- Oakland City Hall
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Oakland City Hall 
General information Type Government offices Location 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CaliforniaCoordinates 37°48′19″N 122°16′21″W / 37.8053°N 122.2725°WCoordinates: 37°48′19″N 122°16′21″W / 37.8053°N 122.2725°W Construction started 1910 Completed 1914 Height Roof 97.23 m (319.0 ft) Technical details Floor count 18 Design and construction Owner Oakland, California Architect Palmer & Hornbostel Oakland City HallArchitectural style: Beaux-Arts Governing body: Government NRHP Reference#: 83001170 Designated NRHP: September 15, 1983 References [1][2][3][4] Oakland City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Oakland, California. The current building was completed in 1914, after its predecessor was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Standing at the height of 320 feet (98 m), it was the first high-rise government building in the United States.[5] At the time it was built, it was also the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.[6]
Oakland City Hall in 1917
The building was designed by New York-based architecture firm Palmer & Hornbostel in 1910, after winning a nation-wide design competition.[5] The building, constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, resembles a "rectangular wedding cake".[5] It consists of three tiers. The bottom tier serves the foundation. It is three-story tall and houses the mayor's office, the city council chamber, hearing rooms, and a police station with a firing range below in the basement. The thinner second tier follows; it is a ten-story tall office tower. The top floor of this section (the 12th floor) houses a 36-cell jail with an outdoor yard that has gone unused since the 1960s.[6] Above the second tier is the two-story tall podium with a clock tower on top.[5] The exterior is built using white granite and terra cotta, while the inside is built using white and black marble.[6] The building was nicknamed "Mayor Mott's wedding cake" after former Oakland Mayor Frank Kanning Mott, a key player in passing the bond to pay for the new City Hall, married the same year construction began.[5][6]
In 1983, the Oakland City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[4]
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the building suffered from major structural damage and was immediately closed down. Instead of tearing it down and replacing with a newer building, city leaders decided to retrofit it seismically. To do so, steel columns in the foundation were cut and they were replaced by rubber bearings. Steel beams were added to support the steel structure and concrete walls were added to support existing walls. The building can now move laterally 18-20 inches in an earthquake. The city hall was repaired along with the downtown revitalization project of building new office buildings. The repair project cost $85 million.[6]
References
- ^ Oakland City Hall at Emporis
- ^ Oakland City Hall at SkyscraperPage
- ^ Oakland City Hall at Structurae
- ^ a b "Oakland City Hall". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. October 15, 2009. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natregsearchresult.do?fullresult=true&recordid=0.
- ^ a b c d e Fromm, Dorit (January 4, 1998). "Oakland and San Francisco's civic structures reinvent urban centers". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1998/01/04/MAGAZINE2487.dtl. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Burt, Cecily (October 15, 2009). "Oakland City Hall shines brighter after Loma Prieta earthquake". Oakland Tribune. http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13560671. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
External links
Timeline of the tallest buildings in Oakland, California Bank of America Building (69 m) (1907) · Oakland City Hall (98 m) (1914) · Kaiser Center (118 m) (1960) · Ordway Building (123 m) (1970)
Oakland, California Attractions Landmarks Cathedral of Christ the Light • Chapel of the Chimes • Children's Fairyland • Dunsmuir House • First Unitarian Church • Jack London Square • Kaiser Building • Lake Merritt • Leimert Bridge • City Hall • Oakland Temple • Pardee Home • Preservation Park • René C. Davidson Courthouse • Rockridge Market Hall • Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building • USS Potomac • Tribune Tower • Oakland Technical High School • Evergreen Cemetery • Mountain View CemeteryMuseums Zoos & Parks Anthony Chabot Regional Park • Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve • Joaquin Miller Park • Knowland Park • Lake Temescal • Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve • Morcom Rose Garden • Mosswood Park • Oakland Zoo • Redwood Regional Park • Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve • Temescal Regional ParkEntertainment Kaiser Convention Center • Grand Lake Theater • Oakland East Bay Symphony • Paramount Theater • Fox Theater • Yoshi'sSports Shopping Centers Categories:- Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California
- Buildings and structures completed in 1914
- Clock towers in the United States
- Beaux-Arts architecture in California
- Henry Hornbostel buildings
- Buildings and structures in Oakland, California
- City halls in California
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