'Demolition by Neglect': Residents Voice Support for Preserving Dallas City Hall
candysdirt.com
More than 100 people turned out to a public meeting Monday night to show their support for preserving Dallas City Hall amid speculation over its fate.
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The original was posted on /r/dallas by /u/awr54 on 2025-11-04 19:28:41+00:00.

Three main points

  1. Why the rush to make a decision the public has little awareness of, and to such an iconic building to Dallasites, that is actually a plaza for the people to express their first ammendment rights? Boston city hall went through a similar test of its public efficacy in 2014 and through TEN YEARS of public comment, architectural study, value assessment and landscape alternatives, it’s a saved landmark that is an economic and cultural driver where once a vast sprawl of concrete laid.
  2. Follow the money. What is going on with these crazy renovation numbers? I’ve never seen such high renovation costs, and to ballon from the much smaller numbers that were reported only a few years ago makes me very skeptical of what is in that report, which is criminal to not make public. A great comment, last night an architect working with fair park first to assess their structures and grounds as a whole, and the amount assessed at Fair Park, for the ENTIRE PARK, only comes up to 2/3 of the 350 mil “required” for city hall. Something very fishy is going on with that assessment.
  3. This is an architecturally iconic building, IM Pei’s first civic building he designed, constructed within a 1/16 of an inch tolorance. Culrutrally, It’s dramatic form reflects the spirit of dallas in a time of healing after the JFK assassination, and how the city wanted to project itself into the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st. Tearing it down would not only drown the city on dust but be in direct opposition to the city’s on Climat Action Plan, and demolition and new construction would absolutely dwarf costs for repair. Our culture is embedded in these architectural forms, literally in the concrete. Tearing it down is an act of seld mutilation, an effort yo instill amnesia of our own history that takes an easy path to the wrecking ball instead of thr community path to renew and adapt to hard situations, where we can teach our children about how we overcame.

The neglect and deferred maintenance has come to roost on our shoulders. We must protect this legacy building. You must serve your citizens. This is not lipstick on a pig, and car analogies do not work for buildings, public spaces or people.