What Makes a City Hall Historic?

Picture Carson, California, today, and one might think of its multicultural communities or the sports complex that is home to LA Galaxy and U.S. Olympic soccer players.

But in the not-so-distant past, the region was filled with landfills and refuse dumps. When Carson was officially incorporated into Los Angeles County in 1968, it needed a symbolic shift to commemorate that milestone, and celebrate its growing population.

That symbol was Carson City Hall.

With its stark lines and sweeping curves, the building stands out from its surroundings. That effect is intentional. The city commissioned it on the site of a former junkyard, and the design team behind it chose a modernist style that pushed the envelope of what urban life looked like to symbolize the birth of a new suburb.

“Modernism was a way to signal that this is a new city without emulating the palatial city halls of other places. They wanted [it] to look like a forward-thinking city that’s open to the future and give[s] a voice to its people,” says Gail Kennard, daughter of the late architect Robert Kennard—part of Carson City Hall’s design team—and president of his firm, Kennard Design Group, the oldest Black-owned architectural firm in Los Angeles.

The City of Carson stewarded the development of a historic structures report for the building (which was completed in 1976) with funding through Getty’s Conserving Black Modernism initiative in partnership with the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Now in its third year, the initiative has supported 16 (soon to be 24) Black Modernist buildings to develop conservation management planning strategies and foster peer-to-peer learning in the field, helping ensure that these sites and the Black architects who designed them are no longer overlooked.

Each funded building has its own unique history. Here’s the story behind Carson City Hall.

Good Architecture for Everyone

The building faces a busy intersection in Downtown Carson, appearing to rise out of the surrounding landscape (including its Japanese-inspired garden) with broad, angular wings that join to form a “Y.”

Its sloping roof leans almost into the ground as a reference to the area’s rolling hills. A spiraling stairwell at its center leads up to a nautilus-shaped atrium, allowing plenty of light to filter in.

The multiplicity of styles makes it a fitting focal point of the neighborhood. It doesn’t just stand out visually, it embodies the multicultural identities of the city. Its design team, organized by architect Robert Alexander, also reflected these demographics, with Robert Kennard as executive architect and Japanese American Frank Sata as design architect. Carson’s population was African American, Japanese American, and white, and Alexander saw their team’s matching demographic as a superpower that would ensure the design met the needs of the diverse community.

“My father was very much a supporter of this multicultural makeup and thought it would be the future of California, where people of different races and from around the country could seek a better life, get along, and live together,” Gail says. “Carson was and continues to be a great example of multiculturalism.”

Robert led the design through a modernist lens, influenced by Alexander who was a proponent of the style and who was the first person to hire Robert after he studied architecture at the University of Southern California. He also looked to modernist architects like Richard Neutra (who he was able to work under in collaboration with Alexander) and Paul R. Williams (who he considered a great inspiration for his decision to pursue architecture as a career).

The design also nods to the region’s past populations, weaving in Spanish-style elements that reference its rancho heritage in the 1700s and 1800s, when a vast portion of the land in the present-day South Bay was granted to Spanish soldier Juan José Domínguez. Arches, tiles, and open spaces meld with the building’s angular exterior, resulting in a unique expression that embodies the culture of Carson across centuries.

“Modernism is not stuck in time,” Gail says. “I think my father was such a strong advocate for it because he believed it could be a tool for bringing good architecture to everybody.”

The New Era of Carson City Hall

Carson’s Assistant City Manager, John Raymond, arrives each day at his office located inside City Hall. He’s enamored with the design elements, like the atrium and polished teak interior walls that give the building so much of its charm. Raymond has been spearheading improvements to the building and led the development of its historic structures report.

“At my core, I’m a preservationist, and I want people to understand architecture on its own terms and not discount it because it doesn’t match our contemporary taste,” he says. “It’s always the struggle with any architectural style that falls out of favor. We’re really updating the building to meet today’s standards and codes, and then it should be allowed to be what it is.”

Now, with the help of the completed report, Raymond has a better sense of the building’s history and improvements that should be addressed—from reinforcing exterior walls to tackling potential seismic concerns. This is the first time the city has had access to this amount of information about the building, and it positions the city at the threshold of numerous opportunities to honor and revive the site leading up to the building’s 50th anniversary next year.

“The report on the building’s condition and its historic context reminds us of the dynamism and enthusiasm of Carson in its early years and its commitment to representation, even then,” says Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes. “Together the design team created an elegant statement to the world about the beauty and quality of the city.”

Raymond hopes to leverage findings from the project to develop publicly available educational reports that tap into other local modernist sites in Carson like the California State Dominguez Hills campus (which includes A. Quincy Jones-designed buildings with exposed concrete waffle slabs) and the Tireco (former Nissan headquarters) building with its clean lines and glass exterior. The reports would delve into themes like modernism, the history of City Hall, and Kennard and the design team to share knowledge that can be applied to other historically significant sites in the region, modernist or not.

This sentiment of giving back to the community is fitting for Robert’s legacy, Gail adds. Throughout his career, Robert dedicated himself to being a mentor as a Black architect who faced numerous challenges and lost out on job opportunities due to racial discrimination. He had an open-door policy for aspiring architects, especially women and people of color, and made the time to share his experiences and words of encouragement with them.

“Architecture is not just about the design itself but also the ‘why’ behind it,” she says. “The bigger story is how it’s going to help make people feel better and experience the building in a positive way, and that’s how my dad approached all his work.”

If you enjoyed learning about this building, learn more about how the Conserving Black Modernism grant program has also helped revitalize a civil rights-era Baptist church or save a community pool designed to welcome Black swimmers."