Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Thursday that the official reopening of City Hall Plaza will be held next week.
The family friendly event will be held on Friday, Nov. 18, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will feature tours of the newly renovated plaza, live entertainment and a ribbon cutting. There will also be a second event from 5 to 8 p.m., hosted by the city's Arts and Culture Cabinet, with live music and a lighting installation.
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"City Hall Plaza is a space to bring people together and build community," Wu said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the work of all our City workers and partners to transform the plaza into a welcoming, resilient, and accessible space for residents and visitors to enjoy."
The plaza design and implementation was led by global design firm Sasaki, based in Boston. Shawmut Design and Construction was the construction manager for the project.
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City Hall Plaza's new redesign includes:
- A welcoming front yard for civic life: The space will be universally accessible for residents of all abilities. The renovation also includes 3,000 new welcoming spaces for residents to sit, 12,000-square-feet of playscapes for children and families and 11,000-square-feet of terraces for pop-up play and interactive public art.
- Public art: In February, the city released a call to artists for public art to complement the space, specifically focusing on a short-term artwork for the north entrance to the building and a graphics display for the exeterior of City Hall. The city selected Rhea Vedro to create the short-term artwork, a sculpural installation on the planting bed at the north entrance. Yuke Li was commissioned to created 2D graphics for the new display system on the west exterior wall of City Hall and the wall panels near the new civic pavilion. The graphics have been installed, and the sculpture is expected to be installed this spring.
- Flexible and accommodating event venues: The redesign includes creating seven new "plug and play" locations for community groups to utilize, with space for 10,000 to 12,0000 visitors on the main plaza and room for a 20,000 to 25,000 person gathering on the entire plaza.
- A sustainable model: This includes an increase in green infrastructure through an increased use of permeable surfaces that will soak up stormwater as well as the inclusion of 100 new trees.
For more details, go to boston.gov/cityhallplaza.
