Tempe City Hall - View of Windows, Looking Up - October 1984 (2 of 2)

DateOctober 1984

MediumEmulsion on paper

Dimensions5 x 5 in. (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

ClassificationsDocumentary Artifact

Catalog number2001.19.4288

DescriptionTempe's Upside-Down City Hall at 31 East 5th Street has to be the most distinctive municipal building in the state, if not the nation. The pyramid is 3 stories tall containing 17,650 square feet of municipal offices, including offices for the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager on the third floor. The 45º slope of the walls results in the floors on that level to measure 100 feet on each side, but the ceiling to measure 126 feet on each side.

The majority of the office space in this 50,000 square foot complex is in perimeter offices around the sunken 2.5 acre plaza and below the plaza itself. Access to the pyramid is through bridges over the plaza area to the entrance at the ground floor of the pyramid, while the plaza offices can be reached by adjacent exterior stairways to plaza. A 3 story concrete structure to the east of the pyramid provides emergency fire exits.

Construction, started in 1969, was completed in 1971, at a cost of $52,500,000.
The film negative of this photograph is housed in box 2G8-E.

Status

Not on view