Boston City Hall

This building and space feel like something straight out of a Eastern European Soviet bloc country. I think Kim Jong-​un would be impressed! It’s hard to believe a city so beautiful would chose such ugly architecture for it’s government.

Located in Downtown Boston right across Faneuil Hall. I think this is a beautiful place to hold an outdoor concert. I came here for Boston Calling in September 2015. There is a lot of space and steps to sit on. It really feels like the East Coast here. Other than that, I don’t know much else about it. Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and a plaza is also close by.

I was given a ticket by one of the officers for parking on the side of the road in a snow emergency. It wasn’t even snowing and then I paid and they still said I owed months later. So disorganized. I hate how they steal people’s money so they can hire more people to steal even more. It’s a fact they only care about revenue

I’ve spent hours waiting in line trying to sort out parking issues in the dungeon of this place. Customer service at these desks is almost as great as the RMV.
The building itself is a huge embarrassing failure. It’s the architectural equivalent of a McDonalds recycled cardboard drink carrier. Recycling would be a good next step for this building.

I came to Boston hoping to explore the city and spend time with a friend. I had never been to the city so I was unaware of how rigid parking rules were. 48 hours into my stay, I was bombarded with two parking violations and was towed in an unrelated incident of private property trespassing. I did not know where to hide my car in the mission hills area and could not seem to avoid committing some sort of violation during my short stay. Suddenly, my trip to Boston revolved around disputing the violations I received shortly after arriving.
I called city council, and was told I could schedule a walk-​in hearing since I was set to leave the next day. I arrived at 3:30 PM and was unsure if I would be able to see anyone since the parking dispute office was opened until 4 PM. I was told to sign one thing and was able to see someone within 10 minutes.
The young lady who saw me allowed me to clearly state my frustrations. I think being a visitor and genuinely unaware that I was committing violations helped me with my argument. She revoked both tickets which is something I greatly appreciate. I didn’t think I would end up in city hall during my first visit to Boston, but it ended up being a pleasant experience.

I walked into City Hall at 4:15 pm looking for the parking clerk office knowing that it was due to close at 4:30pm. My google maps had me going around the block another 10 minutes away. Luckily the security officers at the entrance were very professional and helpful. They clarified between the moving versus resident parking permit before sending me to the wrong location. Then the parking clerk office was efficient in getting my paperwork filed. The efficiency meant that I had to be back out in the hazy hot humid weather.
All in all. I was pleasantly surprised and thankful with the service and efficiency.

Boston City Hall was built in Brutalist style, however, the service is anything but brutal. I went to City Hall recently to get copies of my daughter’s birth certificate. I was in and out of there in 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES! Eat your heart out MVD or just about any state office! Heck, it’s hard to even find a parking space in Boston in under 10 minutes. Well done City Hall, well done!
p. s. Just remember to bring check or cash — no credit cards accepted for some services.

Downside: It’s a butt-​ugly monstrosity, a pustulent architectural furuncle in the shadow of historic Beacon Hill.
Upside: it’s a pointed reminder to give thanks not to have been born in Soviet Russia.

I needed a copy of my birth certificate and was in and out within moments!
Birth certificates only costs $ 12, and they accept cash and money orders.
City Hall is open 830−530pm M-​F, closed holidays.
The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages is CLOSED Wednesdays, but operates 9−4pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
I was expecting to be miserable, like a trip to the DMV– this was NOTHING like that!

Is it weird I like this building? Not because I like government, nor modernist architecture, however it’s grown on me. It’s so unexpected… like an ironic mustache. It’s so ugly that it’s cute… like a French bulldog or pug. The fact people hate it and it is so infamous, makes it lovable. I think to demolish it would be to get rid of a very important piece of architecture in Boston, not because it’s beautiful, but it’s important. And in 100 years all the other brutalist style buildings will be long gone because they were ugly, and Boston will still have CIty Hall, even if it serves a different purpose. People will come to view it from all over the world, like the Parthenon. OK… maybe I“m dreaming big here, but seriously people, not everything has to be symmetrical, curvy, and made of brick. Bostonians are too spoiled by the golden dome of the state capital!

This is probably the ugliest building in all of Boston.
Upside: my nostrils are pleasantly surprised each time I walk in and it doesn’t smell like a moldy gym locker room
Downside: my eyes expect it
Upside: I have never been stuck in the elevators
Downside: this is a miracle and not the norm
Upside: I have never had anything that could be deemed inappropriate
Downside: bags are scanned every time and you *could* have something taken away
Upside: I have never had a problem here. I got a parking permit two days before the September 1^st madness at lunch time in under 15 minutes.
Downside: there isn’t one.
Well done, City of Boston. Just stop being in the most unattractive building in my beloved city.

If this noble building were in Paris, it would be a tourist attraction. Seriously. Consider that it was a city’s earnest endeavour — and world wide competition — to create a unifying public space from a blighted area. It was one of the first buildings to use reinforced concrete as structural members. It provides a meeting place in the plaza such as we all admire in Italian cities. The interior spaces are always interesting visually.
Does it fail in some aspects? Sure, but if you learn about the building, you’ll end up admiring it.

The ugliest and biggest waste of space I’ve ever seen as far as any public building goes. Feels more like a prison than city hall. Staff are SLOW and NOTHING seems to be automated. A prime example of tax dollar waste in MA.

You think City Hall is ugly?
I disagree.
I giggle every time I walk by it? Why, because it reminds me of the climactic scene in the 1986 British-​American cinematic masterpiece Labyrinth staring David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly.
Remember when the Goblin King traps Jennifer Connelly and her baby brother, Toby, in the MC Escher-​esq Goblin City Throne Room?
It’s essentially this line: Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great — You have no power over me.
That’s City Hall. So, that’s pretty awesome.
Also, its handy because their website is actually helpful. They’ve streamlined a lot of their processes. It’s incredibly easy to get a parking sticker, street closure or whatever else you need.

Communistic Styled Buildings look far more attractive than this piece of concrete, and that is really saying something.
I have traveled throughout the world… and have not seen anything anywhere… so ugly… and for it to represent the local community in such a way is beyond comprehension.

Nearly as ugly and unaccommodating as the people that work there.
From the wind-​swept brick wasteland outside to the ridiculously narrow and uncomfortable spectator seats in the city council chamber to the lack of sufficient restrooms this building is a disaster. Back home in Texas it seems like every tiny town has a big, airy courthouse/​town hall built in the early parts of the last century. In a burst of misguided ‘progressive’ modernism Boston decided to build this monstrosity instead of renovating their lovely old building. They also took a scorched earth approach to the neighborhood for blocks around. One of the most unfriendly areas in the city on a day when the raw wind is blowing rain or snow, the empty expanse of brick amplifies your misery as soon as you step out of Gov’t Center T stop.

A monstrosity apparently designed by angry communists, which would look more at home on the outskirts of Moscow or Minsk.
The first time I saw this building as a kid I thought it was ugly, like ‘hit every branch on the ugly tree’ kind of ugly and that hasn’t changed, even after hearing the clarion call of people shouting words like ‘brutalism’ and ‘le corbusier’
You know what people? I don’t care who was involved in it’s construction, or what modernist ideals were behind its design.
If someone told me Joseph Stalin designed it, I’d probably believe them.
I’ve always thought it was a city government plot to keep people away, I mean, who the hell would want to go inside this thing? The interior is like a vast cave system, with signs pointing to offices that no longer exist and city employees sitting listlessly in front of broken computers. I’ve been inside once and don’t plan on returning.
This Unilocal message is a vain call to the city government to sell this site to the highest bidder, level the place and actually try to turn it into a usable, beautiful public square or development that doesn’t provoke violent and prolonged vomiting upon first sight like the current ‘building’ does.

Because I usually try to see the positive in most things, for years I’ve tried to keep an open mind about Boston City Hall. I’ve studied the building from all angles trying very hard to find something to like about it.
There’s no avoiding the area for me since I walk through Boston City Hall plaza twice a day during the week.
Ultimately, the sad reality is that no matter how much I’ve looked for something to appreciate, I don’t like this building.
I’ll even go a step further and say that there is in fact nothing redeeming at all about Boston CIty Hall and the red brick environs.
I finally just have to admit to myself that this is just one ugly and off-​putting building and plaza.
Our City Hall is built in the «Brutalist» style of architecture popularized in the 1950s and 1960s which is a a style difficult enough to appreciate to begin with let alone in this horrific rendition.
This is an unappealing and jarringly unbalanced building. The architechtural style of Brutalism is really an apt name. City Hall is brutal to look at. You will ultimately end up feeling beaten up by it for sure.
The irony is that I do appreciate the modernist aesthetic of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe from whose styles Brutalism apparently grew but this City Hall is a clunker of monumental proportion.
This isn’t even about putting down the entire Brutalist architectural style. Take a look at the Geisel Library at the University of California at San Diego. I find that building quite attractive, interesting and innovative.
Boston’s City Hall is simply a poorly executed example. We also don’t have enough sun, warm weather and green throughout the year like San Diego has, to help to «soften» this otherwise hard, modernist style.
Another real shame is the wasted and barren but incredibly vast piece of property on which this building sits in an otherwise great area of downtown Boston.
The possibilities are really endless with what could be built here instead.
There is enough room for something to be created that would be inviting, welcoming and marvelous for the city, for those of us who live and work here and for the many eager visitors who flock here.
It could be a real gathering place with room for all kinds of events.
Instead we’ve been stuck with a «brutally» ugly, dirty concrete building surrounded by a barren brick plaza all of which screams out to me: «We’re cold, unfriendly, unattractive and harsh here in Boston: Stay away».
And in reality, that message about Boston and Bostonians couldn’t be further from the truth.

One word: Ugly*
*although me does speak some English, I know no other words that would describe it any better.
** Im from USSR, and Khrushchev style buildings are pretty in comparison to this structure.

Boston’s city hall reminds me most of a cross between Wernham-Hogg’s Slough branch (without David Brent) and a monolithic behemoth dividing Beacon Hill from Fanueil Hall and the North End from Downtown Crossing.
Aesthetically, it’s not pleasing. And while my one experience (to vote) wasn’t that bad, it was confusing to figure out where I had to go, exactly. It’s a big building.
That being said, a city/​state hall is supposed to look, well, a little more regal, less office-​like. Look at old City Hall. The State House. Heck, even a little bit of monolithic art deco can go a long way towards regal-​ness (the Tim Burton-​era Gotham City proves this)
City Hall, meanwhile, looks like an office park. A boring office park with a Quiznos nearby. Baaah.