Sunrise Panorama of Downtown Dallas City Hall and Park Plaza Reflection Pool - North Texas
by Silvio Ligutti
Title
Sunrise Panorama of Downtown Dallas City Hall and Park Plaza Reflection Pool - North Texas
Artist
Silvio Ligutti
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
From Wikipedia:
Dallas City Hall is the seat of Dallas municipal government, located at 1500 Marilla in the Government District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). The current building, the city's fifth city hall, was completed in 1978 and replaced the Dallas Municipal Building.
"When you do a city hall, it has to convey an image of the people, and this had to represent the people of Dallas... The people I met � rich and poor, powerful and not so powerful � were all very proud of their city. They felt that Dallas was the greatest city there was, and I could not disappoint them." � I.M. Pei[4]
I.M. Pei�s modernist inverted pyramid design is a result of space requirements from city government. Public areas and citizen services required much less space than offices that ran the government and overhanging the upper floors allowed them to be larger than the public spaces below. The building slopes at a 34� angle, with each of the 7 above-grade floors being 9� feet wider than the one below. This inclined fa�ade interacts with the buildings it faces downtown and provides protection from the weather and Texas sun.
The foundation and basement levels are considerably wider than the apparent footprint of the structure, extending out beneath the inclined facade. The cantilevered roof is 200 feet (61 meters) wide, the ground floor is 126 feet (38.4 meters) wide, and the basement 230 feet (70.1 meters) wide. When Mayor Jonsson reacted to the apparent top-heaviness of the building's shape, 3 cylindrical pillars that appear the hold up the structure were created. These contain stairwells that had originally been concealed within the design. These pillars only provide visual support and do not bear the load of the building.
Pei also persuaded the city to acquire an additional 6 acres in front of the building as a plaza and buffer zone for his grand public structure. A 1,325 car parking garage was built beneath the plaza, and the extra income helped supplement the funding of the building.
A buff-colored concrete was chosen for the main building material; its color resembled local earth tones. Since concrete was both the primary structural and finish material, close attention was paid to every aspect of its mix and placement.
The design of Dallas City Hall inspired the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library building located across the street � whereas the upper floors of City Hall are oriented toward Marilla Street, the upper floors of the Central Library are oriented away from Marilla (and, in a form of symmetry, away from City Hall).
The building features in the Robocop movies of the 1980s, as the Headquarters of the OCP company; special effects were employed to make the building appear taller than it is.
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November 23rd, 2016
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