City Hall Primaries
Columbus City Hall, completed in 1981 and designed by Edward Charles Basset of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, lies at the corner of 2nd Street and Washington Street. The building is situated so that the facade is oriented at a 45 degree angle, bisecting the site and allowing it to face the courthouse, which lies at the opposite corner of Washington and 2nd Street. In plan, this creates a right triangle. The triangle is an unusual shape for a building. Walls and rooms are better suited for right angles, and by extension, rectangular geometries. Of course, there are such geometries in the design of this building as well. However, there is another shape that is also immediately apparent- the circle. The design of City Hall is really a collision of three pure geometries: the triangle, the rectangle, and the circle.
The ground floor plan drawing of SOM's Columbus City Hall
This confluence of geometries is most evident in plan. The first movement is the diagonal bisection of the site, creating two right triangles, this establishes the primary form of the building and the residual open space.
The circle makes an immediate appearance by subtracting from the triangular form and creating an exterior plaza. A series of windows runs along the radius, creating a curtain between the interior and exterior spaces.
The two paths leading into the building introduce the first rectangular forms. There is the path into the front of the building, following the opposite diagonal and thus bisecting the building itself. This form follows all the way through the interior and creates the meeting hall space. The second path starts from the west side of the building at the parking lot and cuts through the middle of the building along a 90 degree axis. It creates a disruption of geometries that have thus far been oriented on a 45 degree angle on the site.
After mapping these major geometries, minor repetitions of these can be seen, at times on their own and other times as a result of each other. Another rectangle crosses the first two, this time parallel to the front of the building, creating an intersection of three rectangles at the centerpoint of the building. The leftover ends and the spaces around the intersection create more triangles, which can be further broken down into more triangles.
The striking circular geometry that created the plaza echoes into the building, forming the circulation area in the front. The features here follow a series of concentric circles. The arc of each window extends inside with tall panes of glass that run up the corner of each facet. Two sweeping stairways run along this radius on either side, up to a balcony that runs along the center of this series of concentric circles. A run of columns and finally a run of entrances into the various city offices form the last two concentric arcs.
The circular geometry can be broken down even further. The ground is detailed with evidence of the building’s concentricity. Lines in the concrete form radiating arcs that continue inside with the arcs in the terrazzo floor. Lines originating at the center extend, through the twenty three faceted windows and terminate with either a circular column or a doorway.
These geometries are less evident in elevation. In almost all cases, these shapes are extruded straight up, creating a series of rectangles in elevation, significantly, two rectangular cantilevers extend above the plaza from either side, stopping just short of touching and creating another rectangle in the void between them. Now, consider what shapes in plan are making those forms in elevation. Still the elevation would be expressed as a long rectangle, but now the interrupting alcoves are known to be triangular. The series of rectangles created by the windows can be understood as a semicircular geometry. Section A is anchored by the circular plaza, which is wrapped in the circle of the front hall. Flanking either side are rectangular room geometries, with triangular forms at the very end created from the leftover corners of the rectangular bar.
Section B this takes us past the window curtain, leaving just the circular circulation area, again flanked by triangular rooms. Section C taken through the meeting hall, where rectilinear geometries appear for the first time since the elevation. The triangular forms persist on either side of the rectangular room.
It is clear that these three pure geometries have a strong presence in the design of the Columbus City Hall, but why? Do these shapes serve a greater purpose? They certainly influence the layout of the building significantly. The rectangles define the major axis of the building, which anchor it to the site, and create the pathways into the building. The circles create voids that allow light into the building, function as a place for people to gather, and serve as circulation areas. The triangles are everything else. They are the shape of the building and the shape of the lawn. They are the result of the rectangles and fill in the areas between them. They are the rooms and the offices. Maybe City Hall isn't a collision of three very different shapes at all. Perhaps it is an example of what happens when these shapes work together.