Old City Hall: When I.M. Pei came to Binghamton, NY (1965)

Architect I. M. Pei (1917-2019)
at Louvre Pyramid (1989), Paris, France. 

I.M. Pei, the celebrated architect, died yesterday. It is a great loss to everyone who has delighted in his elegant creations. Architectural critic Paul Goldberger’s obituary for Pei (New York Times 5/16/2019) describes not only the impact of his work, but Pei’s immense humanity, and his belief that:

Architecture can reach a level where it influences people to want to do something more with their lives. That is the challenge that I find most interesting. - I.M. Pei

Until three years ago, I had no inkling that this internationally-known artist of stone and glass and light had ever touched my gritty industrial hometown in upstate New York.  But, while researching in the vertical files at the Broome County library for the history of  Binghamton's “Old City Hall,” I discovered that in 1965 Mr. Pei was a contender for the design of an addition to the historic building. Here is that story:

“Old City Hall” - A Beaux Arts Delicacy in Downtown Binghamton

Old City Hall, Binghamton, NY
(1898, Raymond Francis Almirall, Arch.)

Binghamton’s 1898 City Hall reflects, perhaps more than any other building, the story of development and redevelopment in that city over 120 years: from the founding of the first settlement; through growth and prosperity; then decline and abandonment; and finally its redevelopment, albeit not a full rebirth. It is a story reflected in the varying fortunes of Binghamton City Hall.

Binghamton was founded at the confluence of two great rivers of the Southern Tier:  the Chenango and the mighty Susquehanna. The favorable siting encouraged its growth as a regional distribution center for locally produced goods. The opening of the Chenango Canal in 1837 and the arrival of the Erie Railroad in 1848 spurred even greater development of local industry. After the Civil War, Binghamton became a booming manufacturing center, fostering great wealth and fine residences for its industrialists, leading to its nickname “The Parlor City.”

In 1857, Binghamton built its first city hall on Collier Street, just across from the Broome County Courthouse constructed on the Court Street green one year earlier. Unlike the simple classicism of its neighbor, the City Hall was a homely, practical building that also housed the fire department, the police station, and community gatherings. Eventually, the violent ringing of the fire bell weakened the tower, so the residents sought to build a new city hall and move the fire department elsewhere.

Original City Hall and Fire Station (ca. 1860). 

When voters finally approved the new city hall in 1895, Binghamton was prosperous. The City wanted a much more imposing home for its government and launched a national  competition for its design.  The two submissions known to date were those of Raymond Francis Almirall (1869 – 1939), then finishing up four years of study at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris; and Henry J. Ross, a young architect working with the firm of Henry L. Ottenheimer in Chicago.

The two designs couldn’t have been more different. Almirall’s was a full-blown French Second Empire “Hotel de Ville” (city hall) – a monumental, effusive, 5-story building of native sandstone and brick, with rusticated base, tri-partite entry, filigreed wrought iron gates; scrolls; cartouches; swags; balconettes; and some rather chubby putti lounging on the façade’s clock. It was exceedingly formal - symmetrical in plan and elevation, and capped with an ornate, open lantern cupola. Mr. Ross’s design, in contrast, showed both the influence of Adler and Sullivan and H. H. Richardson’s Romanesque, e.g., an inset main entrance hooded by a broad round arch, asymmetrical form, and Sullivanesque encrustation of the tower, among other things.

Main Staircase of hotel 
(former Old City Hall) in 2016.

Main Dining Room of hotel
(former Old City Hall) in 2016.

By 1896, the design world had experienced a dramatic shift: Richardson was dead; an economic downturn badly affected Adler and Sullivan’s prominent practice; and America became  enamored  with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition, where the “City Beautiful” was dominated by Classical architecture and Beaux Arts arrangements for the urban plan. Almirall’s City Hall design won the day. The architect later refined his design, resulting in an even more elaborate building as realized.

 In December 1896, as construction had commenced on the Almirall design, the 1856 courthouse was destroyed by fire. It became a perfect opportunity to create a well-designed civic space, centered on a new, monumental courthouse surrounded by a large green. This new courthouse was constructed in 1897-1898, around the same time that the new Binghamton City Hall opened for business.

Several more Beaux Arts or Classical style buildings were constructed around courthouse square over the next 15 years. Together they make a pleasing assemblage of buildings, each fittingly formal, that provides a coordinated backdrop for the courthouse.  The Courthouse and commercial buildings around the square are still in use; the Old City Hall, however, endured a perilous journey to its ultimate preservation.

Binghamton’s Era of Urban Renewal and Redevelopment

Binghamton began a massive urban renewal campaign in the late 1950s. The region had weathered the Great Depression well enough, thanks to a strong economic base, but the post-war period brought losses in industries, in personal and business income, and in population. Binghamton, like many forlorn cities of that period, was confronted with empty storefronts and a declining tax base. It sought redemption and rebirth through urban clearance and redevelopment.

Government Plaza (postcard), ca. 1975. 

Redevelopment efforts began in 1957. More urban renewal plans followed, including the creation of a “Government Plaza” south of the existing Courthouse square. It would house both state and county office buildings and perhaps a new, larger home for the then woefully inadequate City Hall. Prevailing chatter at the time noted that renovation of the existing building would be “too expensive.”

Action-Reaction: The Quest for Preservation

In 1964, the Commission on Architecture and Urban Design (CAUD) was created to guide urban renewal efforts, and to identify buildings worthy of preservation. That same year came the first call to demolish the old City Hall, with its faded and well-worn beauty, setting off great angst among those who felt it should be preserved. 

Then-outgoing Mayor John Burns wanted to preserve old City Hall. In September 1965, he vetoed an ordinance that called for the city to move its offices to the new Plaza. Two months later, Mayor Burns invited I. M. Pei to tour the proposed site, the goal being a site study for an addition to the existing City Hall, as an alternative to abandoning it for a new building.

Around the same time, Pei, who had formed his own firm I. M. Pei & Associates in 1955, was designing in partnership with developer William Zeckendorf’s firm Webb & Knapp. Among the designs he was completing at this time, included the severe Kips Bay Plaza in New York, finished in 1963; the Brutalist Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia (1964); and Silver Towers (University Village) near Washington Square in New York City (1967) – all gridded works in concrete. 

Pei was also working on his own more creative projects, which included the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., completed in 1967, and the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse as well as the Des Moines Art Center, both finished in 1968. These creative projects were also executed in concrete, although in softer colors of rose and buff and arranged in large, geometric, and generally windowless masses.

Pei’s thoughts on wholesale redevelopment and renewal are a topic for a separate, more intense study. However, in an article on urban renewal published the month after his visit to Binghamton, Pei noted that “If you drove all the residents out and made [the city] a gleaming commercial center, it would only be beautiful in a narrow sense. It would be lifeless, and therefore intolerable” (Life Magazine 12/29/1965:139). Perhaps it was this notion of bringing life to the city that drove him to the surprising and elegant design for the Louvre Pyramid in Paris (1989), where the historic Beaux Arts building was reflected in every surface of the crystalline prism. 

For Binghamton, it seemed, Pei hoped to create a similar dialogue between the old City Hall and an adjacent contemporary addition, rather than adding to what was the rather barren landscape of what was becoming the new “Government Plaza” on a nearby parcel. It is a matter of great pride to those who remember this series of events that Pei not only found merit in Binghamton's historic City Hall, but also found it worthy enough to incorporate his own design that would ensure its future use and artful contribution to the streetscape. 

After Pei had studied the proposed sites for the new City Hall at Binghamton, he insisted that he would only take on the study 1) if he were to be acceptable to the incoming administration, and 2) if the addition could be placed next to the existing building, on the site of the newly constructed – and as yet unpaid for - parking deck. 

Old City Hall and Parking Garage (foreground), Collier Street, Binghamton (2016).

Although the Burns administration had approved retaining Pei for the site survey in the last weeks of its tenure, the incoming administration was not interested. It did not want anything built but a brand new building on Government Plaza. Both of Pei's conditions having been defeated, he did not return to Binghamton. 

The New York State Office Building, the centerpiece of the plaza, was completed in 1966; it was followed by the county office building and finally the new city hall, on the western half of the site.

The City government vacated “Old City Hall” in 1972 for the graceless and forgettable new City Hall building at Government Plaza. Anticipating this, local preservationists had the historic building listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1971) and recorded by HABS (1972).

The building sat empty for 10 years as three separate adaptive use proposals were floated. Two failed, but a third proposal succeeded. Local developer Frank Cosentino’s proposal for a hotel and conference center utilized some $500,000 of state and federal grants, which required the restoration of the exterior, the lobby and the former council chambers. The building has remained a 55-room hotel since 1983 and was known as “The Grand Royale Hotel” (the hotel is now known as the "Nuru Binghamton Downtown"). The main entrance was removed to the non-descript rear façade of the building, where cars could park during check-in.

New main entrance of the hotel on State Street, Binghamton, NY in 2016. 

The parking deck next door was demolished in 2016; it was anticipated that an 8-story mixed-use retail and parking facility would be built in its place, but, as of this writing, there is only a surface parking lot.

Postscript and Regrets

Today, if you run an Internet image search for “new City Hall Binghamton,” 99% of the results are of the Old City Hall. Only a few photos of the new city hall could be found in the search. The Old City Hall is still a venerable presence on the streetscape, as is the Main Public Library and the Beaux Arts Courthouse. It is refreshing to be rid of the rusting ca. 1960s parking deck that blocked the view of the historic City Hall. But, just think, for one hopeful moment in 1965, Binghamton could have become the beneficiary of an original design by the great I. M. Pei, architect to the world. And now he is gone.

Resources:

Chen, Aric. “A tribute to I.M. Pei, a disarming and determined visionary.” CNN Style, on CNN.com, the official website of Cable News Network, Inc. ("CNN"). (17 May 2019) URL: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/architect-im-pei-legacy/index.html  accessed 5/17/2019. 

Dragos, Stephen, Ex. Dir., Valley Development Fdn. and John Poppeliers, Sr. Ed., HABS.  “Binghamton City Hall, Collier Street, Binghamton, Broome County, NY.” Photographs, Plans, and Data Sheets. HABS No. NY-5568, HABS-NY, 4-Bing, 3. Historic American Buildings Survey. Washington DC: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1972.  From the online collections of the Library of Congress, American Memory, URL http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ny0457/ accessed August 2016.

Goldberger, Paul. “I.M. Pei, Master Architect Whose Buildings Dazzled the World, Dies at 102.” New York Times (16 May 2019). URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/obituaries/im-pei-dead.html  accessed 5/17/2019. 

"I.M. Pei: Buildings & Philosophy.” Chapter 10, Lesson 6. “Famous Architects Study Guide.” Study.com website. URL: https://study.com/academy/lesson/im-pei-buildings-philosophy.html accessed 5/17/19.

Peckham, Mark L., Field Services, NYS Office of Parks Recreation and historic Preservation, Preparer. “Court Street Historic District.” Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Listed on the National Register 09/07/1984 and NYS Register (08/03/1984). From the online collections of the NYS Cultural Resource Information Systems (CRIS). URL https://cris.parks.ny.gov/ accessed August 2016.

“R. F. Almirall, 69, Architect, Is Dead.” New York Times. 19 May 1939. Online NYT archives. URL https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/05/19/93914239.html?pageNumber=27 accessed August 2019.

Waite, Diana, Preparer. “Binghamton City Hall.” Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Listed on the National Register (03/18/1971) and New York State Register (06/23/1980). From the online collections of the NYS Cultural Resource Information Systems (CRIS). URL https://cris.parks.ny.gov/ accessed August 2016.

Withey, Henry F., AIA, and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970.

Local history collections of the Broome County Library, Binghamton, NY (vertical files).