Boston’s City Hall, the iconic yet polarizing Brutalist structure in Government Center, has officially been designated a landmark.

The designation passed without a formal approval vote from the Boston City Council, following a 30-day period in which the Council did not vote to reject the proposal after it was signed by Mayor Michelle Wu.

The deadline for the City Council to vote on the designation was January 11. The matter was brought to the City Council for a vote at a meeting just before the deadline by Councilor Sharon Durkan, who chairs the Committee on Planning, Development and Transportation, but Councilors could not reach an agreement to vote, partially due to a misunderstanding that there was a deadline.

In a post to her Substack newsletter following the meeting, Councilor Durkan expressed frustration that City Councilor Ed Flynn, of District 2, opposed a vote on the designation out of concern for how a permanent Landmark status would impact future renovations to improve disability access.

Councilor Flynn was, however, not aware that failure to bring the proposal to a vote would result in the designation passing by default. Councilor Durkan blamed the misunderstanding on “erroneous Docket #0127’s filing” in a letter to the City Clerk but had not responded to questions about the docket by the time of this publication.

A study accompanying the designation proposal contains a section dedicated to accessibility that defers to a federal guideline for balancing accessibility and preservation, “Making Historic Properties Accessible” by Thomas C. Jester and Sharon C. Park. The plan advises that existing and proposed levels of accessibility be considered alongside historical significance of features. However, Councilor Flynn expressed concern that already longstanding issues with accessibility would only be harder to address under the new process, which would require alterations to now go before the Boston Landmark’s Commission.

“I support landmarking City Hall, but having said that, what's more important to me is that the building is accessible to persons with disabilities," Councilor Flynn said in an interview. “We have several escalators that have been down for over a year, and it's very difficult for the public to access various departments because of accessibility issues, especially in and around the third floor or the mezzanine level. Depending on what elevator you take, you may not be able to access certain areas of the building.”

Boston’s Disability Commission Advisory Board did not respond to an interview request by the time of this publication. The Boston Preservation Alliance, which has been working on Landmarking City Hall since it became eligible, said that the designation would not interfere with future accessibility changes.

“A landmark does not stop the building from being changed,” said Matthew Dickey, deputy director of the Boston Preservation Alliance. “There are many, many, many examples of landmark buildings that have had large additions put on, completely new uses for them, schools turned into housing, churches turned into housing, so a landmark does not freeze it.”

The landmarking of Boston City Hall may also disappoint some Bostonians who have loudly expressed their distaste for Brutalist architecture over the decades since its construction. A 2013 op-ed in the Boston Globe read, “The seat of city government is the worst building in the city, and it’s dragging down the downtown neighborhood surrounding it. Boston’s next mayor should walk into City Hall with one thought in mind: tearing the building down.”

But Mayor Michelle Wu, whose initial approval trigged the 30-day deadline, has expressed her love for the architecture, saying “I’m ready and prepared to take anyone on a tour who disagrees with the architectural beauty of this building; and just the humanity, you can feel in the structure,” in an August 2021 post on X (formerly Twitter).

Dickey agrees, saying that the Brutalist architecture isn’t just unique, but makes Boston stand out. “When I think about Brutalism... either you love it or hate it, like it’s cilantro. [But] if you get a book of Brutalism, we’re not page 78 in the book, we’re the front cover. And that is pretty awesome.”