You Can’t Fight City Hall: The building that Boston loves to hate turns 50

City Hall turned 50 this month. That should be unremarkable. Boston, after all, is famous for row houses so old that their original owners rode horse-drawn carriages and cast votes in the election of Abraham Lincoln.

But this is City Hall we’re talking about. Since the building’s official opening, we’ve joked about its looks. We’ve called it ugly, awful and worse. We even turned our heads when elected officials tried to assassinate it. So, yes, we should be surprised City Hall has made it this far.

“There was a long period of what you can only call maligned neglect,” says Michael McKinnell, the surviving architect of the massive concrete building.