Berkeley City Hall: Symbols of Identity Give Meaning to a Sense of Place

A newcomer to Berkeley would rightly assume that the building on the west side of Civic Center Park, on axis with Civic Center Fountain, is Berkeley’s City Hall. As a symbol of city government, it has the iconic look of a city hall, with a distinctive cupola rising above a steeply pitched roof, and a richly decorated façade adorned by classic columns.

From 1909 until 1977, this was indeed Berkeley’s City Hall. Its design, scale, and elegant silhouette symbolized Berkeley’s growth from a town to a city. Setting the stage, it became the keystone feature for the future civic center.

City Hall is an example of Beaux-Arts Classicism that uses decoration derived from Greek and Roman sources in a symmetrical arrangement. It was designed by John Bakewell and Arthur Brown, Jr., who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris after graduating from the University of California in the 1890s. Bakewell and Brown established a partnership in 1906, and the Berkeley City Hall was one of their earliest commissions. Other works by the firm include the more elaborate San Francisco City Hall (1912–1916) and the San Francisco Opera House (1932).

Bakewell and Brown’s design was the winner of a 1907 competition to replace the original Town Hall (Samuel and J. C. Newsom, 1884) which had burned down in 1904. The new City Hall was begun in June of 1908 and dedicated in August 1909.

As the dominant building of the anticipated Civic Center complex, City Hall was constructed a few feet to the north of the previous building, so that it was on axis with the block to the east. Thirty-three years later, Civic Center Park would finally be built on this block.

“Old” City Hall remains a source of civic pride and continues to be identified as the symbol of the City of Berkeley, even though city offices are now located in the former Federal Land Bank Building on the east side of Civic Center Park. Although the building has been used since 1977 as the administration building for the Berkeley Unified School District and city council meetings are still held here, the school district has announced that it will soon be moving out. Rumor has it that city council meetings will no longer be held here. The building was painted and cupola restored in 1991, but the building is endangered, requiring a retrofit that City Manager Phil Kamlarz estimates could cost between $30 million and $40 million.

City Hall was among the first nine City of Berkeley Landmarks designated on December 15, 1975. It is independently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also a significant feature of the Civic Center Historic District, #81000142 (added 1998).

An earlier version of this article was published in the Berkeley Daily Planet on Sep. 15, 2001, under the title “Old City Hall a Symbol of Berkeley’s Essence” by Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny. A longer and more detailed article, titled “Berkeley’s City Hall Was Inspired by a Mairie on the Loire,” was written by Daniella Thompson and published in the Planet on February 17, 2009. It can also be found on the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association website.