing Act of 1949 made site clearance possible. The site had 91 percent of structures substandard, and with a majority "vermin-infested", and with exposed wiring, obsolete and insufficient plumbing, and other issues. With widespread public support, the city seized and demolished large portions of the West End in the 1960s, displacing a significant portion of the city's working-class families. A master plan for the site, Government Center, was devised by architects I. M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb.