LED lights illuminate the gridded concrete structure of Boston's brutalist city hall, which has been renovated by local firm Utile.
The Boston architecture and planning studio Utile updated the civic building to coincide with its 50th anniversary this year.

Completed in 1959 by Kallmann, McKinnell, and Knowles, Boston City Hall is a rare example of brutalist architecture in America. Its intricate structure features concrete inside and out, complete with an atrium and elevated walkways and ticket portals overlooking the space below.
"City Hall is recognised as among the most important municipal buildings in the United States and is internationally known as an exemplar of Brutalism," Utile said.

"The original design was intended to express a new and more transparent form of municipal government," it added. "The concrete armature became simultaneously emblematic of the building's straightforward honesty as well as its civic monumentality." Utile collaborated with the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department to create a team for the renovation project; the aim was to preserve many of its key existing features.

"The project's mandate was to create a more inviting and efficient public realm not so much by changing the existing building, but accentuating its significant features and adapting the structure to changing programmes," Utile said.
Exterior LED lights are added to draw attention to the structure's tripartite facade at night...