After looking at what the world’s best squares do for their respective cities, you get a better sense of the tremendous untapped potential in the many underperforming squares around the country and the world–places that have crucial locations, but no life. There’s something holding back each of these squares from becoming great places that can make a positive contribution to the vitality and prosperity of their communities.
1. City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
There is no square as terrible and bleak as this one. It is the polar opposite of what belongs at the center of one of North America’s greatest cities. We believe that City Hall and the Plaza should be torn down and rebuilt as a great gathering place linked to the all the great places nearby. It would give the people of Boston such a sense of relief after decades of looking at this disaster. There is nothing good about either the building or the plaza, and the sooner Boston decides to move on the better.
1. City Hall Plaza, Boston, MAThere is no square as terrible and bleak as this one. It is the polar opposite of what belongs at the center of one of North America’s greatest cities. We believe that City Hall and the Plaza should be torn down and rebuilt as a great gathering place linked to the all the great places nearby. It would give the people of Boston such a sense of relief after decades of looking at this disaster. There is nothing good about either the building or the plaza, and the sooner Boston decides to move on the better.
2. Place de la Concorde, Paris, France
Place de la Concorde is the worst of all public spaces in Paris because it exists solely to move traffic. This square, the biggest in Paris, is 21 acres large. Calling it the Place de la Concorde (“Square of Peace”) is the height of irony. Its history of slaughter, (over 1100 people were beheaded there and another 133 trampled to death), is recalled by the racing traffic that constantly threatens to run over the numerous pedestrians traveling between the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées. Hopes of walking comfortably from the Louvre, through the Tuileries, to the Champs Elysées are immediately dashed upon encountering this asphalt battlefield.
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