The Beverly Hills City Hall is a historic building and city hall in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

Location

The building is surrounded by North Santa Monica Boulevard, North Rexford Drive, South Santa Monica Boulevard, and North Crescent Drive.Google Map Its main entrance is at 455 North Rexford Drive, which faces the

Beverly Hills Public Library The Beverly Hills Public Library (abbreviated BHPL) is a public library in Beverly Hills, California. Location The library is located next door to the BHPD headquarters, opposite the Beverly Hills Fire Department, and near the Beverly Hills City H ...

, adjacent to the

Beverly Hills Police Department The Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) is the police department of the City of Beverly Hills, California. History The first law enforcement agency was formed shortly after the City of Beverly Hills was incorporated in 1914. The first city ...

.City of Beverly Hills: City Hall
/ref>Beverly Hills City Hall
''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an enginee ...

'' A few doors below on North Rexford Drive is the Beverly Hills Fire Department, next to the

Beverly Hills 9/11 Memorial Garden The Beverly Hills 9/11 Memorial Garden is a memorial space in honor of the victims of the September 11 attacks in Beverly Hills, California at the corner of North Rexford Drive and South Santa Monica Boulevard/Burton Way. Dedicated on September 1 ...

. Behind it, on South Santa Monica Boulevard, is the

Beverly Hills Civic Center The Beverly Hills Civic Center is a landmark building serving as a civic center in Beverly Hills, California. Location The Beverly Hills Civic Center stands at 455 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly Hills City Hall Nima1

History

In the 1910s and 1920s, before this building was constructed, city administration services took place at the

Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Cinema of the ...

.BEVERLY HILLS, A BRIEF HISTORY
, Beverly Hills Historical Society However, in 1925, a two-storey building was erected on Burton Way to serve as a city hall and fire department building. Yet five years later, a petition signed by 2,000 residents which was presented to the Beverly Hills City Council called for a new building in a new location. Thus, in 1930, land was purchased from the

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

to build the city hall. Construction lasted from 1931 to 1932. The building was designed by architects

William J. Gage William J. Gage (March 8, 1891 – September 28, 1965) was an American architect. He designed many buildings in Los Angeles County, California, including Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Biography William John Gage was born in New York City. Gage ...

and

Harry G. Koerner Harry G. Koerner ( – February 27, 1935) was an American architect. He designed many buildings in Los Angeles County, California, especially in Beverly Hills, including the Beverly Hills City Hall, the Beverly Hills Fire Department and the Beve ...

in the

California Churrigueresque Churrigueresque (; Spanish: ''Churrigueresco''), also but less commonly "Ultra Baroque", refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th c ...

style, a type of

Spanish Revival architecture The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the ...

.Jeff Dickey, ''Los Angeles'', Rough Guides, 2003, p. 114
/ref>Eve Bachrach
Beverly Hills Landmarking 1932 Churrigueresque City Hall
''LA Curbed'', May 7, 2013 The building was constructed by the Herbert M. Baruch Corporation. When the city hall opened in 1932, it was called by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' the "largest and most expensive City Hall of any municipality its size in the country." The building was renovated in 1982. Additionally, it was expanded from 49,000 to 67,000 square feet. Moreover, the ground-floor reception area was renovated in 2008, when the main entrance was moved from North Crescent Drive to North Rexford Drive. The building appears in the movie ''

In a Lonely Place ''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...

'' (dir.

Nicholas Ray Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film ''Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features pr ...

, 1950). It is also used as the police department building in ''

Beverly Hills Cop ''Beverly Hills Cop'' is a 1984 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, screenplay by Daniel Petrie Jr., story by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr., and starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop who ...

'' (dir.

Martin Brest Martin Brest (born August 8, 1951) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Education Brest was born in the Bronx, New York, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1969, from New York University's School of the Arts in ...

, 1984). For the Beverly Hills centennial in 2014, a 15,000-slice cake in the shape of the Beverly Hills City Hall was designed by chef Donald Wressell of the Guittard Chocolate Company and decorated by Rosselle and Marina Sousa.Martha Groves
For Beverly Hills' centennial, a 15,000-slice cake — of course
''Los Angeles Times'', April 25, 2014 It cost US$200,000 to make. As part of the Beverly Hills Centennial Arts of Palm Installation, sculptor

Brad Howe Brad Howe (born 1959) is an American sculptor from California. His work has been exhibited domestically and internationally. Early life Brad Howe was born in 1959 in Riverside, California. As a student of International Relations at Stanford Unive ...

designed four sculptures outside the City Hall.'Arts of Palm', ''

The Beverly Hills Courier ''The Beverly Hills Courier'' is a free weekly tabloid-sized print newspaper of circulation in Beverly Hills and the surrounding communities, and a daily web newspaper. History The publication was founded by March Schwartz in 1965. His staff inc ...

'', August 22, 2014 Volume XXXXVIIII, Number 34, p.

/ref> According to ''

'', it is "the largest short-term public art installation ever to be held in Beverly Hills." In the midst of the Droughts in California, 2015 drought, the city government replaced the grass in front of the city hall with Mexican sage to reduce their water consumption.

Purpose

The building houses the city administration, including the office of the Mayor of Beverly Hills and board meetings of the Beverly Hills City Council. Additionally, it houses the Municipal Gallery, an evolving art space designed by interior designer

Gere Kavanaugh Gere Kavanaugh (born 1929) is an American textile, industrial, and interior designer. She is the principal of Gere Kavanaugh Designs. Early life and education Gere Kavanaugh was born in 1929 and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a BFA from ...

. Inside the building, a sculpture by

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

called ''Torso of a Walking Man'' can be seen.City of Beverly Hills: Public Art in Beverly Hills
/ref>

Heritage value

In May 2013, the Beverly Hills City Council voted to add the building to its list of historical preservations.

References

{{coord, 34.0729, N, 118.4005, W, source:wikidata, display=title 1930s architecture in the United States Buildings and structures in Beverly Hills, California Buildings and structures completed in 1932 City halls in California Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California