The coverage

A cross-section of what's been written, leaning toward outlets outside Dallas — this stopped being a local story some time ago. The arguments and figures in these are the authors', not mine.

• City Hall as a safe haven — D Magazine, FrontBurner, August 3, 2026.
• Dallas may soon demolish I.M. Pei's iconic city hall — Domus, July 27, 2026. The Italian design magazine, on a fight that now has an international readership.
• World Monuments Fund names 10 “Irreplaceable America” sites — ArchDaily, July 1, 2026. City Hall made a list of ten American places marking the nation's 250th. ArchDaily names the threat plainly: “pressure from private developers and inflated rehabilitation estimates.” The Fund's own entry ties the building to Goals for Dallas and the rebuilding after the Kennedy assassination.
• Dallas City Hall repair estimates range from $500 million to $600 million — The Texan, June 4, 2026. Gresham Smith and WM2 put phased repairs at $531.6M to $610M, against the billion-plus figure that had been driving the debate. A statewide outlet with no stake in the preservation argument.
• Dallas City Hall should be stewarded, not toppled — Dan Noble, The Dallas Morning News, March 24, 2026. Noble is CEO emeritus of HKS. He concedes the deferred maintenance up front, then: “When a cost analysis conveniently aligns with a preferred outcome… it stops being neutral analysis and begins to look like advocacy disguised as arithmetic.”
• People Who Don't Understand Downtowns Are Destroying Downtowns — Henry Grabar, The Atlantic, February 11, 2026. The national frame, and the clearest statement of the ledger: demolition trades today's repair cost for the cost of tearing down, and tomorrow's maintenance for rent.
• The Sinister Plan to Demolish a Brutalist Icon in Dallas — Charissa Terranova, Hyperallergic, December 15, 2025. The public-realm argument, from an art historian who teaches at UT Dallas. Also the most heated piece here — it reaches for words like fascism and kleptocracy. Worth knowing before you click.
• Lamster: Keep your hands off Dallas City Hall — Mark Lamster, The Dallas Morning News, October 15, 2025. The column that opened the argument, and part of the series that won Lamster the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Willis Winters' $825M estimate for a replacement building; Ada Louise Huxtable calling the finished building “breathtaking” in 1978.

The white papers

Ten past presidents of AIA Dallas — the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects — have published four short papers examining the city's case for leaving City Hall. They're hosted by the Save Dallas City Hall coalition. The claims in them are the authors', not mine, and they're worth reading in full.

• Are Cost Projections from the EDC Credible? (PDF)
• The Cost Gap Enigma (PDF)
• Is Dallas City Hall Inefficient and Functionally Obsolete? (PDF)
• Are Dallas City Hall & Plaza Impeding Development? (PDF)

The same group has also published an affirmative proposal — what keeping the building could look like, instead of only what leaving costs:

• Proposed masterplan: CITYSOUTH (PDF) — developing the underused land around City Hall rather than abandoning the building.

Where to check things yourself

• savedallascityhall.com — the coalition campaigning to keep the building, with an email-your-council-member tool.
• The council's calendar on Legistar — agendas, meeting records, and what's actually scheduled.
• Dallas City Council Rules of Procedure (PDF) — Rule 6.3 is how you get three minutes at the microphone.
• The HABS photographs at the Library of Congress — the original aerials used on the front page.

If a link here is dead or something is misattributed, tell me and I'll fix it: chris@1500marilla.com