Boston City Hall

Boston City Hall - Architects Kallmann, McKinnel and Knowles
Noel Michael McKinnell 1935-2020 RIP

Mike McKinnell  a Salford lad, died in March this year of complications resulting from the wretched virus Covid 19. He is a renowned architect in the USA and was my final year tutor and Professor of Architecture at the Manchester University School of Architecture in the early 1970s.  I remember him as a kind and inspirational teacher, generous with his time and modest in his interaction with others. Professor McKinnell was a class act !

Many years after I left University and towards the end of my own architectural career, I visited Boston with my wife. On a very wet evening and after a bowl of delicious chowder at John F Kennedy's favourite restaurant, we  strolled past 'City Hall' bathed in light and thought about my former teacher who had created this massive structure. Boston City Hall is a 'Corbusian' concrete inverted pyramid that both dwarfs and defines the environment in which it sits. How surprising that such a dominant architectural statement should arise from such a quiet and measured man, in a city a continent away from where he was born.

Politicians come and go and more than one passing mayor of Boston has vowed to demolish this 'ugly building', but there it remains uncompromising and excellent in its monumental splendour. Great architecture doesn't have to be beautiful, it just has to fulfill its function, be adaptable to changing circumstances and have an honesty that defies time and style. Ticks all the boxes Prof!       

RIP Prof McKinnell and thank you for your assistance in my own architectural journey.