Welcome Boston City Hall Plaza: A Modern Space for the City Upon a Hill This year, 2008, the Xth International DOCOMOMO Government Center, the 9-1/2-acre plaza occupies conference will take place in the Hailed by critic the key location, identified in Kevin Lynch’s The Netherlands where almost twenty Ada Louse Image of the City (1960): “Potentially it [the city Huxtable as “one hall site, historically Scollay Square] could play an years ago DOCOMOMO was of the best urban even more striking visual role as the central point formed. The theme of the confer- spaces of the 20th of the old head of the Boston peninsula, the hub ence is “The Challenge of century,” Boston’s of a whole series of districts…the node of such Change”, and the conference will often reviled City important paths as Tremont, Cambridge, Court- mostly take place in Rotterdam in Hall Plaza faces State, and Sudbury Streets….” The prescriptions the restored Van Nelle Factory, an uncertain fate. for the government center design competition, reinvigorated as a ’design facto- Designed by established by I.M. Pei and Partners’ 1960 master ry’. The theme reflects the need Kallmann, plan, retained these roads and opened unexpect- for DOCOMOMO International McKinnell and ed views to major landmarks: Faneuil Hall, Quincy and its members to revisit and Wood between Market, Old North Church and the Old State reassess the role and goals of the 1962 and 1968, House. organization. the last concerted Pei’s plaza site essentially excised this frag- In more practical terms, we effort to improve ment of the historic city, defined by existing or The building was constructed continue to use our website to this centerpiece of using mainly poured-in-place and rebuilt roads and structures and by thin new build- update you with news on “the New Boston” precast Portland cement. Boston ings along two edges. A half-dozen blocks of solid DOCOMOMO events and activi- fell victim to post- City Hall, Boston, MA. “ground” became an open “figure,” to use the ties as well as our advocacy 9/11 inter-govern- (photo: Chris Brazee) urban design parlance most often applied to efforts. Links to the websites of our chapters where most region- al news is reported are also provided. Finally, we have upgraded the site to allow for the on-line payment through PayPal of dues and the purchase of past journals and DOCOMOMO publications. — Theodore Prudon President, DOCOMOMO US View across the plaza at night. Boston City Hall, Detail view of the building’s sculptural volume. Boston, MA. (photo: Chris Brazee) Boston City Hall, Boston, MA. (photo: Chris Brazee) mental disputes. In 2006, Mayor Tom Menino Nolli’s famous map of Rome. But where the announced his intention to sell both the plaza and prototypical figural space on that map, the Piazza building to the highest bidder. Over recent Navona, recalls the ancient “outdoor room” months, the monumental City Hall itself has maintained by the surrounding urban “poche,” received wide spread support. The Boston in Boston the new Plaza’s boundaries reflect the Landmarks Commission voted to accept a petition arbitrariness of the historic urban layout. The north for study (although landmarking is subject to may- edge splays outward as the former Hanover and oral veto), and a Determination of Eligibility by the Sudbury Streets did; its west side bulges inward far sighted Massachusetts Historical Commission in front of the hill; and the 19th-century row to surfaced. In 1991 MHC had determined that City the south sweeps away along old Cornhill Street’s Hall is eligible for the National Register of Historic path. The resulting space has a non-sheltering, Places, and had commented that “the plaza is a centrifugal character, opening at its corners. significant component of the building.” KMW “bulked-up” the new City Hall in order to City Hall Plaza is the latest transformation of hold down this space more effectively. the slopes of Boston’s colonial city; the succeed- In response to the sloping hillside site, KMW ing two centuries leveled the hills and filled the crafted a huge warping terrace of brick. High at coves to form the Boston we know today, Cambridge Street and at both sides, it cascades including the Plaza’s setting. On the Plaza’s west, down 20 feet around the building to Congress tremendous earth-moving shaved 65 feet off a Street, stopping partway down for an amphithe- four-acre mount for Pemberton Square, and nearly ater and stage on the north. The Plaza rolls right as much from Beacon Hill just beyond. To the into and through City Hall, where it wraps down east, Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market were devel- one level and up another, as a transposed, oped on harbor fill in two separate endeavors symbolic hill for the city. From Dock Square eight decades apart. Such extraordinary reshaping below, one sees the new City Hall astride this of the terrain suggests the challenge—and the three-tiered mound. precedent—for those in the 20th century who planned the new center for the “City Upon a Hill.” cont’d on pg. 10 Although it is only a small piece of the 56-acre DOCOMOMO US | WINTER 2008 3 DOCOMOMO US Rehabilitation of Bunshsaft Designed LBJ Library in Austin NEWSLETTER STAFF Editor Deirdre Gould Assistant Editor Olivia Klose Graphic Designer Unjoo Noh Contributors Maristella Casciato Toni DiMaggio David Fixler Catherine Gavin Deirdre Gould Overall view of LBJ Library. The complex includes the 3-story structure and Detail of library plaza through Olivia Klose fountain. University of Texas-Austin, LBJ Library, Austin, TX. construction. LBJ Library, Austin, TX. (photo: Catherine Gavin) (photo: Catherine Gavin) Hélène Lipstadt Brice Maryman In conjunction with the rehabilitation of the Nadya K. Nenadich The 2007 rehabilitation of the University of interior spaces of the base, the plaza is being Texas-Austin’s Lyndon Baines Johnson Library removed to install new waterproofing and larger Chandler McCoy designed by Gordon Bunshaft aims to balance drains and to reslope the surface. The proposal Robert Meckfessel conservation with material replacement and new has evolved over the last two years from the Andrew Phillips landscape design. Completed in 1971, the library’s intrusive introduction of an amphitheater to a Kathleen Randall travertine and terrazzo base has been plagued design by Hargreaves Associates that replaces Marc Treib with material and design performance issues that the three reflecting pools on the east side of the Enrique Vivoni-Farage began shortly after construction. Moisture pene- library with small knolls of native plants and trees. Gary Wolf tration due to the porous stone and thin building All of the original travertine and green terrazzo envelope was exacerbated by the intense sun pavers will be replaced with granite pavers Andrew Wolfram exposure in Austin, which regularly heats the approved by the Texas Historical Commission. Eugenia Woo stone to temperatures above 140 degrees. The Preservationists in Austin note this as a compro- heavy loads on the plaza also contributed to mise that generally retains the integrity of the Board Members systematic structural failure which caused the original design despite the loss of original material Theodore Prudon, President interior spaces of the base to close. and the single plane of the plaza. The project is Jorge Otero-Pailos, Vice-President Overland Partners’ rehabilitation includes the scheduled for completion in the summer of 2008 Hélène Lipstadt, Secretary completed restoration of the tower and ongoing in time to commemorate the legacy of Lady Bird Mark Lee, Treasurer plaza renovations. The tower’s travertine required Johnson as well as the centennial anniversary of cleaning due to staining from the failure of the former President Johnson’s birth. sealants, crack repairs, and armature replacement. Barry Solar The stone panels were in good condition overall —Catherine Gavin Brendan Moran and only a handful were replaced in kind. Jon Buono Jack Pyburn Kazys Varnelis Boston City Hall Plaza (cont’d from page 3) Nancy Levinson Nina Rappaport The Plaza is at its best hosting ice cream has been insufficiently funded. A City Hall Robert Meckfessel and chowder fests, political protests, concerts designed to welcome the public is now barricaded and sports celebrations. It accommodates tens of for security. Gunny Harboe thousands, drawn from throughout the region for Nevertheless, with improvements such as gatherings that number among the country’s most those proposed by the Trust for City Hall Plaza, Corporate Members memorable urban events. the Plaza could find continued validity as a great Johnston Marklee & Associates It is at the everyday level that the Plaza falls modern space. It opened a crowded, once failing Platt Byard Dovell White short. Critics observe its inadequate response to city with a powerful new symbolic center. It Prudon & Partners the climate, the absence of mid-scale structures became a grand civic forum. It exposes vistas Super Structures and spaces, too little nature, and an overall lack of in a city that was characterized by a lack of visible Barry Solar activity. While design improvements can address connections. And it symbolically re-creates Harboe Architects such faults, city and federal policies must be sup- Boston’s defining topographic feature, the hill- portive and coordinated, which has not always sides that greeted the first settlers and became been the case. For instance, KMW’s proposed the raw material forming the “City Upon a Hill.” rathskeller was rejected. The subway station was kept in a distant corner. Commercial vendors were —Gary Wolf banned; a new hotel, nixed. The recessed foun- tain was shut off, then covered over. Maintenance DOCOMOMO US | WINTER 2008 10.