The City Hall

For your nice Boston travel guide, know more about the City Hall of Boston. The Boston City Hall was designed by 3 professors from the Columbia University back in 1962 when they won the contest for designing the city hall. The city hall was intended to be a landmark for the city of Boston. Just adjacent to the city hall is the city hall plaza where rallies and parades are usually being held.

The Boston City Hall is a 9-level building that looks like an inverted pyramid of some sort. The lower portion of the building which is built partially on a hillside and it has 4 levels for offices and departments that are most commonly accessed by the public. The middle portion of the building is where the mayor and other city council have their office. The upper portion is for bureaucratic agencies.

The building, since the moment it was open to be seen by the public, has had divided reactions. Some people like it but some people don't. It is unique in concept and it looks very different compared to the typical buildings of that time. Even today, the Boston City Hall is still a unique building in contrast to the block-shape buildings that are still dominating our cities.

It is said to be a very beautiful example of what Brutalist architecture is. Brutalist architecture is an architecture that forms repetitive angular geometries using concrete as its main material. The Boston City Hall has different designs for the 3 portions and this is used to indicate the nature of the rooms on those floors. The city hall was even voted as the 6th greatest building ever in the American history but such praises for the building is not shared by many.

In fact, the locals of Boston actually hate their city hall. Ask any employee working here and they will tell you how they dislike it. The floor plan was not well thought of and was uncomfortable. It even is very costly for heating. Even the city hall plaza did not escape the scrutinizing eyes of the Bostonians and they were also displeased with it.

Plans of demolishing the city hall has been thought of since 2006 but as of the moment this does not look feasible. The world economy makes the plan of moving the city hall by the year 2011 to be difficult as it will make a big blow off the city's budget. For now, Boston has to make do with their Boston City Hall. It's been serving them for several decades and it is still a construction marvel despite being an eyesore.