Oakland City Hall
Encyclopedia
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 (97.5 m), it was the first high-rise government building in the United States. At the time it was built, it was also the tallest building west of the Mississippi River
.
The building was designed by New York
-based architecture firm Palmer & Hornbostel in 1910, after winning a nation-wide design competition. The building, constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, resembles a "rectangular wedding cake". 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. Above the second tier is the two-story tall podium with a clock tower on top. The exterior is built using white granite
and terra cotta
, while the inside is built using white and black marble
. 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.
In 1983, the Oakland City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places
.
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.
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. The current building was completed in 1914, after its predecessor was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. Standing at the height of 320 feet (97.5 m), it was the first high-rise government building in the United States. At the time it was built, it was also the tallest building west of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-based architecture firm Palmer & Hornbostel in 1910, after winning a nation-wide design competition. The building, constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, resembles a "rectangular wedding cake". 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. Above the second tier is the two-story tall podium with a clock tower on top. The exterior is built using white granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
, while the inside is built using white and black marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
. The building was nicknamed "Mayor Mott's wedding cake" after former Oakland Mayor Frank Kanning Mott
Frank Kanning Mott
Frank Kanning Mott was the 35th mayor of Oakland, California.Mott was born in San Francisco on January 21, 1866, but his family moved to nearby Oakland when he was two years old. His father, who worked for the Central Pacific Railroad , died when he was 11...
, a key player in passing the bond to pay for the new City Hall, married the same year construction began.
In 1983, the Oakland City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places listings in Alameda County, California
This list includes properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Alameda County, California. Click the "Map of all coordinates" link to the right to view a Google map of all properties and districts with latitude and longitude coordinates in the table below.-Current...
.
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.