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78-647: Gallery East opened in December 1979 and quickly gained prominence as the home for Boston’s avant-garde and alternative culture . Founded by artist Al Ford and DIY pioneer Duane Lucia, Gallery East occupied a 5000-square-foot storefront at 24 East Street in Boston's Leather District near South Station . Early shows featured up and coming visual artists such as David Barbero, Al Ford, Armand Saiia, Susan Shup and Pablo Hurtado, with some intermittent music performances by Gary Koepke , Samm Bennett , Paul Shapiro, and others. In

156-460: A dialectical approach to such political stances by avant-garde artists and the avant-garde genre of art. Sociologically, as a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists, writers, architects, et al. produce artefacts — works of art, books, buildings — that intellectually and ideologically oppose the conformist value system of mainstream society. In the essay " Avant-Garde and Kitsch " (1939), Clement Greenberg said that

234-547: A 1976 Bicentennial poll of historians and architects regarding the United States' greatest buildings, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, Boston City Hall received the sixth-most mentions. When Boston's Mayor Menino stirred controversy in 2010 with a discussion of selling City Hall (see below), opponents of the proposal expressed praise of the building for its influence, design originality, and symbolism as

312-506: A Landmarks Commission official said that the petition to designate the building as a landmark had been accepted for study, giving the building pending landmark status. Members of the group Citizens for City Hall also opposed Mayor Menino's plan to build a new City Hall on the South Boston waterfront because it would be a major inconvenience for tens of thousands of city residents. In December 2008, Menino suspended his plan to move City Hall as

390-440: A commentator wrote that, "I believe it's only a matter of time, and it will have to be totally removed, not modified, not retrofitted, not adapted." In 2008, the building was voted "World's Ugliest Building" in an online poll by the travel agency Virtualtourist . A number of news outlets picked up that moniker, and Mayor Tom Menino adopted it during his long tenure as a boon to tourism. A 2013 essay by columnist Paul McMorrow in

468-532: A crowded city at arm's length. Paul McMorrow (columnist), The Boston Globe , 2013 Popular news media considers City Hall the "world's ugliest building", including the Boston Globe and the Telegraph . In the 1960s, Mayor John F. Collins reportedly gasped as the design was first unveiled, and someone in the room blurted out, "What the hell is that?" City Hall is very unpopular with some Bostonians, as it

546-706: A marker of Boston's rebirth in the 1960s. Supporters of the building applied to the Boston Landmarks Commission for its designation as a landmark, with supporting signatures and letters from architecture critic Jane Holtz Kay , Friends of the Public Garden President Henry Lee, and others. The Boston Globe published editorials recognizing the building's importance. Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote an article published in The Wall Street Journal in which she contrasted

624-541: A new building on another site. On December 12, 2006, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed selling the current city hall and adjacent plaza to private developers and moving the city government to a site in South Boston . Amid his plans, in April 2007, the Boston Landmarks Commission reviewed a petition to make the building a city landmark, supported by a group of architects and preservationists. On July 10, 2008,

702-541: A post-modern time when the modernist ways of thought and action and the production of art have become redundant in a capitalist economy. Parting from the claims of Greenberg in the late 1930s and the insights of Poggioli in the early 1960s, in The De-Definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks (1983), the critic Harold Rosenberg said that since the middle of the 1960s the politically progressive avant-garde ceased being adversaries to artistic commercialism and

780-406: A visual and symbolic connection between the city and its government. The effect is of a small city of concrete-sheltered structures cantilevered above the plaza: large forms that house important civic activities. The cantilevers are supported by exterior columns, spaced alternately at 14-foot-4-inch (4.37 m) and 28-foot-8-inch (8.74 m), which are steel-reinforced. The upper stories contain

858-525: Is another definition of "Avant-gardism" that distinguishes it from "modernism": Peter Bürger, for example, says avant-gardism rejects the "institution of art" and challenges social and artistic values, and so necessarily involves political, social, and cultural factors. According to the composer and musicologist Larry Sitsky , modernist composers from the early 20th century who do not qualify as avant-gardists include Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Igor Stravinsky; later modernist composers who do not fall into

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936-633: Is facilitated by mechanically produced art-products of mediocre quality displacing art of quality workmanship; thus, the profitability of art-as-commodity determines its artistic value. In The Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord said that the financial, commercial, and economic co-optation of the avant-garde into a commodity produced by neoliberal capitalism makes doubtful that avant-garde artists will remain culturally and intellectually relevant to their societies for preferring profit to cultural change and political progress. In The Theory-Death of

1014-546: Is not reducible to a kitsch style or reactionary orientation, but can instead be used to refer to artists who engage with the legacy of the avant-garde while maintaining an awareness that doing so is in some sense anachronistic. The critic Charles Altieri argues that avant-garde and arrière-garde are interdependent: "where there is an avant-garde, there must be an arrière-garde ." Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of music working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term

1092-663: Is sometimes used for parades and rallies and, most memorably, the region's championship sports teams, the Boston Celtics , Boston Bruins , New England Patriots , and the Boston Red Sox , have been feted in front of City Hall. A huge crowd in the plaza also greeted Queen Elizabeth II during her 1976 Bicentennial visit, as she walked from the Old State House to City Hall to have lunch with the Mayor. From 2013 to 2016, City Hall Plaza

1170-615: Is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether. By this definition, some avant-garde composers of the 20th century include Arnold Schoenberg , Richard Strauss (in his earliest work), Charles Ives , Igor Stravinsky , Anton Webern , Edgard Varèse , Alban Berg , George Antheil (in his earliest works only), Henry Cowell (in his earliest works), Harry Partch , John Cage , Iannis Xenakis , Morton Feldman , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Pauline Oliveros , Philip Glass , Meredith Monk , Laurie Anderson , and Diamanda Galás . There

1248-521: Is with some employees of the building. In 2006 some described it as a dark and unfriendly eyesore . In part, such opinions are a reaction against greater Boston's numerous examples of concrete modernism from the 1960s. The building's popularity declined as the tide turned away from modernism in New England to more traditional and post-modern styles in the 1970s and 1980s. The building was no longer new, architectural monumentality fell out of favor, and

1326-520: The Boston Globe described it as "the worst building in the city" and advocated demolition. Curbed Boston included City Hall on its 2018 list of Boston's "10 ugliest buildings." A 2016 Boston Globe essay about "Boston flops, flubs, and failures" said City Hall was "cracking internally like a dead molar waiting to be pulled. The surrounding City Hall Plaza has experienced a similar change in assessment over time. Although its recessed fountain, trees, and umbrella-shaded tables drew crowds in its early years,

1404-607: The Government Center complex. This project constituted a major urban redesign effort in the 1960s, as Boston demolished an area of housing and businesses. The building has been subject to widespread public condemnation, and is sometimes called one of the world's ugliest buildings. Calls for the structure to be demolished have been regularly made even before construction was finished. Architects and critics considered it to be excellent work, with one poll from 1976 finding that professional architects describe Boston City Hall as one of

1482-577: The Great Recession set in, stating, "I can't consciously move ahead on a major project like this at this time." An advocacy group, Friends of Boston City Hall, was established to help develop support for preserving and enhancing City Hall and improving the Plaza. In 2010, the Boston Society of Architects held a competition for ideas for modifying City Hall. In March 2011, plans were announced to rethink

1560-453: The September 11 attacks in 2001, security was further increased. The north entrance, facing the plaza, was barricaded with jersey barriers and bicycle racks. All visitors entering the front and the back entrances must pass through metal detectors. City Hall was constructed by using mainly cast-in-place and precast Portland cement concrete and some masonry. About half of the concrete used in

1638-657: The West End Museum . Other events include "Made in Massachusetts" at the Plymouth Independent Film Festival, Pink Inc. at the 4th Annual West End Children’s Festival, and the Gallery East Reunion Show, which was staged in conjunction with Gallery East's most current large-scale project, the production of a 90-minute film, xxx ALL AGES xxx: The Boston Hardcore Film documenting the origins of

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1716-428: The artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable to the artistic establishment of the time. The military metaphor of an advance guard identifies the artists and writers whose innovations in style, form, and subject-matter challenge the artistic and aesthetic validity of the established forms of art and the literary traditions of their time; thus,

1794-458: The moral obligation of artists to "serve as [the] avant-garde" of the people, because "the power of the arts is, indeed, the most immediate and fastest way" to realise social, political, and economic reforms. In the realm of culture, the artistic experiments of the avant-garde push the aesthetic boundaries of societal norms , such as the disruptions of modernism in poetry, fiction, and drama, painting, music, and architecture, that occurred in

1872-462: The "Architects and Engineers for the Boston City Hall" as the entity responsible for construction, which took place from 1963 to 1968. The architects designed City Hall as divided into three sections, aesthetically and also by use. The lowest portion of the building, the brick-faced base, which is partially built into a hillside, consists of four levels of the departments of city government, where

1950-491: The "International Art Show". In June, Dark Week, which was described as a "boho free-for-all," featured alt-culture performances such as 24 bands lip syncing their own music, including performances by The Dark , Young Snakes , Red , Birdsongs of the Mesozoic , and Peter Dayton, as well as "The Wonderful World of Jesus" and The Dark's "89 Systems". In July the gallery hosted Polare Levine's work and Pink. Inc. amongst others. August

2028-527: The Avant-Garde ( Theorie der Avantgarde , 1974), the literary critic Peter Bürger looks at The Establishment 's embrace of socially critical works of art as capitalist co-optation of the artists and the genre of avant-garde art, because "art as an institution neutralizes the political content of the individual work [of art]". In Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975 (2000), Benjamin H. D. Buchloh argues for

2106-673: The Avant-Garde (1991), Paul Mann said that the avant-garde are economically integral to the contemporary institutions of the Establishment, specifically as part of the culture industry . Noting the conceptual shift, theoreticians, such as Matei Calinescu , in Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (1987), and Hans Bertens in The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (1995), said that Western culture entered

2184-574: The Blackstone Block buildings across Congress Street. The intermediate portion of City Hall houses the public elected officials: the Mayor, the City Council members, and the Council Chamber. The large scale and the protrusion of these interior spaces on the outside, instead of being buried deep within the building, reveal the important public functions to the passers-by and are intended to create

2262-649: The Boston’s Hardcore music culture on which Lucia, director Drew Stone, and former WERS host Katy "the kleening lady" Goldman are collaborating. Gallery East’s logo since 1979 has been a pointing index finger . Because of the Gallery’s sometimes association with Dada and the prevalent use of the pointing index finger by Dada artists, some have conjectured that the Gallery East logo was lifted, thereby identifying it with that particular anti-art movement. However, it

2340-433: The anniversary year, architect Aaron Betsky wrote that City Hall "is one of the last concrete examples of government willing to fight for what it thinks is right, which is, or should be, or common good." City Hall is so ugly that its insane upside-down wedding-cake columns and windswept plaza distract from the building's true offense. Its great crime isn't being ugly; it's being anti-urban. The building and its plaza keep

2418-475: The architects sought to create a bold statement of modern civic democracy, placed within the historic city of Boston. While the architects looked to precedents by Le Corbusier , especially the monastery of Sainte Marie de La Tourette , with its cantilevered upper floors, exposed concrete structure, and a similar interpretation of public and private spaces, they also drew from the example of Medieval and Renaissance Italian town halls and public spaces, as well as from

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2496-459: The army. In 19th-century French politics, the term avant-garde (vanguard) identified Left-wing political reformists who agitated for radical political change in French society. In the mid-19th century, as a cultural term, avant-garde identified a genre of art that advocated art-as-politics, art as an aesthetic and political means for realising social change in a society. Since the 20th century,

2574-520: The art at the Gallery through 1982. The Boston Hardcore crew invited nationally known acts, including Minor Threat , T.S.O.L. , MDC , Meatmen , Government Issue , and Necros , to appear on the same bill. The Gallery continued to support other musical and artistic genres as well, including jazz shows, visual art, performance art events by companies such as Mobius Artists Group , more regular independent film screenings, and poetry readings. Gallery East

2652-477: The art term avant-garde identifies a stratum of the Intelligentsia that comprises novelists and writers, artists and architects et al. whose creative perspectives, ideas, and experimental artworks challenge the cultural values of contemporary bourgeois society . In the U.S. of the 1960s, the post–WWII changes to American culture and society allowed avant-garde artists to produce works of art that addressed

2730-458: The artistic vanguard oppose high culture and reject the artifice of mass culture , because the avant-garde functionally oppose the dumbing down of society — be it with low culture or with high culture . That in a capitalist society each medium of mass communication is a factory producing artworks, and is not a legitimate artistic medium; therefore, the products of mass culture are kitsch , simulations and simulacra of Art. Walter Benjamin in

2808-573: The artists who created the anti-novel and Surrealism were ahead of their times. As a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists promote progressive and radical politics and advocate for societal reform with and through works of art. In the essay "The Artist, the Scientist, and the Industrialist" (1825), Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues 's political usage of vanguard identified

2886-558: The attractive elements of smaller structures." Architect, educator, and writer Donlyn Lyndon wrote in The Boston Globe , "Boston City Hall carries an authority that results from the clarity, articulation, and intensity of imagination with which it has been formed." Architectural historian Douglass Shand-Tucci, author of Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800–2000 , called City Hall "one of America's foremost landmarks" and "arguably

2964-467: The avant-garde traditions in both the United States and Europe. Among these are Fluxus , Happenings , and Neo-Dada . Brutalist architecture was greatly influenced by an avant-garde movement. Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston , Massachusetts . It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council . The current hall

3042-527: The board for underwriting the Gallery’s ‘nuisances’. On July 7, 1982 a hearing was held before the Boston Licensing Board to decide the case. Room 801 at New City Hall was filled with artists, musicians and performers, as well as kids who arrived with their parents. The City ruled in favor of the Gallery, based on its right to freedom of expression, as long as they continued to obtain the proper permits. The gallery closed its space at 24 East Street in

3120-410: The bold granite structures of 19th-century Boston (including Alexander Parris' Quincy Market immediately to the east). Many of the elements in the design have been seen as abstractions of classical design elements, such as the coffers and the architrave above the concrete columns. Kallmann, McKinnell, and Knowles collaborated with two other Boston architectural firms and one engineering firm to form

3198-634: The building and its surrounding plaza. While a candidate for Mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh called for the sale of City Hall for mixed-use redevelopment. But after his election, Walsh did not pursue such a sale. In 2015, the City of Boston launched a "Rethink City Hall" program to gather ideas for changes to the building and to City Hall Plaza. The Getty Foundation awarded Boston a grant of $ 120,000 in 2017 to study ways to preserve and enhance City Hall and its plaza. The Foundation noted "a shift in public sentiment" in recent years, "with many residents now embracing

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3276-423: The building is dark with brick, Welsh quarry tiles, mahogany walls, and darker concrete. As the building ascends, the overall color lightens, as lighter concrete is used. The public response to Boston City Hall continues to be sharply divided. Arguments for and against continued use of the structure provoke strong counter-arguments from politicians, local press, design professionals, and the general public. City Hall

3354-447: The building was precast (roughly 22,000 separate components), and the other half was poured-in-place concrete. All of the concrete in the structure, except that of the columns, is mixed with a light, coarse rock. While the majority of the building is created using concrete, precast and poured-in-place concrete are distinguishable by their different colors and textures. For example, cast-in-place elements are coarse and grainy textured because

3432-485: The building's visual weight, making it less top-heavy and intimidating, more welcoming, and improve its energy efficiency. On the Congress Street side, the glass sheath would provide protective covered passageways for pedestrians and traffic. In August 2015, a developer's donations for a kitchen renovation was criticized by a fiscal watchdog. In January 2016, Mayor Walsh announced plans to install new LED lighting on

3510-416: The category of avant-gardists include Elliott Carter , Milton Babbitt , György Ligeti , Witold Lutosławski , and Luciano Berio , since "their modernism was not conceived for the purpose of goading an audience." The 1960s saw a wave of free and avant-garde music in jazz genre, embodied by artists such as Ornette Coleman , Sun Ra , Albert Ayler , Archie Shepp , John Coltrane and Miles Davis . In

3588-521: The center city, and decentralization instead of centralized civic power, funding was funneled away from City Hall. Compared to the Boston Public Library , some users and occupants have found City Hall to be unpleasant and dysfunctional. It has been the butt of jokes in some local magazines. The structure's complex interior spaces and sometimes-confusing floor plan have not been mitigated by quality wayfinding, signage, graphics or lighting. In 2006,

3666-417: The challenge being, in part, the numerous approvals required at the city, state, and federal levels. In 2001, some City Hall workers complained that they were suffering from sick building syndrome . However, consultants hired by the city "did not identify any building-wide or acute air-quality issues." Since 2006, a number of proposals have been made to modify City Hall or to demolish it and replace it with

3744-534: The city a $ 120,000 grant to study the building's history and to propose a strategy for renovations. The result of the study, a 327-page Boston City Hall Conservation Management Plan, was published in 2021. The study won awards from the Boston Preservation Alliance and docomomo-us. City Hall is located in Government Center , in Downtown Boston. The adjoining 8-acre (3.2 ha) City Hall Plaza

3822-405: The city's office space, which are used by civil servants not visited frequently by the public, such as the administrative and planning departments. The bureaucratic nature is reflected in the standardized window patterns, separated by pre-cast concrete fins, with an open office plan typical of modern office buildings. (The subsequent enclosure of much of this space into separate offices contributed to

3900-415: The concrete was poured into fir wood frames to mold it, and precast elements, such as trusses and supports, were set in steel molds to gain smooth, clean surfaces. This distinction also originates from the different types of cement used: the exterior poured-in-place pieces are of type I cement, a lightly colored cement, while the exterior precast components use type II cement, a dark-colored cement. The base of

3978-512: The enduring value in Heroic-era architecture, we can also hope for a measure of boldness — and recognize the downside of being too timid." In 2018, Boston Magazine ranked City Hall as #1 on its list of the 100 best buildings in the city. A 2019 essay by Anthony Flint argued that City Hall is "an elegant, successful work of architecture." In 2019, a commemorative pin was produced in honor of the building's 50th anniversary. In an essay written during

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4056-506: The essay " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1939) and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) said that the artifice of mass culture voids the artistic value (the aura ) of a work of art. That the capitalist culture industry (publishing and music, radio and cinema, etc.) continually produces artificial culture for mass consumption, which

4134-520: The exterior of the building. "We are committed to creating a welcoming, lively City Hall Plaza," Walsh said. The lights were turned on in October 2016. A more extensive set of renovations, designed by the Boston firm Utile, was completed in 2018. The renovations included new security and seating areas in the lobby, a coffee kiosk, new lighting, and new signage. In 2017, the Getty Foundation awarded

4212-457: The fall of 1980 the gallery expanded its performance programming to include poetry , dance , independent film , performance art , and photography . New young artists included Walter Tamasino, Kathy Hayes, Magnus Johnstone, Tony Millionaire, Mark Morrisroe , Steve Stain, Kevin Porter, Pia MacKenzie, Susan Hellewell and Robert Dombrowski. By late 1980 it was the broad variety of live music that set

4290-419: The gallery apart from other art and performance venues in New England. In November, Wild Stares, Dangerous Birds , and The Neats staged shows at the gallery called Propeller Parties, an endeavor which later led to the founding of Propeller Records . Other bands who played these shows included Mission of Burma , Bound and Gagged, V, and The Stains . Art music , jazz and world sounds were also represented at

4368-522: The gallery with performances by Warren Senders, Raqib Hassan, Tony Vacca , Scott Robinson , Julian Thayer and others. Gallery East began to draw critical acclaim from local media, including the Boston Globe , who called it a "home for the avant-garde." In the spring of 1981, Gallery East began mounting one week shows, which were much shorter than the traditional gallery exhibits in Boston. Sculptor, painter and musician Robert Rutman started things off in May with

4446-524: The great building of twentieth-century Boston." In the AIA Guide to Boston , Susan and Michael Southworth wrote that "the award-winning City Hall had established its architect's reputation and inspired similar buildings across the nation." Stylistically, City Hall is considered by some to be a leading example of Brutalist architecture . It is listed among the "Greatest Buildings" by Great Buildings Online, an affiliate of Architecture Week . Additionally, in

4524-582: The idea of a "new" era and a "new" Boston became old-fashioned. The changes in style coincided with political changes, as Kevin White 's mayoral administration ended. Following the September 11 attacks , the environment changed from what had been intended as a civil center and community space on the stairways and plaza around the building as public access was sharply reduced by the erection of security barriers and closing of numerous entrances. Under subsequent administrations, which focused on neighborhoods rather than

4602-540: The late 19th and in the early 20th centuries. In art history the socio-cultural functions of avant-garde art trace from Dada (1915–1920s) through the Situationist International (1957–1972) to the postmodernism of the American Language poets (1960s–1970s). The French military term avant-garde (advanced guard) identified a reconnaissance unit who scouted the terrain ahead of the main force of

4680-646: The matters of the day, usually in political and sociologic opposition to the cultural conformity inherent to popular culture and to consumerism as a way of life and as a worldview . In The Theory of the Avant-Garde ( Teoria dell'arte d'avanguardia , 1962), the academic Renato Poggioli provides an early analysis of the avant-garde as art and as artistic movement. Surveying the historical and social, psychological and philosophical aspects of artistic vanguardism, Poggioli's examples of avant-garde art, poetry, and music, show that avant-garde artists share some values and ideals as contemporary bohemians . In Theory of

4758-535: The mediocrity of mass culture , which political disconnection transformed being an artist into "a profession, one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing [the profession of being an artist]." Avant-garde is frequently defined in contrast to arrière-garde , which in its original military sense refers to a rearguard force that protects the advance-guard. The term was less frequently used than "avant-garde" in 20th-century art criticism. The art historians Natalie Adamson and Toby Norris argue that arrière-garde

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4836-452: The more conventional designs of most of the other entries (typified by pure geometrical forms clad with sleek curtain walls) to introduce an articulated structure that expressed the internal functions of the buildings in rugged, cantilevered concrete forms. While hovering over the broad brick plaza, the City Hall was designed to create an open and accessible place for the city's government, with

4914-476: The most heavily used public activities all located on the lower levels directly connected to the plaza. The major civic spaces, including the Council chamber, library, and Mayor's office, were one level up, and the administrative offices were housed above these, behind the repetitive brackets of the top floors. At a time when monumentality was typically considered an appropriate attribute for governmental architecture,

4992-563: The poor treatment of Boston City Hall with Yale University 's recent sympathetic restoration of its similarly challenging Brutalist landmark, the Art and Architecture Building by architect Paul Rudolph . In 2009 a major exhibition of the original design drawings for City Hall, now part of the archive of Historic New England, was mounted at the Wentworth Institute of Technology. In 2015, Boston Globe columnist Dante Ramos wrote that "if we see

5070-404: The public has wide access. The brick largely transfers over to the exterior of this section, and it is joined by materials such as quarry tile inside. The use of these terra cotta products relates to the building's location on one of the original slopes of Boston, expressed in the open, brick-paved plaza, and also to historic Boston's brick architecture, seen in the adjoining Sears Crescent block and

5148-593: The rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive". Post-punk artists from the late 1970s rejected traditional rock sensibilities in favor of an avant-garde aesthetic. Whereas the avant-garde has a significant history in 20th-century music, it is more pronounced in theatre and performance art, and often in conjunction with music and sound design innovations, as well as developments in visual media design. There are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to

5226-458: The site as a key feature of the city fabric." In 2015, the Boston Globe published a proposal by Suffolk University professor Harry Bartnick, that the building be enclosed in a variegated glass sheath, extending diagonally outward from just below the top-most line of windows into the surrounding plaza on 3 sides, and across Congress Street to the street meridian. The effect would be to re-distribute

5304-642: The space has more recently been cited as problematic in terms of design and urban planning. To illustrate the range of opinion regarding the Plaza, in 2004 the Project for Public Spaces identified it as the worst single public plaza worldwide out of hundreds of contenders, and it has placed the plaza on its "Hall of Shame." On the other hand, in 2009, The Cultural Landscape Foundation included City Hall Plaza as one of 13 national "Marvels of Modernism" in its exhibition and publication. Several rounds of efforts to liven up City Hall Plaza have yielded only minimal changes, with

5382-441: The ten proudest achievements of American architecture. Boston City Hall was designed by Gerhard Kallmann , a Columbia University professor, and Michael McKinnell , a Columbia graduate student who co-founded Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles . In 1962, they won an international, two-stage design competition for the building. Their design, selected from 256 entries by a jury of prominent architects and businessmen, departed from

5460-501: The ventilation problems of those floors.) The top of the brick base was designed as an elevated courtyard melding the fourth floor of the city hall with the plaza. Security concerns caused city officials in recent years to block access to the courtyard and the outdoor stairways to Congress Street and the plaza. The courtyard is occasionally opened up for events (such as the celebration of the Boston Celtics championship in 1986). After

5538-562: The winter of 1983. Both Ford and Lucia continued to stage shows throughout the Northeast. Under Lucia's direction, Gallery East re-emerged in 2006 as a web-based network, which continues to contribute to the local and international art scene with art shows, performances and community events. Art exhibitions included two shows at Studio Soto: the "Sides Show" and "Living Large" paintings by Paola Savarino in conjunction with Fort Point Channel Open Studios, and an exhibit of Evenlyn Berde's paintings at

5616-470: Was a vanity gallery ; artist and performers rented wall and floor space, making the curatorial process minimal. It was criticized for this by the Boston art establishment, often being called a ‘glorified night club’. A number of artists in the Leather District even went as far to sign a petition asking the City of Boston licensing board to refrain from granting permits to the gallery and further criticized

5694-530: Was a pure coincidence. The deco -style pointing index finger was from a shipping label used on freight boxes and was found in a desk when the gallery moved into the 24 East Street location. 42°21′4.92″N 71°3′23.57″W  /  42.3513667°N 71.0565472°W  / 42.3513667; -71.0565472 Avant-garde In the arts and literature , the term avant-garde (from French meaning ' advance guard ' or ' vanguard ' ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art , and

5772-454: Was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall . It is a controversial and prominent example of Brutalist architecture , part of the modernist movement. It was designed by the architecture firms Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles and Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty , with LeMessurier Consultants as engineers. Together with the surrounding plaza , City Hall is part of

5850-493: Was given two stars by the Michelin Green Guide , which said that the building "has been one of Boston's controversial architectural statements since its completion in 1968." The building's 50th anniversary in 2019 prompted both positive and negative commentary. In the 2021 Boston mayoral election , candidates for mayor Andrea Campbell , John Barros , and Kim Janey voiced negative opinions on it, Annissa Essaibi George

5928-422: Was neutral on it, while Michelle Wu voiced positive opinions on it. While assessment of the building's architecture has been influenced by the vagaries of changing architectural style, the building at the time was acclaimed by some architects as well as by the professional association, American Institute of Architects , which gave the building its Honor Award in 1969. Representative of the contemporary praise

6006-533: Was packed full of performances, including Kick Week, Take It! Magazine Week, and the Boston New York Fellowship Week. In late August 1981, two local bands, SS Decontrol and The Freeze , took the stage at Gallery East and introduced hardcore punk to the city of Boston. It was billed as aggressive music: loud and fast songs lasting 30 seconds. Hand-drawn xeroxed flyers promoted the show as "xxx ALL AGES xxx." Hardcore shows continued to supplement

6084-441: Was the opinion of The New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable , who wrote that "in this focal building Boston sought, and got, excellence." Historian Walter Muir Whitehill wrote that "it is as fine a building for its time and place as Boston has ever produced. Traditionalists who long for a revival of Bulfinch simply do not realize that one does not achieve a handsome monster either by enlarging, or endlessly multiplying,

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