Mayor says he'll build waterfront City Hall

Mayor Thomas M. Menino , saying he wants to make a statement that will lead Boston into the future, announced he intends to build an "architecturally magnificent" City Hall on the South Boston waterfront, an undertaking that would turn over to developers the current controversial behemoth on City Hall Plaza and shift the locus of city government to a more remote outpost of the city.

"This new building will bring together the city's past and its future, at a site that unites the history of our harbor with the promise of tomorrow's Boston," Menino told business leaders at a breakfast gathering at the Fairmont Copley Hotel.

But the plans, like the building that currently houses City Hall, drew sharply divided reactions. Community leaders including Senator Jack Hart of South Boston hailed it as visionary. But city workers worried about longer commutes to the waterfront, and residents, accustomed to their government's central location near stops on four subway lines, wondered about parking and access by public transportation.

"Let me see, how to say this delicately: I don't think this is a good idea," said Thomas H. O'Connor, a South Boston native who has written several books on Boston's history, including "Building A New Boston: Politics and Urban Renewal."

"It's supposed to be a teeming, busy City Hall, and he's going to stick it way the hell out on the peninsula in South Boston, where it will be all alone?" he said.

The Brutalist style concrete City Hall of the present has been the butt of jokes and an object of scorn for decades, even as it wins continuing praise from architects and critics. But confronted with the possibility of losing it, some spoke with nostalgia yesterday.

"It is ugly, but it's just something that's always been there," said Paula Bakerian, 35, a native Bostonian. "That's like trying to rip down Fenway Park."

Menino has long disliked the present City Hall, a massive concrete building that some have compared to a prison, along with the windswept expanse of brick that surrounds it. His past attempts to improve it -- a proposed restaurant, a roof garden to help regulate its extremes in temperature -- mostly fell short, and two previous attempts to relocate fizzled. But Menino says he is now committed.

Calling the project "The Gateway to Boston at the Harborside," Menino said he wants it to recall the city's maritime history. And with 1,200 city employees coming to the area daily, he said, it would help invigorate the emerging waterfront business district. Menino told the business leaders he wants to break ground on the project within the next 18 months at a 13-acre city-owned parcel called Drydock Four, currently used by the Bank of America Pavilion. The pavilion would probably be moved to a location nearby, he said.

"The bustle of this building will increase the activity of those new blocks, creating the vitality we envisioned not so long ago, when the waterfront was still just a string of parking lots," Menino said.

The mayor was also clearly inspired by the new Institute of Contemporary Art on the waterfront, referencing the new building twice in his speech and saying he wants to mimic its "coexistence with its environment, and the experience it offers to visitors."

Responses from employees in City Hall yesterday varied from delight to skepticism, from "Oooh! That's a good idea!" to "I'll believe it when I see it." One woman said she would rather drive than take the Silver Line. "If we move I'm going to make sure they give me a parking spot," she said.

Waterfront business owners said they were concerned with the prospect of increased traffic in the neighborhood, while residents focused on the longer trip to the new site.

Currently, residents can easily get to City Hall by taking the Blue or Green lines to Government Center, or the Orange or Red lines to Downtown Crossing. To visit City Hall in its new location, residents would have to take the Silver Line from South Station to the Silver Line Way stop. It took a Globe reporter 21 minutes yesterday to ride the T from Government Center to South Station and then the Silver Line to the proposed location in South Boston.

Views from the city-owned property include fishing boats and Logan Airport's control tower across the harbor, and any majestic view of the downtown skyline is blocked by buildings at Boston Fish Pier. But it is in an area of South Boston that has been rapidly changing, with new condominiums and rest aurants moving in next to industrial parks and fishing plants.

Yesterday's announcement fueled additional political speculation about Menino, widely thought to be in his final term in office.

"This raises speculation if he goes forward with this," said Sam R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. In order to oversee the building of a new City Hall -- which would be a major stamp on Menino's legacy -- he would have to stay for at least one more term, some said.

"It is rare for a fourth-term mayor, especially a fourth-term mayor that's 60-something years old, to come up with these ideas," said Lawrence S. DiCara , a former city councilor. "I think part of this is a message from Tom to the world: 'I'm not hanging it up yet.' "

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.