In 1961, the Boston Redevelopment Authority acquired nearly 60 acres in the heart of Boston by eminent domain. The City hired I. M. Pei and Partners to undertake a Government Center Urban Renewal Plan. Pei and his firm were charged with designing a scheme that could incorporate office buildings and public open spaces for Federal, state, and city-level government employees. In order to accomplish this, with the exception of a few historic landmarks, the entire Scollay Square neighborhood was razed to make way for the new city center. Pei and his firm developed their design to make the new City Hall its centerpiece.

The plan indicated the placement and the general massing of the building and put specific height restrictions forth to those involved in the design competition. In urban design terms, these decisions regarding the shape of this new structure and its placement on the site helped to anchor the new building into Boston’s historic center, despite the bold Modernism of its forms. The result of these design decisions was a novel and unabashedly modern concept of what Boston’s urban center could look like.

An open design competition, which was nearly unprecedented in the United States, was launched. The newly-formed architecture firm of Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles (precursor to the contemporary firm of Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects) won the competition, and set out to construct a building that would be monumental in scale and impression, while serving as a bridge between Boston’s historic context and its new modern identity.

back | next