A group of people gathered Monday night for a “listening session” to save the I.M. Pei designed building
DALLAS — Even while the Dallas Cowboys were on the field Monday night, a crowd gathered at Dallas City Hall to try to save it.
The 48-year-old building, built by famed architect I.M. Pei, is the center of ongoing discussions. City staff and some Council members appear ready to scrap it and move the seat of government to an office tower downtown, allowing developers to take over.
But the people who attended Monday night’s listening session aren’t on board.
“We are the taxpayers,” said one longtime Dallas resident. “We paid the bill for this building. And to have someone come in and say, ‘We’re just gonna sell it out from under you?’ I’m sorry – that to me is criminal.”
Council members Cara Mendelsohn and Paul Ridley hosted the meeting and heard one passionate plea after another.
“I never thought I’d fight city hall about City Hall,” said Veletta Forsythe-Lill, who served on council from 1997 to 2005.
Earlier in the day, Council members heard a presentation from city staff outlining the building’s many deficiencies in need of repair and suggesting Dallas taxpayers could save hundreds of millions of dollars by moving to a leased office tower.
“Investing dollars that’s going to do no more than putting lipstick on a pig, I cannot support that,” said Council member Maxie Johnson.
City staff said vacating the site could result in a “catalytic new development” on the site that builds on the momentum of ongoing renovations of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, revitalizes downtown and adds to the city’s tax rolls.
Staff did not give specifics, though one Council member previously publicly posited the Mavericks might be interested in the site for a new arena. At Monday night’s meeting, several speakers criticized that possible plan.
“If we sell seat of government for an arena and a casino, that will be the most shameful thing the city has ever done in the history of its incorporation,” one resident said.
Some Council members have sought specifics from staff on the cost of repairing the building and the benefits of leaving it.
“I believe this presentation overstates for repair for City Hall and understates the cost to vacate it and to move,” Ridley said during the briefing. “Lack of data, lack of knowledge leads to poor decision making.”
Staff said there would likely be a months-long timeline for a study on either the costs of remaining in the building or the economic development potential for the site.
City Council appears poised to make a decision on the future of City Hall sooner than the completion of those studies, but Ridley and Mendelsohn said they hope to slow things down.
“It takes nine months to get a procurement in Dallas,” Mendelsohn said. “I can’t believe we wouldn’t take that much time to understand the data.”
Ridley said he’s going to try to “pump the brakes.”
“But, we need to convince other Council members for that to be what happens,” he said.
