Marin County Civic Center
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Marin County Civic Center
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The Marin County Civic Center
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| Location | San Rafael, California |
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| Coordinates | 37°59′59″N 122°31′48″W / 37.99972°N 122.53000°WCoordinates: 37°59′59″N 122°31′48″W / 37.99972°N 122.53000°W |
| Built | 1960 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement |
| NRHP Reference # | 91002055 |
| CHISL # | 999 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 17, 1991 |
| Designated NHL | July 17, 1991 |
The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green, and was completed in 1962. The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.
Located away from the former county seat in downtown San Rafael, the expansive complex stretches across two valleys just east of US 101. Its pink stucco walls, blue roof and scalloped balconies are distinctive. The smaller wing is the county administration building and the larger the Hall of Justice, joined by a round structure on a small hill that houses a county library.
A battle between factions of the Marin County Board of Supervisors played out through the selection of the site and the architect, the financing of the project, and its eventual completion. The Marin County Civic Center is a state and National Historic Landmark. The main Civic Center building has been nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List as a part of ten properties by Frank Lloyd Wright. The nearby fairgrounds host the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance each spring; they host the Marin County Fair each July.
The selection of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957 to design the Civic Center was controversial. The Civic Center project was Wright's largest public project, and encompassed an entire campus of civic structures. The post office was the only federal government project of Wright's career. Wright's design borrowed ideas and forms from Wright's Broadacre City concept, first published in 1932.
The principal structure consists of a four story 580-foot (180 m) long Administration Building and a three story 880-foot (270 m) long Hall of Justice at a lower elevation, joined at an 120 degree angle at an 80-foot (24 m) diameter rotunda. The Hall of Justice spans a small valley, arching twice over an access road and a parking area, while the Administration Building spans a smaller ravine. Both structures are entered through archways on their lower levels. The long principal facades are marked by shallow non-structural arches of decreasing span with each story. The arches, which are framed in metal with a stucco appliqué, overlap slightly at the lower level. On the intermediate level they appear to stand on short slender gold-anodized columns, and on the top level they become round openings with gold railings directly under the deep roof overhang. The railings themselves have a circular pattern. The bright blue roof is itself patterned with arched cut-outs and raised circular patterns The building wings are arranged as a barrel vault shape on either side of the central galley, asymmetrically disposed. Interior guardrails at the atrium are solid stucco with no metal elements. Entrances are controlled by vertical grills of gold-anodized metal with rounded tops and bottoms, rather than doors. The eaves are embellished with an arched fascia with small gold balls inset in each arch, a pattern repeated in the atria.
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