Hayward City Hall is the third and current Hayward city hall building, located in

downtown Hayward Downtown Hayward is the original and current central business district of Hayward, California, United States, and is home to the current Hayward City Hall, along with the two previous city halls, Alex Giualini Plaza and the City Center Building. ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States, next to the Hayward BART Station. The city hall opened in January 1998, replacing the abandoned

City Center Building The City Center Building, known briefly as Centennial Tower, was the tallest building in Hayward, California. It was previously the second tallest, until the 2013 razing of Warren Hall on the Cal State East Bay campus. It was for many years an ...

, which served as Hayward's city hall for 29 years from 1969 to 1998. Hayward's first city hall, which is also closed to the public, is now in the

Alex Giualini Plaza Alex Giuliani Plaza is a park surrounding a vacant building in downtown Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as ...

, three blocks away.

Earthquake preparedness

Since the building is located close to the

Hayward Fault The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. This fault is about long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It runs ...

, it was designed to withstand a major earthquake. The inability of the Hayward City Center building to withstand a major earthquake, shown by damage to it from the

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

, was the main motivation for the new city hall's construction. Hayward City Hall time capsule plaque

Details

The interior of the building contains a

time capsule A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ba ...

, to be opened on January 10, 2048, on the 50th anniversary of the building's dedication.

Events

The park and plaza facing the city hall is host to various city sponsored events, including a weekly farmer's market, and in July, the Hayward- Russell City Blues Festival. The city hall contains an art gallery run by the Hayward Arts Council. in 2011, the gallery hosted a major exhibition of the work of

Corita Kent Corita Kent (November 20, 1918 – September 18, 1986), born Frances Elizabeth Kent and also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an American artist, designer and educator, and former religious sister. Key themes in her work included Christiani ...

References

City halls in California Buildings and structures in Hayward, California Government of Hayward, California Government buildings completed in 1998 1990s architecture in the United States {{AlamedaCountyCA-struct-stub