hat's Dallas City Council seems to be moving quickly to a decision to tear down Dallas City Hall, designed by I.M. Pei a half century ago. What is happening is curious if not just wrong on many levels, but here's one looming cost I see that has not be articulated yet: if Dallas City Council approves the razing of Dallas City Hall, the city will lose one of its symbols that is recognized nationally, a major visual element that makes Dallas stand out among its peer cities.
I pulled photos of all the other big-city City Halls, and they are either "ho-hum," such as Atlanta's, or else are entirely, or extremely, "classical" in their architecture. That is great for old cities, for instance, Philadelphia, but Dallas is supposed to be young, energetic, and untethered to old ways of thinking and doing, according to Dallas mythology. So, even though we do not know who all they are, let's ask those movers and shakers who are promoting and maneuvering the tear-down to stop for ten minutes and think very, very hard: "Is this in the city's---and in our own---best interests?"
I may not live within its boundaries, but the ninth-largest city of the USA gives and shares its name "Dallas" with most all of its burbs ("Suburban Dallas"), and I care a lot about the city where I had my career and still have an office.
I submit that tearing down the Pei-designed City Hall will be a setback, diminishing Dallas in the eyes of the nation.
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Here is a nice visual history of the construction of our modernistic City Hall under the eye of Mr. Pei, a half century ago (h/t to Veletta Forsythe Lill): https://flashbackdallas.com/2025/11/10/dallas-city-hall/