Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Surrounded by City Hall Plaza in the Government Center section of Downtown Boston, it includes the offices of the Mayor and the City Council. The building was designed by the architecture firms Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles (KMK) and Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty, with LeMessurier Consultants as engineers. A major brutalist-style building, City Hall is a designated Boston Landmark.
City Hall was proposed in 1956 as part of the Government Center development, following decades of efforts to replace Old City Hall. Acquiring the land and sufficient funding took half a decade, and KMK won a two-phase architectural design competition in 1962. Groundbreaking took place on September 18, 1963; the first occupants moved in during late 1967, and the building was decorated on February 11, 1969. In addition to governmental business, City Hall was used for a variety of events and exhibits. Over time, the building suffered from deferred maintenance, and Mayor Thomas Menino twice proposed replacing it in the 1990s and 2000s. City Hall underwent renovations starting in the 2010s.
The nine-story massing is split into three tiers, corresponding to the interior subdivisions. There are public areas on the first through fourth stories, elected officials' spaces on the fifth story, and nonpublic agencies at the sixth through ninth stories. The facade is made of brick below and concrete above, with entrances on the bottom three levels. There are protruding "hoods" around the fifth-floor windows, while the upper stories protrude outward, surrounding a central fourth-story courtyard. Inside are a concourse on the second story; a plaza lobby occupying the third and fourth stories; a council chamber, mayor's suite, and councilors' rooms on the fifth story; and offices elsewhere.
The building has received extensive commentary on its symbolism, usability, and architecture. Architects initially had mixed views of the design but praised the building after its completion. City Hall received the American Institute of Architects' 1969 Honor Award and was ranked in a 1976 poll of the United States' greatest buildings. Conversely, the public widely condemned it, and City Hall has appeared in several lists of the world's ugliest buildings. The design has influenced Brutalist architecture in Boston, along with similar buildings across the U.S. and worldwide.
Site Boston City Hall occupies a parallelogram land lot in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The eastern edge of City Hall abuts Congress Street and overlooks Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. The current City Hall was developed as part of Government Center, an urban renewal project in the 1950s, which also includes the Boston Government Service Center, Center Plaza, and the Kennedy Federal Building.
City Hall sits at the edge of City Hall Plaza, which spans and is surrounded by the other buildings of Government Square. Shaped like a curving trapezoid, the plaza slopes down toward the east and has brick paving. Several tiers of brick terraces radiate from City Hall through the plaza. At City Hall's southern boundary, a set of stairs from Congress Street ascends west to plaza level. City Hall Plaza has an entrance to the Government Center station, served by the MBTA subway's Blue and Green lines.
The Government Center complex replaced over in Scollay Square. Prior to redevelopment Scollay Square had contained the Old Howard Theatre and brick buildings dating from as early as the American colonial period. The site of City Hall was occupied by Adams Square. By the 1950s, the city wished to redevelop Scollay Square, which had become rundown. The newly-completed, elevated Fitzgerald Expressway disconnected Scollay Square from the nearby waterfront, exacerbating its decay.
Development Boston's earliest seat of government had been the First Town-House. The government then occupied the Old State House (twice), Faneuil Hall, the Mechanics Building, and the Old Suffolk County Courthouse on School Street. City Hall's immediate predecessor had been Old City Hall, a Second Empire style building completed in 1865, which replaced the County Courthouse. It was overcrowded as early as 1890, and all governmental offices except those of the Mayor and City Council were moved to an annex in 1912. By the mid-20th century, Old City Hall was functionally inadequate and costly to maintain. A new city hall was first proposed in 1907, and there were attempts to relocate the city's seat of government starting in the 1930s.
City Hall was developed amid Boston's economic and demographic stagnation in the 1950s. After winning the 1949 Boston mayoral election, John Hynes devised plans to redevelop Scollay Square. As part of the Government Center project, Hynes suggested replacing Scollay Square with city, state, and federal government buildings. He announced plans for the new City Hall at Government Center in 1956. Public reaction to the redevelopment was mixed.
Planning, site selection, and approvals
The city requested in early 1957 that the Massachusetts House of Representatives approve a request to acquire land and borrow money for the new City Hall and an adjacent federal building.; The House raised no objection to the request,; but the proposed legislation was re-filed later that year after the House failed to vote on it.; By later that year, the new City Hall was intended to be built just north of Faneuil Hall, along North Street. In January 1958, the federal government agreed to become involved in Government Center, as long as the complex included state and city government buildings and involved the city's full participation.; After a Massachusetts House committee approved the city's request for the new City Hall, Governor Foster Furcolo signed legislation in October 1958 authorizing the building's construction.; Hynes formed the Government Center Commission (GCC) the next month to oversee the project.; Architects advocated for the GCC to host a design competition for the building, rather than preselecting an architect as the city usually did. At that point, the structure was slated to cost $20 million.; The City Council allowed city officials to apply for a construction loan that December, and the city government proposed a bond issue to raise $15 million.
Government Center's site plan had been finalized by early 1959, except for the new City Hall and the proposed federal building. City Hall was tentatively assigned a site east of Scollay Square, between Cornhill and Hanover Street. Delays arose when General Services Administration (GSA) administrator Franklin G. Floete expressed interest in a site in the Back Bay and the City Hall site itself.; That April, Becker and Becker Associates were hired to conduct a planning study for City Hall, which was completed that year. Furcolo authorized the acquisition of equipment and furnishings for the building that July.; The federal building and City Hall sites were finalized by October, and Hynes directed the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to begin acquiring for City Hall in December. Redevelopment continued after John F. Collins became mayor in 1960 and appointed Edward J. Logue to lead the BRA. The development was delayed due to uncertainty over where—or even whether—the federal building would be built, as the federal government had agreed to fund a substantial portion of the cost. The new City Hall's construction also could not begin without state approval of a $50 million bond issue, which would fund half of Government Center's $100 million cost. The Massachusetts Senate approved the bond issue in September 1960,; after the Massachusetts House approved it on their second try.;
Logue moved to begin acquiring land in 1961, through the "early land acquisition program", which allowed some work to begin before the city approved the overall Government Center plan. He also sought an architecturally prominent design for City Hall. At Logue's recommendation, the city hired I. M. Pei to design the master plan. Pei's proposal entailed replacing most of the site with a series of governmental buildings around the new City Hall. Pei placed the new City Hall building near the lot's southern end, to encourage other new buildings there, and he specified that the building have a low roof to match Faneuil Hall's low-rise massing. Casabella Continuita wrote that the eastern and southern elevations of City Hall's facade would also "provide an effective visual backdrop" to Dock Square and Washington Street, respectively. Pei's plan dictated the size of the building's footprint but left other design elements to the building's architect. The Boston City Council authorized the BRA to request a federal loan in June 1961, and Pei's final site plan was approved that month. The federal government approved a $21 million loan that September, allowing land acquisition to begin.;
Design and land acquisition The GCC was planning a design competition by November 1960, and Mayor John F. Collins announced the following April that he would allocate $75,000 for a nationwide contest. This was described as the first municipal building competition since 1909. The competition was delayed, pending approval of the funding. In October 1961, the city began soliciting proposals for the first of the competition's two phases. The first stage's plans were reviewed by a jury composed of architects Pietro Belluschi, Ralph Rapson, Walter Netsch, and William Wurster, along with businessman Harold D. Hodgkinson. The competition's first phase had a deadline of January 17, 1962, upon which the jury was to choose eight finalist proposals. Over 1,500 architects and firms from across the US expressed interest. The jury received 256 entries for the first phase, and entries continued to be delivered after the deadline. The finalists were selected January 28, with each receiving $5,000 to develop a final plan. The winner was to receive a $10,000 payment toward their design contract.
The businessmen Sidney R. Rabb and O. Kelley Anderson joined the jury for the second round. Many of the finalist designs incorporated architectural details that the jury described as domineering, brutal, or aggressive. The winning contestants had to be affiliated with someone licensed to practice architecture in Massachusetts, or hold a license themselves. Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles (KMK) of New York submitted the winning design, in conjunction with Massachusetts-based Campbell & Aldrich and structural engineering firm LeMessurier Associates. The winners' plans were announced on May 3.; Their plans called for a triple-tiered design with public functions at the base; elected officials' spaces on the intermediate levels; and administrative offices on the upper levels. Spanning nine stories, the building was to be made of brick below and concrete above. It was to be strong enough to support the weight of three more stories if necessary. The architects said their design was intended to create a pedestrian-friendly "people's building". The jury had regarded the design as being powerful while simultaneously deferential to nearby sites such as Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, and Dock Square.