Concrete squares and plazas always look nice in presentations because that’s all you see, rather than all the other concrete blocks and squares and such that surround it.

In Boston, Government Center is rather hideous. It’s also very open. There is a lot of empty space. During most seasons it is a blustery no-hiding-from-the-elements area. In the summer it bakes the hairs right off of your head, neck, shoulders, whatever.

I’m a fan of grass and trees myself. Sure there are more squirrels, but the pigeon poopulation (yes I mean that) isn’t affected one way or the other.

I think people forget that trees help buffer the weather when they’re kept healthy and happy. Much like a person in the midst of a cement square. . . they get lonely and dessicated. It’s depressing.

The library, on the other hand, is just a terrible building for a library; but Koolhaas wrote extensively about how he was protecting users from specialist knowledge (except his, it seems…) so it’s not like we weren’t warned. The librarians are sloooowly rearranging things so you can effectively find your book, though.

And, I should say, the two well-lit seating floors are pleasant quiet public squares for Seattle, where daylight can be hard to come by. I can’t see them as any so fancy and avant-garde, because they’re a lot like a corporate cafeteria — Building 25 at Microsoft, for instance — but you can sit and watch the rain run down the glass.

No? Just me?

Never mind.

There is actually some work being done to achieve that. It is technically difficult to create an immersive environment (3 dimensional CAD drawings, rear projected room size screens, etc) and that would be what is truly needed to give the corrcect sense of scale. Problem with that is – who wants to pay the (big) money up front for a huge pretty picture when that money needs to be spent on the actual building materials for a building that may or may not be approved?

Eventually the cost will come down and the sense of scale will get better.

Two words: google sketchup.