Government Center (Boston)

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Buildings in the Government Center district

Government Center is an area in downtown Boston in the state of Massachusetts of the United States , that the city of Cambridge and the streets Court , Congress and Sudbury is limited. Where once the Scollay Square was, are now the Boston City Hall , two courthouse of Suffolk County , several administrative buildings of the government, a large subway station of the MBTA and the City Hall Plaza .

Buildings

Boston City Hall

In the District Government Center , the large and impressive is Boston City Hall in the architectural style of brutalism , which was built in the 1960s as part of the first Boston urban renewal program, a very dominant building. Although the building is credited with architectural merits , not everyone admires it - rather, it is extremely unpopular with local residents, especially since the building has replaced the previous Victorian architecture of Scollay Square . Most recently in 2008 there were plans to move the town hall and demolish the building.

City Hall Plaza

The City Hall Plaza is also not a particularly popular, 11 acres (44,500 m²) square, which is commonly referred to as the "Brick Desert" or, under the impression of the neighboring buildings, "the world's largest backyard".

Government Service Center

Much less known than City Hall is the very expansive Government Service Center , which was also built in the brutalist style and designed by Paul Rudolph . The building is still unfinished today as the high tower envisaged in the original plans was never built. In the neighborhood is the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse , built in the mid-1990s .

Geography and traffic

Government Center underground station

The Government Center is located between the North End and Beacon Hill neighborhoods . Just across Congress Street is historic Faneuil Hall and the popular Quincy Market , and not far is the Old State House . I-93 passes two blocks away .

Since the Tremont Street Subway, the first subway in America, was built in 1897 , there has been a subway station at Government Center , which is now operated by the MBTA . This was initially called Scollay Square Station and gained great fame when the group The Kingston Trio released a cover version of the 1948 protest song MTA . The song is about a man who is trapped in the subway and forced to ride with her forever because he cannot raise money for the fee to be paid at the exit. The MBTA's policy of charging fees for leaving train stations was not completely abolished until 2007. Today the Government Center Station is an important transfer station for the Green Line and Blue Line .

Some major Boston streets are either nearby or straight to the Government Center , including Tremont , Congress , Cambridge , Beacon , State , Washington and Devonshire Streets .

Reception in pop culture

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Krieger, David A. Cobb, Amy Turner, David C. Bosse et al .: Mapping Boston . MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1999, ISBN 0-262-11244-2 , pp. 163-165 .
  2. ↑ Jane Holtz Kay : Lost Boston . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1980, ISBN 0-395-27609-8 , pp. 110 .
  3. ^ Susan Southworth, Michael Southworth: AIA guide to Boston . Ed .: Boston Society of Architects. 3. Edition. Globe Pequot, Guilford, Conn. 2008, ISBN 0-7627-4337-9 , pp. 52 .
  4. ↑ Harmony and Me. Internet Movie Database , accessed on May 22, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : Government Center, Boston  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Government Center, Boston  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 42 ° 21 ′ 38.5 "  N , 71 ° 3 ′ 33.2"  W.