I've been lucky enough to walk to the top of the TransAmerica Pyramid (not from the bottom... just from the top public floor.... soooooo many ladders....) and to the top of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge (which also has an elevator) so when I received an invitation to hike to the top of SF's City Hall, how could I resist?
Really, who could say no to that?
It doesn't even look that far to the top.
You could be sad that signs like this have to go up or impressed that signs like this haven't been torn down in 2 months.
Spiral stairs are hard to go up or down quickly but at this point we were only going up.
This is a peek behind the scenes at the retrofit work.
City Hall was closed from 1989 to 1999 to accomplish some majorly impressive seismic work.
The whole building can sway now. It even has a moat.
More steps up.
The whole building can sway now. It even has a moat.
More steps up.
This is what the dome looks like from the inside.
There are actually 2 parts, and you can sort of see it below, that the top of the dome does not connect at all with the lower half of the dome.
Looks beautiful though.
There are actually 2 parts, and you can sort of see it below, that the top of the dome does not connect at all with the lower half of the dome.
Looks beautiful though.
Maybe that's why there are so many parties and weddings inside.
City Hall was lit red and green for Christmas, so many of my shots look accidentally demonic.
Even the green looks creepy.
City Hall was lit red and green for Christmas, so many of my shots look accidentally demonic.
Even the green looks creepy.
Below is some of the most impressive part in my mind. The entire inner dome is built with an early version of plaster of Paris and is connected to the steel with horsehair. It's definitely creepy, in addition to being impressive.
Felt as weird as it looked.
Time to go up further!
There are 2 sections to the outer dome.
A big round area where you can walk all around and enjoy the views.
There's even a polite rail.
And then the tippy top where we had to climb a ladder to get to and wasn't big enough for everyone on the tour at once.
There was puddled rain water and I was scared to go down the ladder. It was the metal kind that is part of a building, not something temporary. I didn't fall though - no one did!
Davies Symphony Hall below.
o hai!
More views
And I guess I liked this artsy thing.
This light is visible from the street. Above it is a hole we did not go through.
The lights for lighting City Hall for Xmas made it hard to look around (and walk around) at times.
That's the Bill Graham Center in red and green and it has a web cam of City Hall so we had fun trying to look at ourselves. I'd like to go back sometime during the day.
This is the ladder. Maybe it looks less scary than I felt at the time.
I love how the door to get to the behind the scenes tour looks like a completely normal door from the outside but from inside the construction team was like yeah whatever.
City Hall Christmas Tree
Covered in origami cranes. Probably made by children or something.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Felt as weird as it looked.
Time to go up further!
There are 2 sections to the outer dome.
A big round area where you can walk all around and enjoy the views.
There's even a polite rail.
And then the tippy top where we had to climb a ladder to get to and wasn't big enough for everyone on the tour at once.
There was puddled rain water and I was scared to go down the ladder. It was the metal kind that is part of a building, not something temporary. I didn't fall though - no one did!
Davies Symphony Hall below.
o hai!
More views
And I guess I liked this artsy thing.
This light is visible from the street. Above it is a hole we did not go through.
The lights for lighting City Hall for Xmas made it hard to look around (and walk around) at times.
That's the Bill Graham Center in red and green and it has a web cam of City Hall so we had fun trying to look at ourselves. I'd like to go back sometime during the day.
This is the ladder. Maybe it looks less scary than I felt at the time.
I love how the door to get to the behind the scenes tour looks like a completely normal door from the outside but from inside the construction team was like yeah whatever.
City Hall Christmas Tree
Covered in origami cranes. Probably made by children or something.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
