A Monumental Decision for Dallas City Hall: The World is Now Watching
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Dallas City Hall was named by the World Monument Fund as one of the sites on its new Irreplaceable America List last week. “As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Irreplaceable America is a call to protect the places that reflect the richness of that history, and the role heritage plays in education, community memory, and civic life,” Bénédicte de Montlaur, President and CEO, World Monuments Fund, said in a press release.
What does this mean? It means the world is now watching what happens in Dallas.
The World Monument Fund began in 1965 to “safeguard irreplaceable cultural heritage, ”and has contributed to the conservation and preservation of over 700 sites across 113 countries. They have worked on the stabilization of the ancient temple complexes in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, the conservation of the Moai statues on Easter Island, and in Venice to support restoration of monuments, frescoes, and palazzos after the 1966 floods.
Creating this new list and placing Dallas City Hall at the top of the 10 irreplaceable sites should be game-changing for its future. It means this building is not only considered architecturally and historically significant, but it’s now also considered a cultural site.
When world organizations recognize Dallas City Hall as a building that shaped the nation’s history, we must ask why our current city leaders do not understand this.
Dallas once had visionary leaders who put citizens and the public good first. In 1964, Mayor J. Erik Jonsson, a founder of Texas Instruments, initiated a plan called Goals for Dallas. The impetus was to rebuild civic morale and mend the disastrous image left by the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Dallas was dubbed “The City of Hate.” How do you recover from that? You go big, bold, and dramatic. And good leadership welcomed citizen input.
Among the Goals for Dallas projects were the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the University of Texas at Dallas, the Dallas Museum of Art, and, most importantly, the creation of a Dallas City Hall that was a true reflection of the people and a vision of forward thinking.
The new City Hall was to be purpose-built, symbolize civic pride, and provide a state-of-the-art “People’s House” that was not only functional but also reflected forward thinking. City leaders were endeavoring to recapture optimism and our can-do spirit. I.M. Pei was chosen because he was also a visionary. Today, he is considered to be one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, and the Dallas City Hall is regarded as one of the most significant works of civic architecture in America.
“This recognition by the World Monument Fund is an additional step from just the protection of architecture,” former Executive Director of the Dallas Arts District and former Dallas city councilwoman Veletta Lill said. “It’s the protection of a cultural asset.
“People are concerned about the potential loss on multiple levels. There is the loss of architectural heritage, the environmental impact of demolishing a precast concrete structure that would have a devastating impact on the immediate environment, and the cultural significance. The Asian American community is concerned. I.M. Pei is a Chinese American immigrant. His influence on American society is important to them,” she continued. “As we have seen, organization after organization raise the alarm, I feel like the World Monument Fund is on the next level of concern about cultural assets. This is the most significant architect-designed structure on the list. It speaks to this being a cultural asset and also to the fact that the world is now watching.”
Global awareness means renewed questions. Why would nine Dallas city leaders ever consider the destruction of what is now considered a world monument, and why would they want to vacate our historically and architecturally significant seat of government? And more to the point, why do we have a situation where only nine people can make an irreversible decision without a vote from the citizens?
Where are our visionaries, our innovators, our true civic leaders, those who work not for developers or individual businesses, but for a better Dallas? The time has come to reconsider decisions about a structurally sound, purpose-built seat of government, made in haste with little accurate information. Owning up to making the wrong decision is indeed the best sign of true leadership.
The world is watching.
For more information about the World Monument Fund and Irreplaceable America, visit wmf.org.
To learn more about Dallas City Hall, visit SaveDallasCityHall.com.
