1500 Marilla Street is Dallas City Hall: a seven-story civic complex designed by I. M. Pei and completed in 1978. It includes the council chamber, municipal offices, public plazas, and parking.
Dallas City Council is actively considering leaving it.
City Hall is 771,000 square feet of cast-in-place reinforced concrete over a similarly sized underground parking garage. Its upper office floors step outward as they rise, creating the broad, sloping north wall.
The building houses the Mayor’s Office, the Council Chambers, administrative and public-service departments, emergency communications, public meeting spaces, and the data, mechanical, and electrical rooms that support them — over multiple levels of secured parking beneath the plaza deck. The city’s own assessment calls the building and garage “mission-critical civic facilities” essential to daily operations.
The problems are real. HVAC, electrical, and other infrastructure equipment has been deferred for years, sometimes decades. Emergency-power systems are obsolete. Roofs, windows, plumbing, restrooms, and a freight elevator need work. Water passes through failed joints in the plaza deck and underground garage. Asbestos-containing materials remain throughout parts of the building and must be managed during renovation.
That is not the same as structural failure. The city’s February 2026 condition assessment says the facilities remain operational and that many structural problems are localized. It recommends coordinated capital renewal instead of continued reactive repairs.
“The City Hall building itself is virtually indestructible.”
— Architect Michael Malone, KERA, December 8, 2025
The same assessment estimates $329.4 million to correct identified deficiencies: $211.7 million for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, elevators, fire suppression, and generators; $64.2 million for garage structural repairs; $43.9 million for roofs and the exterior envelope; and $9.6 million for interiors. That is a planning-level estimate, not a construction bid.
The larger $906 million to $1.1 billion figures describe a broader twenty-year modernization program and financing—not merely the work required to keep the existing building in service. The numbers.
The public discussion often collapses several different choices into “stay or go.” The actual option set is wider:
No public document has yet put a complete price on all of those choices using the same scope, financing assumptions, and time period.
If the move runs through leased space, the terms matter more than the label. In a straight lease, the city pays rent and does not acquire the building. A lease-to-own can credit payments toward a later purchase, but the landlord keeps title until the contract's conditions are met. Either deal turns on the rate and its increases, who pays taxes, insurance, and maintenance, when title transfers, and what happens if either side defaults.
No such terms have been published for any candidate site. When they are, those are the questions to ask of them.
The council has rejected one phased-repair proposal. On June 10, 2026, it voted 9–6 against the repair strategy presented by the city manager. The same meeting’s relocation and redevelopment items were not decided after a judge blocked them over inadequate public notice. See the June 10 meeting record.
The council has funded a search. On June 17, it authorized up to $3 million for pre-acquisition agreements and due diligence on as many as four downtown City Hall sites and four Dallas emergency-operations sites. See the June 17 meeting record.
The council has not authorized a move. It has not selected or acquired a new City Hall, approved a lease or replacement building, sold 1500 Marilla, chosen a reuse, or authorized demolition. The city manager is expected to return with sites and a comparison of the options. Until the council acts again, leaving is a direction of travel—not a completed decision.
Since August 12, 2026 the city has also been defending a lawsuit. The Save Dallas City Hall Coalition asks a district judge to order repairs and preserve the landmark protection; it does not ask the court to block a move. The case in court.