City Hall
Nobody injured, nothing more to see, Boston Police tweet, adding he was talked down by the hostage negotiation team.
What species of tree is so hardy it can grow in this most barren and desolate of landscapes, two or three stories up the front of City Hall? Can mountain goats be far behind?
So, you read recently about light-transmitting concrete?
... Filled with optical fibers that run from one end of a poured piece of concrete to the other, these prefabricated blocks and panels effectively transmit light from one side to the other. Colors and light remain remarkably consistent from end to end, but with a natural variation from the pouring process that actually softens the effects considerably. ...
On archBoston, Lurker comes up with a great plan for this new material:
Maybe they should try using this stuff to replicate the geometry while replacing some of the existing surfaces at City Hall?
Egress stairs and fire doors made of concrete could open up a world of day-lighting possibilities.
16WadeSt. attended a Tibetan flag-raising ceremony at City Hall yesterday.
Copyright 16WadeSt. Posted in the Universal Hub pool.
From the hard edges of City Hall to the soft contours of the hills of Brighton, BehindDarkEyes made the snowfall her beat today.
Copyright 2009 BehindDarkEyes.
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Date: Jan 16, 2009 6:00 PM
Reuben Kantor
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2009 City Council Rules Page 7
Rules of the Boston City Council
Municipal Year 2009
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Rule 34. Read more
The Globe reports Menino says now's not the time, partly because the city needs to save the money he wanted to spend on all those studies and construction and moving, partly because nobody would pay the city what it once thought it would get for the current City Hall.
Against the philistinism of a bunch of tourists, there comes a City Hall defender.
A lot the tourists know. Without City Hall, there'd be none of the "more aesthetically pleasing ameneties" nearby, like Faneuil Hall.
Even without Keith Olbermann saying it. Reuters reports on some list of the ten ugliest public buildings/monuments in the world, and guess what's Number 1 on the list? Of course. The "award" goes well with 2005's announcement by the Project for Public Spaces that City Hall Plaza is the worst public space on the planet.
One sure way to improve City Hall: Station a guy in a chicken suit in front of it:
If you haven’t already heard, on Saturday there will be protests across the country to repeal Proposition 8, California’s discriminatory law that bans gay men and lesbians from marriage. Boston’s protest takes place at City Hall beginning at 1:30 pm. Don’t sit idly by, show up and fight for the civil right of marriage for all. Read more
The Globe reports on efforts by Tom Menino to deal with shrinking investment income and cuts in state aid (hmm, the story doesn't mention it, but you gotta think revenue from the auto excise tax is also dropping).
In addition to a hiring freeze, the city is looking at scaling back $120 million in planned capital improvements over the next year - such as repairs and upgrades to parks, schools and sidewalks. Also on the potential chopping block: The proposed move of City Hall to the South Boston waterfront, for which the city had budgeted several hundred thousand dollars this year just in planning costs.
In an effort to jumpstart the local economy, Menino also asked the BRA to speed up its approval for $1.9 billion worth of construction projects in the Back Bay, near South Station and Downtown Crossing, the Globe reports.
New game: Where's Mumbles?
(Google Maps has a history of getting landmarks in Boston wrong. A year or two ago, they had Kendall Station about 2 blocks east of its real location.)
The Herald reports South Boston state Sen. Jack Hart is proposing moving the Aquarium to Southie, City Hall to the Aquarium site and, um, something to City Hall Plaza (ooh, I know, I know: Luxury apartments!).
Of course, the same exact argument made against moving City Hall to South Boston (lack of real mass transit, unless you consider the Silver Line real mass transit) would apply to the Aquarium.
Tom Menino sure pulled a good one on him, slipping $2 million into the city budget to study moving City Hall to South Boston, which Flaherty managed to vote for even though he opposes the move, because, well, it was on page 342 of the budget:
In an interview after the hearing, he said that he did not realize he had already voted to approve the funding for the studies.
As a reporter, I once covered a similar issue in Natick - when one selectman realized he'd been similarly, if not quite so back-of-the-bookishly, bamboozled, he said "If I'd realized what I was voting for, I would have voted against myself."
No offense to Natick, but shouldn't we expect more from Boston councilors, who, after all, get paid full-time wages? Surely a man who would be mayor of Boston would realize he has to be on guard when it comes to the man who is mayor of Boston - even if he does have a point about spending $2 million on a study like that in times like these.
I'm no fan of the idea of moving City Hall to South Boston, but, geez, organizing to save City Hall because of its architecture? Calling it "one of the most architecturally significant structures in the world?"
Ow, my head.
Closed captioning is a feature of most scopists' stenographic machine software for people with hearing loss. Boston City Council webcasts lack an up to date stenographic service...
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Architecture Boston this month is all about City Hall: From Menino's plans to move it to thoughts from young architects on how to improve the current hulking behemoth (all the articles are in PDF).
Via Zakcq.
Adam Reilly noticed an interesting omission in yesterday's Globe story about Tom Menino's idea for building a wind turbine on City Hall Plaza: The story doesn't mention anything about his earlier plans to move City Hall to South Boston.
Does this mean Menino's abandoned that proposal or Globe reporters have long-term memory problems and never thought to ask hizzona how building a windmill for a building that soon might not exist makes sense. Also missing from the story: Any comment from the federal government, which owns the JFK building and which thus put the kibosh on the mayor's last major proposal for the plaza: Building a hotel on it.
Tom Menino need look no further than this brilliant design, which combines a uniquely Boston look with the same attitude the current City Hall expresses toward citizens.
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