Dallas City Hall — The $1 Billion Question

The tilted concrete face of Dallas City Hall, six stories widening as they rise toward the Texas sky, was designed by I.M. Pei to express civic dignity in a city still rebuilding its identity after the Kennedy assassination. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will vote on whether to abandon it.

Mayor Eric Johnson called a special noon session for March 4, directing City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to begin relocating 911, 311, and emergency operations out of the 47-year-old Brutalist landmark at 1500 Marilla Street. A report commissioned through the Dallas Economic Development Corporation and engineering consultant AECOM estimated that a full update could exceed $1 billion over 20 years, a figure that prompted Monday's packed Economic Development Committee hearing, where residents wore dueling buttons: "Save City Hall" and "Connect the Core."

The skeptics were loud. "You're squandering public goodwill by not having a transparent, robust open discussion and rushing this along," resident Matthew Bach told the committee. Council member Laura Cadena said she was learning more from the newspapers than from staff briefings. Businesswoman Cookie Peadon, who helped relocate American Airlines' headquarters, called the relocation costs "grossly exaggerated."

A coalition, including AIA Dallas, Preservation Dallas, and Docomomo US, has gathered over 6,700 petition signatures. The Dallas Landmark Commission has already initiated historic designation proceedings. But Downtown Dallas Inc. endorsed relocation, and the Mavericks have been eyeing the site for a potential arena — a shadow play that resident Carol Bell-Walton cut through at Monday's hearing: "How do we know that gambling is going to be legalized? What do you guys know that I don't know?"

Council member Adam Bazaldua provided acute dissent: "Selling City Hall will not improve response times, it will not fill the potholes any faster. We were elected to improve lives, not move buildings."