Should Dallas spend hundreds of millions to repair City Hall, or should the city find new offices?
Some 30 residents weighed in Monday night at a meeting to get public input. They all said they want to preserve the nearly 50-year-old building, designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei.
“I never thought I would be here to fight City Hall about City Hall,” said former council member Veletta Forsythe-Lill.
No one spoke in favor of demolishing the building.
The building's roof, plumbing, electrical and heading ventilation and air conditioning systems are all in need of an upgrade.
Chris Bowers is a former city employee who knows these problems first hand.
“My next-to-last office had the nickname ‘the rain forest,’ so yes this building has a lot of deferred maintenance,” he said.
But he wants the building preserved.
“This building sends a message,” he continued. “It sends a message that Dallas is a cutting edge city, a dynamic city, and in fact, one of the great cities of our country.”
Repairs and related projects could cost $152 million to over $345 million, according to estimates shared by city staff.
That estimate has climbed to north of $500 million over the next 10 years when also including maintenance, security and operations into the budget, The Dallas Morning News recently reported.
Several speakers questioned why the city would make a decision about the future of the building without having an accurate picture of what preservation would cost. Others were skeptical of the rate the costs have increased over the years.
“I have in my hand a 2016 cost estimate assessment of this building and the cost estimate that showed the needed repairs weren't going to be much above $68 million dollars, and now I see, nine years later, we have a new number that goes upwards to $345 million,” architect Norman Alston said. “That kind of an increase in that period of time is more reflective of some catastrophic event, not deferred maintenance.”
Another architect, Samuel Mortimer, criticized the city for building without creating a plan to maintain its properties.
“How do these things keep happening? How do we keep making these wrong decisions and deferring this to my generation, the people younger than this generation?” he said. “This has to come to a head and we have to start acting like sane people. This is absolutely Looney Tunes.”
Sarah Crain, executive director of Preservation Dallas, said the implications of this decision go beyond City Hall’s architectural or historical significance.
“At the end of the day, this is our building, it's the people's building, and if the city council is unwilling or unable to take care of this building, what hope is there for the other government buildings in your neighborhood, whether it's a library or a police station or a fire station?” she said.
“We know that they all have maintenance needs. And without a comprehensive maintenance plan from the city, which includes Dallas City Hall, what hope is there for those buildings?”
City Council is expected to discuss the issue before the end of the year.
