Bracing for Disaster by Tobriner Stephen;

Author:Tobriner, Stephen;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heyday

Figure 9.9

The Rialto Building: northern Mission Street facade, with reconstruction under way. Note damage between fourth and fifth floors, which may have resulted because of pounding between the Rialto Building and its neighbor to the west.

The Fate of the 1871 City Hall

The new City Hall had been a symbol of San Francisco in its splendor and in its devastation, but it could not be a symbol of its resurrection. It was the grandest ruin in San Francisco, and citizens flocked to be photographed in front of it. The steel frame of the dome still stood; on occasion it was strung with lights, which at night gave the illusion that it was undamaged. The east wing of the structure was temporarily rehabilitated to help house city government, but time was running out for the structure.59 When the graft prosecutions began, the ruin came to be seen as a symbol of Schmitz’s corrupt administration. Despite the fact that it would cost more to build a new City Hall than to renovate the old one, the citizens voted to demolish the building and eventually to build its replacement a block west, along Van Ness Avenue, as part of the new civic center inspired by Daniel Burnham’s plan. Bricks from the walls of the old City Hall were crushed into aggregate and used in the foundations for the new building in 1912.

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