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Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 7:51 PM
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Most Beautiful City Halls In North America

Most Beautiful North American City Halls


This thread is dedicated to the posting of City Halls, which forumers feel are among the most attractive in
the United States, Canada, and Mexico

I will start by posting two of my favorites.


City Hall, Salt Lake City - The building was originally constructed by free masons
between 1891 and 1894. From 1973 to 1989 the building was exhaustively renovated and repaired with an eye
toward historical accuracy. This was done in concert with a seismic upgrade called base isolation that placed
the sandstone structure on a foundation of giant steel and rubber shock absorbers, to better protect it
from earthquake damage.



http://static.thousandwonders.net


bridgepix

visitsaltlake.com

Sunrise, City Hall as seen from rotunda of Matheson Courthouse

Todd Keith



City Hall, San Francisco

https://static1.squarespace.com


https://cdn.vox-cdn.com

.

Last edited by delts145; Aug 2, 2017 at 11:33 AM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 8:43 PM
Nowhereman1280 Nowhereman1280 is offline
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Milwaukee City Hall is my favorite, I believe its the only City Hall (perhaps even seat of government) to hold the title as World's Tallest Building (1895-1899).


rroofers.com



Inside:


Martin Saunders Flickr

It recently underwent a complete restoration including removing and repairing damaged masonry, re-tiling the roof, and completely replacing the copper on the bell tower. I find this renovation extremely fascinating because the building now looks brand new, its like going back in time and seeing the building as it first looked as a WTB.

During the renovation, you can see the new copper on the top of the bell tower. The whole building has been covered in scaffolding for nearly two years:

sarah.szurpicki flickr
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  #3  
Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 9:26 PM
T_chicago T_chicago is offline
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how about Philadelphia's it is really nice looking
sorry no picture
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Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 9:36 PM
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boston city hall


kallmann mckinnell + wood


absolutely wonderful public space




wiki
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  #5  
Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 9:44 PM
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breaking the rules, but this is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, so...




säynätsalo town hall / alvar alto


wiki
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  #6  
Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 10:03 PM
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This is the city hall in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Care of Everyspoon on flickr.com

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Old Posted Sep 28, 2008, 10:06 PM
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MONTRÉAL City Hall/Hôtel de Ville build in 1872 restored in 1922 after fire




Montreal City Hall Before the Fire
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 12:03 AM
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Tulsa City Hall

The building on the left. Affectionately called the Borg Cube "the mayor being the Borg Queen", also called the Ant Farm since you can see inside it especially at night.

my pic from flickr


Street level by dsjeffries/flickr


Night view, City hall is on Right. also by dsjeffries.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 12:32 AM
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Some of those were great!

Also, it's becoming clear that a good list for forced demolition would be whatever Adrian likes. Good god those are ugly. Also the Boston City Hall and civic complex are often condisdered a huge mistake and blight for Boston.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 1:35 AM
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The Asheville City Building...

By day:



By night:





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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 6:42 AM
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Toronto City Hall. Opened in 1965.

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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 1:38 PM
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Is the Asheville hall really in a big field like that?
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 2:48 PM
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The San Francisco, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Philly city halls are by far the best ones I know about in NA. The Montreal city hall is a nice building but doesn't hold shit compared to the great ones. The TO city hall is just plain ugly.

BUffalo city hall

from haniworld.com
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 4:14 PM
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^^^ I actually quite like the TO city hall, I just wish it were in better condition, it always makes me sad to see nice modernist buildings in poor shape.

Yeah, the Boston city hall is decent looking from a purely architectural standpoint, but as far as urban planning goes, its a complete POS.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 4:17 PM
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I do not agree with you Rico : Toronto's City Hall is not that bas. It certainly doesn't stand comparison with other monumental city hall but is interesting and reflects the time it was built. It symbolised the modernity of Toronto in the 1960's.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 5:06 PM
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Toronto's City Hall looks like it would be a good stand-in for Starfleet Academy - it just has that "what will the future look like?" vibe.

Anyway, I'll cast my votes for Buffalo, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York (gotta be a bit of a booster).
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 5:09 PM
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while i certainly wouldn't say that chicago's city hall is in the same league as say san fran's or philly's in the beauty department, it's still pretty sweet from a "massively over-scaled and decidedly inhuman monument to governmental authority" perspective. this beast is just massive, taking up a full city block in the heart of downtown.


source: http://suites.files.wordpress.com/20...-city-hall.gif


and here's the annex structure, the daley center, built in the 60s after the chicago/cook county bureaucracy outgrew the original building.


source: http://www.som.com/resources/categor...1_21605883.jpg

i find the daley center to be perhaps the most beautiful modernist skyscraper anywhere in the world, but i understand i have unusual tatses, so don't bother telling me that i'm stupid for having mad love for "just another stupid old boring black box". the daley center is simply magical to me.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 5:23 PM
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Fort Worth's previous city hall, which is now the Public Safety & Courts Building, is a nifty little Moderne/Deco building which I quite like.



Unfortunately, the current city hall is a horrific piece of brutalist garbage that is a blight on the area of downtown where it resides.



Fortunately, the city is in the process of coming up with a new City Hall plan. Ideally I'd like to see the current city hall demolished and something better built in its place, but even just removing the current building from active City Hall use would be good.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 5:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan View Post
i find the daley center to be perhaps the most beautiful modernist skyscraper anywhere in the world, but i understand i have unusual tatses, so don't bother telling me that i'm stupid for having mad love for "just another stupid old boring black box". the daley center is simply magical to me.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But I agree - this and Seagram are probably the two best black boxes anywhere.
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Old Posted Sep 29, 2008, 7:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280 View Post
^^^ I actually quite like the TO city hall, I just wish it were in better condition, it always makes me sad to see nice modernist buildings in poor shape.
That's one of the core problems with many modern designs. Their looks can deteriorate badly as they age, particularly if they're not well cared for but often regardless.

By contrast, traditional designs, if decently-built, often look better as they age.
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