GREENING BOSTON CITY HALL

Boston City Hall is at the heart of our city & government center.

It has many problems, including its wasteful energy use. We started to envision a sustainable design for the building at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Our Green City Team with Henry MacLean AIA, Franziska Amacher FAIA, Gerry Ives, Architect & Mark Kelley PE to continue the work.

Our proposed sustainable strategies:

• A new envelope connecting the now exposed to weather upper part of the building to the base, by linking the Towers & the Atrium with an added story and new roof. This enables a new Heat Recovery ventilation system using the stack effect.
• Set back this enclosure is respectful of the historic facade design. Openings in the base adds more transparency.
• Carbon neutral explorations & improved space efficiency by adding over 130,000 square foot of usable & leasable space within City Hall. Enclosing open space also significantly reduces the Carbon footprint of the building.
• Envelope improvements, green roofs, localized personalized conditioning & improved day lighting from opened up floor plates in atria reduce energy.
• Design for healthy interiors with green materials & improved air circulation. Adding color with Art and wood finishes.
• More openness & accessibility of the building through program changes: By changing garages to commercial spaces in the base along Congress Street. - by adding openings in exterior walls - through clearer circulation paths informing people how to use the building as a workplace and as a Civic Center,

We calculated that these strategies save the city one million dollars per year. We presented our strategies to the Boston City Council.