Reconstruction through Deconstruction: Boston City Hall 21st Century Turnaround

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In Folder: 2018 Theses

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Reconstruction through Deconstruction: Boston City Hall 21st Century Turnaround

Submitted to in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2018

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title: Reconstruction through Deconstruction: Boston City Hall 21st Century Turnaround

creator: Kean Nam Goh

subject: Historic buildings, Conservation and restoration; Buildings, Repair and reconstruction; Boston City Hall (Boston, Mass.), Remodeling for other use

description: The aim of this thesis is to explore how the value of Boston City Hall can be sustained and reinterpreted through the process of analytical deconstruction and then strategic reconstruction with the aid of programmatic changes in order to reinterpret the value of the building and reconnect with the contemporary and existing urban context. This thesis chose Boston City Hall as the main subject of studies because of its controversies over time. Boston City Hall underwent lots of criticism since the 1980s. The building was a symbolic intervention for political leaders - it is a symbol of change. Ironically, everything has changed since the building was built, and the building itself remains the same and lots of design’s intention are no longer fulfilled. Boston City Hall served as an agent to transform its surrounding environment physically and economically.. [sic] So this thesis has also investigated the historical and contemporary transformations of Government Center’s (formerly Scollay Square) neighborhood and how the current existing urban contexts can help to transform Boston City Hall. In addition, this thesis explored ways in which brutalist buildings have been renovated and these precedents can shed some light on the future of Boston City Hall. In addition, research was done on the variation of approaches to renovations on architecture with similar context, abandoned/underused infrastructure and buildings to see how they were deconstructed and then reconstructed programmatically and architecturally.

publisher: The Douglas D. Schumann Library and Learning Commons, Wentworth Institute of Technology

date: 2018

type: Thesis

format: .pdf

language: eng

rights: https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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