Got this thru a listserv...
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Dear Friends,
This is a call for letters of support and testimony for the petition
submitted to the Boston Landmarks Commission this week to consider Boston
City Hall as a City Landmark. The crucial Preliminary Hearing is scheduled
for April 24th at 5:45 pm; without a favorable vote, the process ends that
night; with a favorable vote (to accept), the petition is referred to the
Commission staff, as the first step toward eventual consideration for
landmarking by the Commission, by the City Council, and by the Mayor, if it
meets approval at each step along the way.
A strong show of support now not only helps in this key decision on the
24th; it may sway the final results. By alerting the City to the level of
concern for this building, support may encourage Mayor Menino to rethink his
plan to sell off City Hall for likely demolition and commercial development
of the site.
(Unsympathetic observers suggest that, were Mayor Menino the Pope, he would
be selling off St. Peter's! After all, it's an outdated, oversized
monumental structure full of wasted space. It isn't particularly cozy or
lovable or green. And think what a developer would pay for the opportunity
to build on that site!)
Sending letters of support to the Landmarks Commission in time to be
distributed before the hearing on the 24th will help, as will speaking at
the hearing, whether to represent yourself or an organization.
Please send letters to the following address:
Ellen Lipsey, Executive Director
Boston Landmarks Commission
The Environment Department
Boston City Hall, Room 805
Boston, MA 02201
The hearing will be in City Hall, in the Piemonte Room, 5th Floor.
Apparently this is a difficult building for some people to support, who
might otherwise be natural advocates for it, because of its architectural
style, because of the urban renewal with which it is associated, or because
of not wanting to oppose the Mayor. Several points of information that
might help, in addition to the arguments in the attached petition statement:
1. There is an active threat. The Mayor has said repeatedly that he wants
to relocate City Hall to the waterfront and to sell off this parcel. Matt
Viser reported in the Globe on March 28 that Stull and Lee have been hired
to undertake programming for the new building, with planning and design to
begin mid summer.
2. The Landmark Petition is for the building itself, not the plaza. It
seeks to designate the exterior of the building, and the main entrance lobby
on the interior. The petition statement includes a section encouraging the
Commission to see City Hall as a building that, because of its scale and
design, can tolerate greater latitude for change than such smaller, older
landmarks as the Paul Revere House, the Gibson House Museum or Faneuil Hall.
3. Among some of the better-known Boston residents who signed the petition
are architectural historian Stanford Anderson from MIT; former Landmarks
Commission chair Pauline Chase-Harrell; Boston historian and president of
the Victorian Society in America/New England Chapter, Ed Gordon; writer and
critic Jane Holtz Kay; president of the Friends of the Public Garden, Henry
Lee; former BSO musician Fenwick Smith; and architect Frederick (Tad) Stahl.
In addition, architectural historian Douglass Shand-Tucci signed and is
serving as the spokesperson for the petitioners.
4. Articles advocating saving City Hall have been written by Globe
architecture critic Robert Campbell; architect and UC/Berkeley professor
Donlyn Lyndon; former Kallmann McKinnell and Wood principal, Henry Wood;
Docomomo/US New England President David Fixler; Boston Phoenix critic, David
Eisen, among others. A Globe editorial on March 9, "City Hall: The hub of
The Hub",favored both preservation and slowing down the Mayor's plans.
5. For those who don't see City Hall as a thing of beauty, worthy of
support, Donlyn Lyndon's comment in his Globe article may be helpful:
"Don't obsess with whether or not you like the building. Consider it a
venerable part of the larger public realm. The first buildings of Boston
were just two blocks away. This is where the core of city government should
be.
6. For those familiar with only the building itself and not the historic
open competition that led to it, the attached petition statement provides an
overview of that, along with other arguments for historical and
architectural significance.
7. To put the building in context for those not around when it was built,
perhaps the simplest way to think of City Hall is as the "Bilbao" of its
day. It was one of the most innovative, dramatic, acclaimed and
controversial, widely-published, influential buildings of its time, and was
built, against all expectations, in what was then considered by many to be a
down-and-out, provincial community. That it is a public building, the seat
of government in Boston, makes it all the more remarkable.
Please spread the word.
Gary
Gary Wolf, AIA
Vice President of Docomomo/US New England
Gary Wolf Architects, Inc.
7 Marshall Street
Boston, MA 02108
617 742-7557
617 742-7656 fax
gwolf@wolfarchitects.com
[nb: Regarding the endangered Boston City Hall, while the Landmarks Commission
will not accept emails, they will accept a signed FAX. The FAX number is
617-635-3435]
