Dallas wants to demolish one of its own icons – I.M. Pei’s brutalist town hall

Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas became the most hated city in the country. Americans believed that it was Texan hatred that had led to the tragedy of 1963, and the city authorities began to look for ways to reverse its negative reputation. A new development project, involving the redevelopment of the city centre into a modern, modernist district featuring a huge concrete town hall, proved to be a partial solution. I.M. Pei’s geometric modernism proved to be a resounding success, and the city ‘cleansed’ itself of the unpleasant events of the previous decade. Today, however, the Dallas authorities want to demolish their city’s brutalist icon.

The City of Hate

Before the assassination of J.F. Kennedy, Dallas was the most important stronghold of the incumbent president’s opponents. Hateful slogans and columns in the local press labelling JFK a communist constantly reinforced the negative perception of the city across the rest of the country. The city even became known as the ‘City of Hate’. Mayor Erik Jonsson, a respected businessman and co-founder of the well-known company Texas Instruments, decided to combat Dallas’s extremely negative image.

Jonsson concluded that the world needed to be shown what Dallas was actually famous for. However, the well-developed business centre, with its many skyscrapers and opulent buildings, needed a futuristic touch. Interestingly, the solution to the city’s image crisis lay partly in unrealised plans from the 1940s.

During the Second World War, Dallas was intended to present itself as a city with grand ambitions. Planners at the time wanted the city to gain a new centre in the grand, though by then already outdated, Beaux-Arts style. Unfortunately, the plan was never realised due to the high construction costs. Jonsson, however, believed that the drawings from the 1940s could still be used to build a new, modernist city centre.

Work on the new centre got under way fairly quickly, but the project was still missing that one key building which would become an icon of the city. It was then that a colleague of Jonsson’s drew his attention to the designs of Ieoh Ming Pei, who was at that time working on a project for MIT. The mayor recognised the potential in the brutalist and futuristic forms created by I.M. Pei and presented his designs to the city council.

The Pride of Dallas

I.M. Pei was selected as the architect for the town hall following consultations with residents. The architect noted that the residents were very proud of their city and its rapid development. It is worth noting that at the beginning of the 20th century, Dallas had a population of just 42,000. By 1970, this figure had risen to around 844,000. For this reason, the futuristic buildings that bore witness to the city’s growth were a welcome sight for the people of Dallas. I.M. Pei felt that Dallas was precisely the city where he could experiment a little with architecture.

The architect utilised his signature form: the inverted pyramid. A massive concrete and glass wall rises at an angle of 34 degrees. This slope of the façade casts a large shadow over the nearby square, designed to protect residents from the fierce Texan sun. Interestingly, the ground floor is 38 metres wide, whilst the top, seventh storey extends to 61 metres. The large concrete pillars visible in the photographs house the stairwells and do not bear the weight of the building.

The town hall is not symmetrical, and the rear façade rises in a stepped pattern. A key aspect of the design was the large glazed areas, which, despite their size, do not allow an excessive amount of sunlight to enter. Their angle of inclination is adapted to local conditions. This ‘local character’ of the building is also reflected in its colour, which can be described as pale yellow. It is the exact colour of the Texan soil.

Construction of Dallas City Hall was not completed until 1978, after 11 years. The residents came to love the building’s modern form, and for years it served the city authorities. In the years that followed, I.M. Pei returned to Dallas on numerous occasions to continue experimenting with bold modernist architecture, and by 1989, five of the architect’s major projects had been completed in the city.

Decades of neglect

Forty-seven years after Dallas City Hall was built, shocking news of plans to demolish the building spread through the media. It turned out that the city authorities had not carried out any renovations for decades, causing the building’s ageing systems and structure to deteriorate. The HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems should have been replaced years ago, the roof leaks regularly, and there are large quantities of asbestos in the walls. Repairs following decades of neglect could cost as much as $329 million, yet the city council is unwilling to allocate such funds to save the iconic building.

In August 2026, the Save Dallas City Hall Coalition sued the city of Dallas for neglect and called for the immediate renovation of the town hall. The case is still ongoing, but there are strong indications that the city authorities will seek to demolish City Hall and replace it with a stadium for the local sports team.

It is a shame about Dallas City Hall, all the more so as it is one of the few successful examples of brutalist urban regeneration. Of course, one can have (justified) criticisms of the unimaginable ‘concrete jungle’ that is downtown Dallas, but residents have come to love I.M. Pei’s iconic building. What’s more, whilst Dallas is one of the most extreme examples of a concrete-dominated city in the US, the Brutalist town hall could still be integrated into the new, greened-up city centre. The problem is that the city has no plans for such solutions. Nor can the building be listed as a historic monument, as it is not yet 50 years old – which is the main requirement for listing.

Source: Save Dallas City Hall Coalition

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