Boston City Hall Plaza Competition
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Boston, MA
City of Boston
August 1994
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This competition entry draws on beliefs that public urban space should encourage individuals to represent themselves, should support the exchange of ideas, and should bring people together as a plurality in edifying ways, both individually and collectively.
In assessment, the design of City Hall Plaza is simply too big; the horizontal dimension is too great for the height of the enclosing buildings. Providing better proportions as well as activity along all the edges can help the plaza become a fully utilized civic space.
"The larger the space, the less impressive, as a rule, is the effect of its buildings and monuments because they cannot in the end prevail against it."
Camillo Sitte, City Planning According to Artistic Principles , Vienna 1889: Verlag von Carl Graeser, p. 183
The design proposes objectives and strategies for space, activities and events, and pedestrian life.
Space
Objectives:
Reconfigure existing outdoor spaces for more defined enclosure and smaller size.
Create focal points, for sightlines and activities.
Separate plaza space from street space for automobiles.
Strategies
Delimit the main outdoor space in front of city hall with a new Glass Hall. (The proposed plaza width is twice the height of City Hall.)
Extend Hanover Street as a pedestrian ramp up to the plaza, reconfiguring the stairs.
Maintain existing stage with seating for performances with overflow space onto the JFK Building terrace
Separate the stage area from Congress Street with a new Exhibit Hall
Maintain the vistas from the existing space—Old North Church, U.S. Customs House, Faneuil Hall, the Old State House.
Activities and Events
Objectives:
Make City Hall Plaza more usable and active, especially at night and in winter.
Provide for activities on all sides of City Hall.
Make the plaza a place to arrive and linger, not simply a space to pass through.
Strategies
Elements of urban design open to the sky are most open to spontaneous activities. Groups can gather in front of a soapbox or stage; people can meet or just relax in seats.
Pedestrian Life
Objectives:
Define entry points.
Locate pedestrian activity and circulation.
Strategies:
To connect Congress Street with Tremont and Cambridge Streets:
Create a covered pedestrian path under the colonnade of the Winter Garden
Enclose a pedestrian path through the Winter Garden.
These new paths link with the Hanover Street pedestrian ramp.
Use the access to public transit to animate the plaza by including a T station within the Glass House.
Maintain the axis between Faneuil Hall and the plaza, terminating on the plaza with the relocated entrance to the T.
Enclosed Structures
Proposed new buildings have height and volume to display the existing
animated skyline profile characteristic of downtown Boston.
Glass House
Enclose a portion of the plaza, making it habitable in wintertime
Any activity that can take place in the plaza can take place in the Glass House. This is the only public room in the city that provides contact with plants throughout the winter season.
The building houses the T Stops and public restrooms; it can include shops, educational functions, restaurants, etc.
From the interior, it frames the view of Boston City Hall.
Night lighting can be theatrical: to enclose the interior space, to dissolve the distinction between inside to outside, or to become a transparent "scrim" foregrounding City Hall.
Pavilion Row
Six small pavilions located on the JFK Building Terrace allow multiple uses of the plaza, which can change over time.
They can be claimed by: food vendors, artisans, farmers' market,disc jockey, master of ceremonies, judges, festival manager, other characters.
Exhibit Hall
Exhibit space, not for a fixed collection but to be used by groups in the city
Supports visual expression and communication as Faneuil Hall supports the verbal
It can provide support space for concerts and other events in the plaza, as "Beacon" building
