The
12-foot copper dome is a dead giveaway -- this is
government building. But what at first appears to
be a library or financial building turns out, instead,
to be Orlando's City Hall. Situated on five acres
of land known as City Hall Commons the building is
a tribute to the basic form of other American government
buildings while retaining the clean look and spacious
feeling of modern Southern U.S. architecture. Perhaps
this is what the state of Ohio had in mind when it
erected its monstrous flop of a capitol building in
Columbus. The Ohio experiment looks dingy and half-finished.
But Orlando's version of nearly the same building
comes across as stately, possibly because of the additional
height, or because a better job was done with the
concrete and granite exterior. The interior is nothing
to be sniffed at, either. Going through the main entrance,
you are greeted by a pair of huge classic staircases
leading to the second floor. From there, you can look
back at the 80-foot foyer and its patterned floor
-- a sun pattern in the Sunshine State. With 280,000
square feet in 10 stories, even though this is a new
building one wonders if it is really enough space
for such a fast-growing metropolitan area.