The Revitalist

This photograph from the WBUR Flickr pool demonstrates the striking beauty possible in City Hall. Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects.

WBUR had a piece this morning on the BSA's campaign to reimagine and preserve City Hall. This month's issue of Architecture Boston focuses on the Modernist hulk and features concepts from six young architecture teams that work with the building's assets and rework its flaws. The teams put out some interesting ideas. One offers to bring the Waterfront to City Hall, instead of the other way around, and convert the Plaza into a wading pool/ice rink. Another proposes to wrap the structure in a way that brings the public to the building with a new interface off the plaza. These proposals worked off the same set of "sins" that need to be addressed: too opaque, too big, too mute, too ugly, too dark, too empty, too costly, too aloof.

The Plaza as wading pool. Studio Luz and c2|studio.

The wrap concept. Howeler+Yoon.

But what I find more interesting are the similarities that point to today's architectural trends. (I suppose it's inevitable.) There are a lot of rooftop gardens and "green-ness," sweeping ramps that funnel pedestrian traffic, undulating and faceted forms, large windows/walls with sheets of open glass, and canopies/wraps/sleeves galore. It's kind of like every dish on Top Chef featuring some unexpected vegetable prepared in a "confit" – everyone is speaking in the same vernacular. Even the renderings all have the same mash-up style of photography, CAD and those weird semi-cartoon people (I have to confess that those people leave me cold).