When you work at a high level in City Hall you get offered lots of freebies: game tickets, use of vacation homes, and discounts on expensive birthday gift items. If you accept something, you have to declare it on an official report. Then it looks like a bribe, intended or not. Or you could simply take it and hope that the DA’s office never finds out. This is a risky move. (See councilman, former: Gregory, Terry). That’s why my personal rule was to politely decline or pay for gifts. I was good about doing this during my two year’s in the mayor’s office—with one exception.
I accepted a couple books from Richard Meier, one of the world’s great architects. You see, I was on the design team for the new San Jose City Hall. To get a sense of Meier’s style, I checked out numerous library books. When Meier noticed that, he gave me a couple of his that he autographed. Of course, I dutifully reported the gifts. (See forms, financial: Barry, Jude). I know how serious the DA’s office takes this stuff. (See ass, kicking: Kennedy, George).
Okay, I know that the new City Hall design is not universally popular. But that’s not unusual for major civic projects.
Meier, however, is the most acclaimed architect to design a public building in San Jose. His major achievements include the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Canal Plus headquarters in Paris, and his design for rebuilding the World Trade Center.
He has talented and classy colleagues in his Los Angeles office, particularly Michael Palladino and Jim Crawford – both brilliant architects in their own right.
I worked with them through the summer of 2000 when we re-oriented the building site, decided that a major feature needed to identify the site as a civic building – thus the dome – and established the curved wall and staircase as a unifying element. It was a great design and, at that time, within budget.
Today, the cost overruns are a major issue, no question. But the new San Jose City Hall will be a noteworthy and proud addition to a downtown that has few noteworthy and proud buildings. (See skyline, boring: Jose, San).
Next week: the inspiration for the new City Hall’s dome and wall.
I have to ask: why in the heck is a political flack with no formal architectual training permitted to re-orient the building site or establish a curved wall and staircase as a unifying element when we’ve paid architects handsomely to do this work?
I must say that the new city hall is a welcome relief to the gulag type of architecture that is common in downtown SJ.
Richard Meier is well known and respected but
didn’t win the World Trade Center design competition. I think he was runner up or third place.
I like the dome. It’s interesting. Gonna be expensive to clean though.
Is there really anyone out there who thought this project wouldn’t go over budget?
As for the design and the costs of building and maintaining the new City Hall, major cities that have budgeted for good architecture have also worked into their budgets the cost of maintainence. If San Jose wants to go down this road, then everybody needs to understand that there are ongoing costs to be considered once a public building like City Hall is completed. I think the females on this blog will agree that this is the price you pay for not being boring, not unlike the difference between an outfit purchased at Sears and one purchased at Nordstrom. You get what you pay for, and if you’re looking to get noticed you’re not going to be heading over to Sears.
City hall should have never left downtown. See old city hall pictures when it was in now Plaza Park across from the Fairmount Hotel. When we left school to walk downtown we’d walk underneath the old city old building. It was beautiful. The new city hall should have been built by St. James Park.
The really sad truth is the city hall powers that be will go over budget. Their way to pay for overages will be to raise fees for businesses and visitors (parking fees / enforcement) to downtown.
I wish they could have “cashed in” such a huge amount of public money for something that would actually benifit the people of San Jose.
Another sad note by our idiot mayor; he claims our new city hall will define our city as a tourist attraction. Can anybody tell me what this guy is drinking or smoking? I’d sure like a hit!
There are certainly a bunch of dull high-rises downtown – the Earthlink buildings in particular are hard to love. That’s why we have to be careful, with all the new high-rise buildings planned for downtown, that they are beautiful additions to the skyline as well as satisfying other goals of the City government.
Hey Jude,
Tell us how much tinkering went on with the original design, which looked much classier and less cheaper than the current one.
For this female reader of this blog, Mark T’s fashion metaphor misses the mark.
If you want the style of the moment in the color of this instant (Even if it’s a tad young for you, my dear), you do shop at Sears, Target or Mervyn’s. You pick up throw-away fashion at a throw-away price.
If you take a longer view, you wait for sales at Nordstrom, Macy’s or Bloomies and invest in the wardrobe basics that are built to last in the cleaning process as well as in fashion.
Metaphor-wise, so far, so good.
Where the metaphor falls apart is that, whether you’re at Sears or at Nordstrom, when the price tag says $39.95 and the sign on the rack says “Additional discount taken at the register,” you know how much you’re going to pay. Is anyone confident that the over-runs we’ve been told about represent the final cost of the City Hall project? Or will additional mark-ups be made when the current administration checks out?
Besides, everyone knows the really expensive part of fashion and City Hall operation is daily maintenance and accessorizing.
So “we re-oriented the building site, decided that a major feature needed to identify the site as a civic building – thus the dome…” You will have to refresh me on when you or the Mayor attended architecture school. The dome may be distinctive but it also looks like it was an add-on—kind of like a fast food kiosk. Too bad the actual architect was overridden by “we.” It is laughable to think this building will be a tourist attraction—who travels the world to visit the city
hall buildings? Few are among the planet’s great buildings and certainly this one is not that unique (see Meier’s building in Islip, NY). Once again the Council embarrasses itself and the rest of it when they talk about this building as one of the great wonders of the world. It won’t even house the number of employees we were told it would house, it certainly does not fit in with the character of the neighborhood, and because of the Mayor’s tinkering with the design it will probably be a giant trash receptacle due to the wind blowing trash into courtyard.
It’s too bad—although I don’t think the move to this location is wise, it could have been so much better. It could have been a building that really made a statement, it could have been a building that really would have housed all the city employees, it could have been the Sobrato building which is still the most distinctive building downtown ( which isn’t saying much given the lack of distinctive buildings downtown.)
I can’t wait until you and the Mayor design a new ballpark. The dome will look great.
City Hall is beautiful.
Say what you will about cost, but great buildings define great cities.
Examples:
(See neighbor, north: Francisco, San):
http://www.sfgov.org/site/cityhall_index.asp
(See museum, Spain: Guggenheim, Bilbao):
http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/idioma.htm
(See needle, tall: Toronto, Seattle):
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=112537
http://architecture.about.com/library/blspaceneedle.htm
(See Angeles, Los: Music Center, Disney):
http://www.musiccenter.org/wdch/
(See House, White: D.C., Washington):
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/
Jude, the books are not a bad thing to get. Indeed, I am glad you got them, as they were likely also meant to help you to continue to appreciate good art.
So enjoy the books and take their lessons to heart.
As for the architecture of city hall, I do like the styles very much, but it has put my master’s thesis in a tailspin
My thesis is on the impact of the university on the surrounding historic character of the neighborhoods. The city hall, now is a tremendous impact on that area of SF.
As for Alex, he has done yeoman work in the downtown. I am sorry that Alphonse De Alba at San Jose State refuses to give PAC credit for Scheller, even put out a statement that PAC was engaged in rumor monguering about Scheller, and refuses to even give a plaque to Scheller House.
We have Ron G who has helped the preservation community and we ADA, who likes to insult it.
what do we do?
We will live in and around the Great City Hall. If will provide us great shelter and security. There will be more of us soon so don’t mind the shopping cart noise late an night. God Bless that Ron Gonazles
You are correct. Great buildings define great cities. Too bad we didn’t get a great building.
Say what you want doug F. But San Jose and its so called world class building couldn’t hold a match let a lone a candle to any of these cities. Nice try.
James –
Presumably your comment that Ron G has helped the preservation community was tongue-in-cheek. While early on he did “save” the Montgomery by spending $12 million to move it and destroy 1/3 of its historic integrity, and kept the Jose, it stretches credibility to say he has helped the preservation community. In general, the community would be better off without his kind of “help.”
To Dome or not to Dome—is that the question?
Actually, the real question is why Dome at all?
The new City Hall is not large enough to house all the city departments. We were told that leasing was too expensive and owning the building was more economical.
Yet we build a City Hall that is too small, the lease market tanks, the Sobrato building stands empty, BART is delayed coming to San Jose, parking is horrible as it competes with the new library and SJSU.
The building on N. First will still need to be “leased” by the City. Throw into the mix the deed restriction on the First St. property an the eventual blight produced by moving City Hall downtown.
I guess we could expand the Jail in that location. Maybe we could use if for a ballpark.
Here is a solution, require the city not employ any more bureaucrats than can fit into the new City Hall. Then the building will pay for itself. The elimination of 8 assistant City Managers alone opens up eight quality offices.
In addition, no one seemed concerned with the problem some residents and lobbyists who will have doing business with both the City and County. Previously all they had to do was walk across the parking lot, now they will have to drive back and forth. At least the lobbyists can charge for the time.
The Police Department doesn’t plan to move—so they will be driving, riding light rail (doubtful) to and fro downtown City Hall.
Most importantly, it will become more difficult for residents/citizens/voters to get to the new City Hall and they will have to pay more for parking.
This is not necessarily a bad idea, as they should be hiring a lobbyist anyway as to contribute to the economic recovery of the city.
Tongue firmly implanted in cheek.
Hey Barb, good point on the check-out counter issue.
I agree with $Billion re: Gonzo being on crack or whatever. This building is not going to be a tourist attraction or trademark like the Transamerica pyramid or other distinctive highrises. It’s just another in a long list of projects this town has seen result from the ineptitude of civic leaders who call the shots when it comes to art and architectural decisions. The new City Hall isn’t a bad building, but it’s not a great one either.
When you’ve got a largely suburban pool of candidates, you can’t expect anything daring to come out of their decisions. That’s why the higrises downtown are bland and ordinary, just like the suburban neighborhoods where these unworldly types in charge at City Hall live. We need at-large elections again so we can get a field of urban-oriented forward-thinking candidates with an eye for design—a group that would flatly reject something like Quetzalcoatl. People with these attributes won’t be found in the suburbs so if you want downtown to have some character, you’ll need a more sophisticated group in charge, and with at-large elections we can cut down on the suburban influence that is currently so pervasive at City Hall.
This is my first time here although I have read the comments.
Jude can you tell us more about this design, especially of the Rotunda?
Your detailed impute would be helpful. Whatever Ron Gonzales touches turns to dirt.
City workers seem to be heavy. I’m very worried about (fat) Albertson’s being filled with lines and traffic problems.
It is already very dangerous to walk around downtown. I mean with college drivers and then city workers who think there above driving laws. What do you think? How do we get some help. I hope of next mayor has a plan. I like that what the one says.
Regarding the following statement… “While early on he did “save” the Montgomery by spending $12 million to move it and destroy 1/3 of its historic integrity”
the cost to save the montgomery was 22 million to move it. Another 23 million to refurbish it.
The 45 million could have at least paid for the bathrooms at the new city hall. Money would be much closer to where it ended up!
Gee, the Robinson rule
“maybe they should hire a lobbyist” can be applied to the following situations
a) City Hall needs more respect, city hall should hire a lobbyist
b) Barry Bonds should hire a lobbyist
c) Mark McGuire should have had a lobbyist
d) Tom De Lay should have hired a lobbyist
e) every one at San Jose Inside should hire a lobbyist so that we can ask someone else to listen to who should hire a lobbyist
Negative bloggers on this site, hire a lobbyist
Tom Arnold, the worst sports host in the country, should hire a lobbyist to get back on Fox
I can’t help but ask.. is the Dome gonna be where the Starbucks is located?
There is obviously an epic disconnect between the city administrators and the economic times that we live in. Spending 400-500 million on CH is flat out sinful. If the points made in #17 are true, then impeachment proceedings should commence – now.
Larry, can you understand why the sentiment on this board tends to run negative? It’s because this colossal waste of precious tax dollars is a bi-annual deja vu event.
First up Lightrail – taking no one to nowhere slowly at great taxpayer expense.
Now it’s city hall in the limelight.
Next will be airport expansion – In 2 years we will be having this very same discussion about our incredibly ill-conceived airport expansion. Expanding an airport in an already horrid location? How did that get out of the gate?
After that it will be BART.
The beat goes on.
I publicly apologize to Richard Robinson, that was a cheap shot to him.
There is no one in Silicon Valley better suited to comment on public affairs than my old college classmate, Richard. He has built himself up be, along with Jude and very other few people, the stellar public affairs man in this valley. Sometimes, he gets on my nerves, and there some unrssolved things that have to be said, but Richard has shown himself consistenly to be the best of the best in commenting on public affairs.
There are fifteen people in this valley I admire beyond anyone else, despite our frequent strong willed opinions
Not in the list of priority, but these are the people worth their weight in gold around here
1. Ron Gonzeles
2. Jim Beall
2. Sally Leiber
4. Kansen Chu
5. Richard Robinson’
6. Terry Christensen
7. Larry Gerston
8. Don Kassing
9. Catherine Tompkison Graham
10. Steve Preminger
11. Jude Berry
12. John McLemore
13. Patty Mahan
14. Ken Yeager
15. Cindy Chavez
16. Rod Diridon, Sr
17. Mike Honda
18. Anna Song, Chris Stampolis
19. Larry Stone
20. Scott Herhold
they all are not listed by rank, as I think they are all equally valuble to this valley
I believe that in a close second comes Dayanna Salazar, Joe Coto, Dale Warner, Ed Rast, Steve Wright, David Yarnold, Pat Kosltad, Jamie McLeod, KM, Chuck Reed, Bernadine Chuck Fong, and Ed Mosher
The List of Losers!
James Rowen,
I thought higher of you—until you published that list. Please say it was a joke or mistake.
Hey “ruin”
learn to count ” fifteen people in this valley”; your list has twenty. You should take Larry’s job! Your math is better!
There is also this disconnect in the time between the planning and the execution of a project. Buildings, roads, airports, etc. are planned with the short term demand in mind but don’t get built until much later. Thus when they are finally completed, they are easily 10 to 15 years too late. I will not be surprised at all if the objective of a certain project is lost on the people who are tasked to actually finish it.
I said admire, not agree, not support all the time, and not at all whom I think should be supported by everyone all the time.
Yes, my math was faulty there, and I do apologize. I think it was a mistake worth making so that I could list Mike Honda and some others.
I said, people that I do find impressive. However, of that fifteen, now 20, there are some that have lousy decisions for this valley, have shown rotten judgement in figuring how to best incorporate the ideas of some people I love deeply, and frankly there are some that should get defeated at the polls in the near future to bring them down to size.
City hall, ha. It that all San Jose can boast? What an enferiority complex, and it’s not even that impressive. Many well known, great cities have multiple and very impressive landmarks that are worthy of world class status. It’s that old small town fervor aqain.
Thank James,
But could you tell us why you find these people impressive?!
To Ted, Rick Blaine and others:
I’m not an architect and didn’t mean to imply such. I was proud to be on the design team.
One of my contributions: I recommended giving Richard Meier, Michael Palladino, and Jim Crawford a blank canvas so they could work with the site as they saw fit.
Initially, the site was divided into two sections to establish a pathway that would continue pedestrian traffic as if Sixth Street connected to Santa Clara Street. It seemed restrictive and cumbersome—cutting the site in half.
The architects—not me or others members of the design team—decided to re-orient the buildings.
Jude
Tell us (more) about the original design v. current one. This could be a book ya know.
Yokel, though you seem to be violating a rule of thumb, I will respect your using a nom de plum, as only someone with the maturity of a two year old, that loves to make fun of my name, I will try
Email Insidesanjose to confirm that I did not make fun of your name as you allege. Have them to check the ISP; it’s a simple as that. NOw, I just find the list of names that you posted to be very uninspiring, untalented, and unqualified.
For Jude, it is easy. I am impressed with the fact that he helped bring about this blog. He served his boss admirable and honorably at City Hall, and he did not often bring things my way, but on the few occasions we spoke, he was honest enough to tell me why and go from there.
Jim Beall was my first client in consulting. He has done a great job in Santa Clara County, did great work, and was always accessible.
Ron has always been accessible to me, friendly, and was supportive when he could be. Again I believe he needs to get back to being Ron. the paramount of virture, and not Ron, the Imperial Mayor. Ron Gonzales is too decent, kind, and smart a guy to make some decisions he has made. He also has been very good to PAC, while someone else here at SJSU has gone out of his way to insult them.
Scott Herhold is the best writer the Mercury News has, and I remember the days when he and Phil T were the angry young men at the Mercury News, and they have been damn good at writing. Not that I agree with their conclusions at times, but their skill was always at the pinnacle.
Rod Diridon, Sr is my neighbor, and helped me, as did Steve Preminger, my old county chair, get elected to the DNC. Rod has made some mistakes and I think on some things in SC he has too quick too judge, but he was an elected official who had dreams for the Valley and put them through which is rare in the USA these days to stick with the plan all the way.
Larry Stone gets on my nerves, but I remember intervieiwing him as a member of the NWPC endorsement committee, and no one had a better grasp of the issues and he has always done his homework.
Rich, again, has been the best of the best in public affairs around here.
CTMG, a member of the Airport Commission. has made some of the most insightful comments about the airport art. As a fellow student with me and RR at SJSU, she was responsible for getting Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton here, and no one in this valley deserved more than Catherine to be a Kerry delegate, and she is one the best non profit specialists around.
Ken Yeager, Larry Gerston, Terry Christensen taught me all I know as a local government consultant, TC and Larry have written the best books about California politics since Lou Cannon and Ed Constantini
Anna Song took a helluva gamble running for reelection and she did not flinch and carried the flag. She wrapped a win against a lot of people at Silicon Valley, whatever it is to be called these, Group, and Chris Stampolis is one the people trying to put some humanity in SC Valley politics. Mike Honda helped me get my first job in education, was one of the earlier backers of the activist mode of Democratic politics and is a good member of Congress. Again, I am not a big fan of some of his actions, but overall he has been an effective repr of the valley.
There is no harder study of issues than Cindy Chavez, whom I remember fondly as one of the best campaign organizers in the valley. She is going places.
Pat Mahan was among my first clients, and again, when she looks at the issues from the lens of her old glasses of citizen invovlement she is 100 percent right. I do feel recently that she has not dealt effectively with her old roots, and again, she is too damn smart to vote on some of the issues how she has voted.
John McLemore. No one gives this guy a break. He was right a helluva lot more times than he was wrong. McLemore is a council member worth trusting and worth listening to. The more he gets those pants dirty getting involved with masses, the better he is at being an elected official. John can do more for more people, when he talks to more people.
You cannot disagree that there is not a new wave of open government and practical sense
at San Jose State. Don Kassing has got a handle on every major problem and he is going to make this place a great metropolitan university single handed. You got money for the university, you can trust Kassing with it. This guy is making this place get things done.
I am sorry there are those over on 4th street with their own agendas and little schemes for getting more than the 140k, but President Kassing lives and breathes Spartan blue and no one of the old school dislikes this guy, they all love him.
Sally Leiber was a fellow student leader at Foothiill College, and she is one the best legislators I know.
Kansen Chu, cost me a lot of money in some fights we had over development cases in San Jose. I have worked on two campaigns against him, and he has been a wonderful friend to some of our ideas, and has always had a sincere reason for opposing projects.
Yokel, peace and love, you did not make fun of my name
I forgot to write the word, unlike someone, referring to the RUIN person who is intellectually challanged
sorry, sorry, and sorry
You are a good person with lots of good things to say
peace and I stand retracted with the only part.
Jude-
Will the dome have a rest room or will the bums have to go outside?
Has anyone estimated the cost of removing the graffiti?
How many vending machines will fit in the lobby?
Answer man, we need answers!!!
We are comedy central for the Bay Area here in SJ, and I am not talking about the Improv, I’m talking about City Hall, the current one, the new one, and the people who occupy the big chairs in the council chambers. It’s time to vote out all of the incumbents.
Well, after reading over those reasons for those names, I can see that it’s going to take a lot of work to make downtown and San Jose great. There needs to be a great plan and along with that great change.
Look what Kurd has done for NCR and will do for HPQ. Check out HPQ stock. SJ politics needs the same if we are going to grow stronger. We can’t have the same people in office play the same games but only with a title change.
Jude,
If it’s not too late and if you still have pull wrt the rotunda design – can you have it set up so that the city council chairs are set in an orchestra-like pit below the speakers?
That way when citizens go to city hall for their 2 minutes of democracy – they’ll at least get a morsel of satisfaction from looking down on their elected reps.
Larry, in malcontent-land, this is known as making lemonade out of a 500 million dollar, let them eat cake, lemon.
Stan
btw I am not insulted or miffed at you at all.
Good comments on the rotunda
Jude:
Richard Meier may be a world renown architect, but that begs the question. After all, Robert Graham is a world renown artist, and he gave us the plastic park god for half a mil.
The time has past where city halls are monuments to the administrations that built them. They are now simply a place to do business.
So, as I gaze at The Taj Gonzal every day on my way to the ofice, I see the most expensive municipal building ever built in the USA, and I’m not too pleased with what it looks like.
But what really fries my bacon is the lies the people of San Jose were told when the initiative was placed on the ballot to build it. One major lie was the justification that this edifice would consolidate city offices to one location, thus providing convenience for those doing business with the city, and eliminating that far flung and expensive leased space that so many city offices occupy.
So what’s the truth? Less than 20% of city employees will actually work at The Taj Gonzal. And I hear many of them have been told they will have to park up to half a mile away. No help from the slower than molasses light rail—it doesn’t go there.
The city owned the land where the Jack Tar Hotel replica current city hall stands would have been a far better and less expensive choice. Any new edifice should have been built there rather that Sixth & Santa Clara. East Santa Clara is already a traffic nightmare, which will only get worse as people try to get to The Taj Gonzal to do business.
The Sobrato building not only looks better than The Taj Gonzal, it is close to Route 87, has much more ample parking, and probably could be built out better for what a city hall should be—a place to do business.
Jude, you’ve done a lot of good work and I am sure there is more to come. But please, don’t try to defend The Taj Gonzal because the architect is famous. Al Ruffo must be rolling over in his grave.
John Michael O’Connor
P.S. Why do you post comment from people (other than whistle-blowers who need protection) who don’t have the cojones to use their real names????
Larry,
This is the perfect opportunity for a city hall proponent in the know to counter negative sentiment with some facts to set things straight.
Seriously.
What do these 8 asst. city managers add to the mix? Or do they just push paper up line and down line?
Adding up their pay and perks, what dent does it make in the $58 mil. deficit if we can them all?
Multiply that by all the asst. dept. heads we could fire , and we can actually keep all our cops, I bet.
John Michael O’Connor
John Michael O’Connor
Mr. Rowen should run for office in SJay. He said he knows fifteen great folks and lists thirty-three. Anyone who can overrun the numbers like that deserves to be in San Hozay’s Taj Gonzal.
John Michael O’Connor