The Marin County Civic Center Administration and Hall of Justice buildings dramatically illustrate the kinship of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture to the surrounding landscape. The long horizontal buildings gracefully link the crowns of three separate hills. The circular theme is evident throughout the complex. Materials throughout the Civic Center are simple. Floors are custom-colored composition tile. Walkways and stairs are terrazzo, and partitions are sheet rock. The barrel-arched roof is of pre-cast concrete. The roof is a blue that blends with the sky. Walls are sand beige. Basic construction is pre-cast, pre-stressed floor systems with combined steel and concrete vertical supports. Exterior balconies run down the outsides of both buildings. The decorative arches create a sense of rhythm, and are made of cement stucco on metal laths
Gold spheres outline the entire interior and exterior rooflines. They create the effect of rhythmic unity, and exemplify the Oriental influence Wright displayed in his work. They have been likened to raindrops and called, by some, a string of pearls.
Wright first used many features now considered commonplace in these buildings. Atriums run down the center of each building. They widen as they rise from ground floor level to the fourth floor, to create an illusion of upward spiraling ramps. This also creates narrower walkways on the upper floors, where there is less foot traffic. Elevators and stairs link one floor to another. Atrium plantings provide employees and visitors with the pleasing prospect of either looking inward to the planted, sky-lit malls or outward to green trees and hills. The building complex abounds with detail. Elaborate grillwork, accents and appliqués all follow the "flow of pattern" carefully orchestrated by Wright. Glass and panel partitions separate the walkways around the atrium from office spaces to create an airy, spacious effect. Art exhibits on the first and third floors contribute to the aesthetic harmony of the interior. The central architectural focus for the building is the 80-foot diameter dome with its 172-foot, slender gold spire. The spire creates a visual punctuation mark, which breaks the horizontality of the two buildings. It was originally designed to serve as exhaust outlet for the furnace, and as a radio tower (which was precluded by new technology).
---www.co.marin.ca.us
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