San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Focus January 1, 1999

A Treasury of City Hall Trivia

Dates in City Hall History

1906: Great earthquake destroys old City Hall at Fulton and Larkin streets.

1915: New City Hall designed by John Bakewell and Arthur Brown Jr., opens. It cost $3.4 million to build, or about $400 million in today’s dollars, and took only two years to finish.

1923: President Warren G. Harding’s body lies in state in rotunda after he dies at Palace Hotel.

1954: Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe marry at City Hall.

October 1978: Civic Center, including City Hall, declared a national landmark.

November 1978: Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk assassinated in City Hall by Dan White.

1989: Loma Prieta earthquake causes significant damage, requiring repairs and retrofit,

2990: San Francisco voters pass first of two bond issues to fix building.

March 1995: Building officially closes.

November 1995: Second bond issue passes.

1999: City Hall officially, reopens on January 5.

San Francisco’s national landmark Beaux Arts City Hall will reopen Tuesday after a four-year earthquake retrofit and modernization project The $300 million project was designed to preserve the historic nature of the 83-year-old building, while preventing damage of the type it suffered in the Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct 17, 1989. Designers also boast that City Hall is now the “smartest” building in the West, wired for the Internet, cable TV and unprecedented public participation in meetings that will be held in five rooms Light Courts The main floor’s two 5,000-square-foot light courts off the rotunda will be open space. The north court houses a cafe for visitors and city workers and space for public events. The south court is home to Francisco history exhibits.

City Payments Center The main floor treasurers office will house a City Payments Center, where people can conduct everyday business like paying taxes, buying dog licenses and Muni Fast Passes or registering to vote.

Technology and Public Access San Jose-based Ceitronics Inc. was hired to make public meetings at City Hall a high-tech marvel. The five meeting rooms are hooked up to a central TV control room so meetings can either be broadcast live or taped. The meeting rooms have sophisticated touch screens that will be used by supervisors, staff members and the media. The building also has a security system featuring motion detectors that send surveillance cameras into operation whenever they sense something moving.

Rebuilding the Dome The dome, which twisted four inches like a corkscrew in the earthquake, is now supported by 1,200 tons of near its top. In a future earthquake, the dome is designed to move with the building, preventing damage.

World’s tallest domes St. Peter’s, Rome 451 feet Il Duomo, Florence 385 feet St. Paul’s, London 366 feet Les Invalides, Paris 325 feet San Francisco City Hall 307 feet U.S. Capitol 287 feet

Inside Highlights

G. Ground floor: Broadcast studios 1. First floor: Rotunda, light courts 2. Second floor: Mayors office, supervisors’ chambers and committee meeting rooms 3. Third floor Press conference room 4. Fourth floor: Hearing rooms

The Foundation Retrofit The majority of the projects $300 million cost went for the retrofit, work that is hidden from view. City Hall no longer touches the ground. During the retrofit, the building was jacked up and cut away from its foundation. Now, the two-block-long building rests on 600 base isolators. The building is surrounded by a two-foot-wide moat, so that in a quake it will have plenty of room to roll with the punches.

Other Structural Work

Walls were reinforced. All the marble on the building’s floors and walls was taken out carted off in 30,000 pieces and sent to a warehouse. In the past several months, every piece was returned to its previous location in the building. The building’s vast swathes of limestone were all cleaned with microscopic glass beads blown at the rock under high pressure.

Source: City of San Francisco, Ceitronics Inc., Forell/Elsesser Engineers Inc. and Chronicle research City Hall photo by Liz Hafalia, graphic by STEVE KEARSLEY and text by EDWARD EPSTEIN / The Chronicle

Other Feature Articles

Making San Francisco’s City Hall Smarter for the New Millennium, CEE News Special Report on DATACOM, page 14 July 1999

New Communications System to Boost Public Participation, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link, Institutional Construction Feb.99

San Francisco City Hall’s Seismic Salvation The $293 million restoration reaches the punch-list phase, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction Feb.99

Timeline of History of San Francisco City Hall, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction, page 16 Feb.99

Retooled City Hall Is Finally Ready To Open, San Francisco Chronicle Front Page January 1, 1999

A Treasury of City Hall Trivia, San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Focus January 1, 1999

Light Years, San Francisco Examiner Magazine Page 7 January 3, 1999

Gold-Plated City Hall, San Francisco Examiner Front Page Dec. 30, 1998

S.F. Celebrates Floating City Hall, San Jose Mercury News Page 3b January 6, 1999

Ceitronics: wiring San Francisco for the 21st Century, San Jose and Silicon Valley Business Journal Page 14 January 15, 1999

Retrofitting “City Hall’, Systems Contractor News Front page, con’t page 17 September, 1998

City Hall by the Bay, Sound & Communications Front page, con’t page 18 February 18, 1999