NBBJ has been selected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to lead the redevelopment of Paul Rudolph’s iconic Charles F. Hurley Building at the Boston Government Service Center.
The move was announced last week after years of speculation as to the fate of Rudolph’s endangered Brutalist follow-up to his Yale School of Art & Architecture building from 1963. NBBJ will add two glazed towers to the site directly on top of Rudolph’s Hurley Building, while Beyer Blinder Belle is on tap for the interior renovations of the extant structure.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker called it a “transformative redevelopment” that would “add much-needed housing, and boost the Commonwealth’s world-class life sciences sector.”
As part of the deal, developers Leggat McCall says the remade site will include some 350,000-square-feet of government offices at no cost. The existing central plaza area will be transformed by the local landscaping firm Mikyoung Kim. Its existing murals and signature curved staircase connection to Merrimack Street will be preserved while an underground car park structure will be added underneath, according to The Boston Globe.
“The idea is to really open up the ‘super block’ and create a more inclusive, friendly, welcoming space in the interior,” Leggat McCall EVP Bill Gause said in the Globe. “This is going to be a delicate balance of preserving what’s there while allowing for future buildings to work in concert with that.”
The development is expected to add 1 million total square feet to the site overall and obtain a LEED Gold certification in the process. Speculation as to any future uses or tenants has varied, but the Globe report indicated that a local biotech company called LabCentral has agreed to operate its “Ignite” program in the new life sciences building. The proposal must now go through regulatory review and permitting process before it can break ground in 2025.
Writing in a joint response to the announcement, Docomomo US and The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation made clear their disapproval of the plan that they say, “does not fully preserve and restore the site.”
“The proposal lacks many details in terms of just how much of the original building and its significant features will be removed," part of the group's letter reads. “From the current renderings, the two new towers do not seem compatible with one another or the historic building (different materials, colors and massing) and appear to be separate blocks that have “landed” on the Hurley rather than integrate with the original structure or each other. Our suggestion would be that the team consider reviewing Paul Rudolph’s original design guidelines for the site and work to better integrate any new construction with that methodology.”
The full text of their letter can be found here. Archinect will share further project updates as they become available.
2 Comments
I tend to agree with the criticism of this project by the Paul Rudolph Trust. There needs to be far better integration of the proposed additions with the existing building. While a student at the Boston Architectural College I wrote a paper about this building. At the time there was tremendous upset at the cost overruns due (especially) to the brush hammered texturing of the concrete.
Don't get me wrong. I am extremely pleased that the building will be saved. I just think that more attention needs to be placed on the integration of the original and the new additions.
NBBJ's design reminds me a lot of this.
Rudolph's 1960's work is at the same point in the appreciation cycle where Grand Central was in the late 60's - early 70's. There is enough appreciation that demolishing the old building is no longer acceptable, but aggressive renovations that arguably harm and/or overwhelm the original work are considered acts of "preservation". We are still a few decades away from when design professionals will go to great lengths to preserve and perhaps even recreate elements to return the Government Center to its 1960's appearance in the same way that Grand Central Terminal was restored in the 1990's.
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