Fresno

Fresno-- 1944

The word city hall usually evokes visions of a dingy interior with a minimum of window space and a maximum of official smell behind a fac,ade that may combine the styles of the Taj Mahal, the Erechtheum and Ralph Adams Cram Gothic. But when Fresno (Calif.) citizens planned their city hall they decided to break with U.S. tradition. They decided that a city hall has no need of domes, pillars, Corinthian capitals or musty interiors copied from Roman baths. Last week U.S. architects were hailing the result of Fresno's decision.

Fresno's functional city hall is handsome, economical, moderately experimental in plan and design. It is a low (two-story), flat-roofed structure, surfaced with unpainted red brick, trimmed with stainless steel and aluminum. Architects were Fresno's Franklin & Kump & Associates. Construction costs were $290,000. To cut future maintenance bills, Architects Franklin & Kump eliminated all elevators, made use of natural light by means of oversize windows, skylights, glass panels atop interior walls. Instead of stairways, the building has wide ramps. Central feature of the building is an open two-story lobby. On the second floor of one wing is a windowless, skylighted council room, for which extra space was gained by a cantilevered projection. The Mayor's office is also on the second floor. Other unusual features:

P: The red brick of the building's exterior surfaces is repeated on the interior lobby walls.

P: Instead of being laid in the usual way, the bricks are laid one above the other in parallel perpendicular rows.

P: Almost 50% of the building's exterior surface is glass.

P: Interior partitions are movable.

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