Index to Earthquake Reports

Municipal Reports

THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
AND FIRE OF APRIL 1906

Five of six pages

Architect's Report on the Condition of the City Hall

Review and Recommendation by a Special Committee
appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

1. Complete Rehabilitation of the Present Building
This proposal is open to serious objections. The portions of the building, which would have to be rebuilt above the foundations are so extensive, and the portions which might conceivable be saved are so intermingled everywhere with large parts which were damaged, that rehabilitation would necessarily result in mere patchwork, to which the danger of a future shock might be as great as that through which the building has already passed.

2. Wrecking of the Building and Rebuilding on Same Foundation.
In providing herself with a new City Hall, San Francisco should not rest satisfied with approximately reproducing a building which was out of date even before its completion. To rebuild along the old lines would be an anachronism. To tie up the City to a faulty and inadequate scheme would be to saddle the future with a burden progressively more intolerable as time goes on.     

Recommendation
According to the estimate of the City Architect, the cost of rebuilding on the old foundations will be $3,550,000; the cost of an entirely new building or buildings, $5,250,000, the saving represented by building on the old foundations being thus $700,000. In our judgment, this is a reasonable sum for San Francisco to pay for the permanent increased efficiency, health, comfort and beauty which are reasonable to be expected form a new building unhampered by the old design and executed in accordance with the best modern practice.
We therefore recommend the erection of an entirely new City Hall.

Respectfully submitted.

(signed )   Albert Pissis
                James W. Reid
                John Galen Howard
                Newton J. Tharp

6. Conclusion by editor