WGBH reports some - or possibly all - of the glass panels in the new glass-centric station entrance are defective and will have to be replaced.
Government Center
The MBTA reports workers at the Government Center rehab project found remnants of a 1915 Boston Post behind an old door jamb.
Other, larger reminders of the station's past will be put on display: Read more.
Where City Hall didn't used to be. See it larger.
Between 1954 and 1959, urban planner Kevin Lynch took hundreds of photos in Boston and Cambridge to help show how residents build up a sort of mental map of what their city is like. The MIT Libraries have posted 1,900 of his photos. Read more.
Government Center retail space. Photo by MBTA.
Whether it will be another Dunkin' Donuts to replace the one that was almost directly underneath one of the two Dunkin' Donuts on the street, however, remains an open question. A T spokesman says a vendor has yet to be chosen for the space, although he adds whoever it turns out to be will be banned from selling popcorn.
The renovated junction for the Green and Blue lines is scheduled to open next year.
Mike gives us a visual update on the giant glasshouse rising above City Hall Plaza.
Mike Kix watched workers installing the roof of the revamped Government Center T stop today.
A We Don't Knock sampler, from back in the days when just any idiot could walk right into the JFK Building - assuming their TV cables didn't jam up the revolving door.
Melissa Obleada shows us part of the mural being painted on the barriers around the Government Center T-station construction site.
Anybody know who's doing the painting?
UPDATE: It's the same guys who did the Nelson Mandela mural in Roxbury, working with Heidi Schork and the Boston Mural crew (H/t Joyce).
This plaque is embedded in the sidewalk on the Tremont Street side of the Parker House. It's easy to miss - who looks down while walking down that particularly busy sidewalk? - but once you see it, you just know you have to stop and take a look.
And for years, your view was, in fact, of Old North Church, just to the left of City Hall. But now, well, look at what Aaron Helfand saw this morning when he stood on the plaque and looked out:
DD808 shows us the above-ground progress on rebuilding the Government Center T stop.
An MBTA spokesman reports T staff today contacted artist Mary Beams, who painted a series of murals installed in the Government Center T stop in 1979, after somebody who heard about the search alerted the T that she now helps run a pie bakery and restaurant in Grand Marais, MN.
The T is demolishing the current station to make way for a new one and doesn't plan to re-install the murals.
A spokesman reports:
The MBTA says it has something for artist Mary Beams: The 19 murals on wood panels she created for the Green Line platform at Government Center. Workers have carefully removed the art to make way for the new station, but won't be putting them back in.
If you are Mary Beams or you know how to locate her, please let the MBTA know by contacting Marggie Lackner, MBTA Director of Design & Architecture at [email protected]. If we are unable to reach Mary Beams, we will store the artworks but cannot guarantee that we will keep them beyond ninety days.
A T spokesman says the murals, each about 4 feet by 8 feet, were probably installed in the 1960s.
the closure of Government Center station such a secret from the passengers? As I first mentioned some weeks ago (in a reply to another post), announcements about the closure, save for an occasional Green Line operator, are almost non existent. Further, only a handful of the line maps I've observed on Green Line streetcars have not yet been modified with the temporary "CLOSED" stickers over the Government Center stop.
But earlier, I received the ultimate proof of the MBTA's campaign to keep unwary tourists and other non-everyday users of the system in the dark about the Government Center closure. Witness this alert:
Concrete Plaza has daily views of the work to replace the old Government Center T stop, from somebody who works across the street.
Around 6:30 a.m., Paul Nutting looked out the window of his office in Government Center.
Dense fog just enveloped Logan then waterfront then Govt Ctr. eerie, sun rising above.
Across Fort Point Channel, John Mcboston tried to see downtown, but saw just a fog bank:
The MBTA reports workers gutting Government Center for its two-year renovation have uncovered yet another tiled sign from back in the days when the stop was known as Scollay Square, back when Boston still had a Scollay Square.
Rachel Paiste asks:
Why are the escalators at Government Center constantly running when the station is closed? Seems like a waste of energy & $$
The T forwards this photo of the spot on the Government Center Green Line platform where the Dunkin' Donuts used to be as workers continue to tear apart the station as part of a two-year overhaul.
Also, the T reports workers uncovered another 100-year-old tile Scollay Under sign on one of the Blue Line platforms:
The goal is to keep it in place, and build the new stairs around it.
Oh, they've been working on the railroad. Photo by MBTA. See it larger.
As noted earlier, some people left notes on the walls of the Government Center T stop in the hours before it was shut for two years of reconstruction.
Via the MBTA comes this ode, found penned on one of the walls:
Dear Government Center,
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