that we citizens must endure when required to interact with our soul-crushing municipal bureaucracies, but I had to see a parking clerk about my resident permit a few months ago, and she couldn't have been sweeter or nicer at the tail-end of a weekday afternoon.

So on the subverting expectations score, chalk up another one for Boston.

Seconded

By Will LaTulippe on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 5:54pm.

Maybe you got the same lady I did when I needed a rental resident pass a couple of years ago.

City Hall workers (kudos)

By John-W on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 11:28am.

Went to get a birth certificate for my octogenarian mother and walked out with it in under 10 minutes after a nice exchange with the person at the counter. Absolutely no complaints (for once in my crabby-ass life).

Do we really want to be

By The beautiful game on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 5:39pm.

Do we really want to be comparing City Halls? Last thing we need is a corruption Olympics! That's what the real Olympics, FIFA, and the UN are for.

Beaten building

By SamWack on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 6:12pm.

Philadelphia City Hall set out to be the world's tallest building, but was overtaken in the second half by the Washington Monument, Then the Eiffel Tower came along and made them both look like chumps.

A symbol of thwarted ambition. Failing to be tallest, it tried to be the ugliest, and again had a commanding lead until it was utterly thrashed by Boston City Hall. Endless futility.

When people know their sh*t

By anon on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 4:47pm.

This is one of the things I love about Boston.

But When It Rains . . . .

By APB on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 8:21pm.

It, uh, pees. Philly's City Hall is a beautiful building, but that statue of William Penn on top, holding the scroll in just the wrong place at just the wrong angle . . . funny that the locals assumed none of us up here would know that.

http://www.weirdus.com/states/pennsylvania/roadside_oddities/pens_penis/...

Boston City Hall

By anon on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 6:40pm.

is considered and architectural landmwrk and one of the world's premier examples of the modern brutalist style of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

It's a Treasure!

By Smart Arse on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 8:11pm.

Let's bury it.

Keeping it 100.

By anon on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 4:48pm.

Which says nothing about beauty.

By Daan on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 9:53pm.

A landmark perhaps. Ugliness compounded unquestionably. It is a fine example of the philosophy that human beings are just specks in time. All that matters are the movers and shakers and what they move and what they shake.

But due to its terrible ugliness it does not violate an even more important rule in design: don't be boring.

Gorgeous building

By Daan on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 11:57pm.

Philadelphia's city hall is a splendid building. It is an excellent example of architecture which reflects pride, balance, interest and history.

A tour of the building, culminating in riding up the elevator to the top with the observation deck, is a must for any visit to Philadelphia. On the other hand who on God's Earth would want to tour Boston's City Hall?

Philadelphia City Hall is a building set to last. As opposed to Boston's City Hall which will most likely be razed in a few decades. A far more interesting Brutalist building in Baltimore (the Mechanic Theater) was razed years ago with the intention to replace it with another dullard of steel and glass. Brutalism is a style that will still be around few more decades. The charm of its ugliness, coupled with the limited imagination and anti-human characteristics of the style, will result in its disposal. Boston's City Hall will fall far sooner than Philadelphia's, whether due to planned obsolescence or because most folks will be done with a city hall that looks like a messed up Borg ship that landed and could never leave.

Yeah....I feel like

By Marco on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 11:51am.

every other poster on this story has lost their GD mind, or at the very least has never been to Philly's city hall. I am a die-hard Pats fan and card carrying masshole but I also love Philly, and their City hall is gorgeous. You don't even need to take a tour, just walking around it or spending time in the courtyard (which is amazingly quiet) will leave you in awe.
Boston's city hall would fit in perfectly in a Stalin era Soviet prison complex. I love Boston and everything, but that building is so ugly only its mother could love it.

I love Philadelphia’s city hall

By Waquiot on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 12:56pm.

But it would not withstand a period of civil unrest as well as Boston’s City Hall would.

I mean, which one would you prefer to be in during an air raid? Boston wins, hands down.

In seconds Boston's would be gone.

By Daan on Sun, 02/04/2018 - 11:54pm.

Philadelphia's City Hall would take a massive bombardment and still remain standing. Why? it is nearly all masonry. I heard it described as still one of the largest all masonry buildings in the world. Most modern buildings are based on steel skeletons. Philly's is solid. Boston's would quickly fall to pieces. It would take far more bombardment to cause Philly's to fall.

Ironically the cost of tearing down Philadelphia's City Hall building is one reason it remains. When the beauty of Second Empire was seen as useless and of no value in any way, there was a desire among powerful Philadelphians to raze the building. But the cost was too high. It was high because the building is mostly masonry.

Once again, I will note

By Waquiot on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 9:12am.

Philadelphia City Hall is not siegeproof.

But it is a darn fine building.

OK, they might have a point on this one

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