fresno-city-hall: Fresno City Hall, Fresno, California, USA
Designed 1987
Associated Firms- Lew, Patnaude and Edwin S. Darden Associates
The design for Fresno City Hall creates a landmark structure for that city. The 190,000 square foot building is the northern focus of the twelve-block Mariposa Mall. This central civic zone is the site for a large courthouse, a library, and State and Federal buildings. The gently rising pyramidal roof which is split at its apex allows light into the Council Chambers. A gradually lowered plaza completes the Mall. Shaded by trees and cooled by fountains, this terrace and performance space is contiguous to a cafe on the ground level and, by symmetrically arranged staircases, is accessible from the main lobby on the second floor.
Fresno City Hall is organized internally around a high lobby space which offers views back down the Mall, provides a reference location for departments on the upper floors, and gathers those using the directly-accessed Council Chambers itself. The roof is cut on axis with the Mall. Built of ribbed stainless steel, green glass, and limestone paving, Fresno City Hall is intended as a civil and elegant monument for a progressive city, acting both as needed governmental office space and a forum for public events.
Photo by Mark Darley- ESTO
