Boston City Hall

The city hall sparked a real controversy in the trade press world-wide only shortly after the ribbon was cut. Like Rudolph’s Boston Government Service Center the building is part of the Boston masterplan developed by I. M. Pei. The city hall’s shape popularized a phenotype based clearly on La Tourette, that was to be encountered the world over in similar shapes (#LaTouretteType): It can be read as a temple missing its gable.

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Boston Government Service Center

The complex is home to a labor office, municipal administration offices and a psychiatric clinic including a chapel. Another wing, as well as a high-rise were never realized. Rudolph references the façade structure of the neighboring Boston City Hall, which was being built at that time. However, the Government Center with its internal nooks qua plazas responds to the criticism that the square outside Boston City Hall was too large and poorly structured.

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Law and Education Tower (Pappas Law Tower), Boston University

The 18-floor tower was designed by Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert as a cast in place concrete structure with precast infill panels. Known on Boston University campus as the Pappas Law Tower, the building holds an auditorium, classrooms, moot courtrooms, and faculty and administrative offices. (Special thanks to Olivia J. Kiers)

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Boston Architectural Center (today Boston Architectural College)

The Boston Architectural Center is Ashley, Myer and Associates’ winning design for an international competition. The ground floor has a public exhibition hall, the McCormick Gallery, which featured the work of Buckminster Fuller in its inaugural exhibition. Upper stories contain studio and classroom space. Libraries are located on the fifth and sixth floors. Stairways were kept to one side of the building in order to create large loft spaces for teaching and work space. The building is precast concrete, based on a system of cantilevered masses, and features narrow exterior slits that reveal parts of the core construction from outside. In 1977, American muralist Richard Haas contributed a trompe l’oeil mural of classical architectural motifs to the building’s rear (west) elevation. Written by Olivia J. Kiers.

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