I think some of you, at least those who follow on my personal FB page (there are two pages) know about the back story with my laptop (and everything else). My car was broken into in Oakland a couple weeks ago. Everything was taken… except for my camera. Most of it was insured and can be replaced. But my hard drives with all of my pics were both stolen, so everything I shot before, say, mid January? A wrap.

I’ve been handling it pretty well, I think, trying to keep things in perspective. I have the memories of everything I’ve done, even if I don’t have pics. But some places I really enjoyed, and really loved the photographs. So those I can “replace” quickly, I’ve been trying to do so. Richmond was a start.

I was at the Old City Hall earlier this year, and it was a pleasure to go back. The exterior, High Victorian Gothic doesn’t really do it for me. I recognize its artistic merit, but it’s not my thing, you know.

But the interior? The atrium? It’s recognized as a “masterpiece” of cast iron architecture. The polychrome color scheme is original to the 1894 opening.

A couple fun facts about the building: it took 8 years to complete, which I actually think is kind of fast. And it was about 4x over budget, which I’m not at all surprised by given how elaborate it is. Oh, and the building occupies an entire city block.

There were two proposals to demolish Old City Hall, once in 1915 to make room for a mall, and again in 1971 when the building closed after a new city hall was built. Old City Hall re-opened after a renovation in the 80s and now is an office building. As such, visitors are only allowed to mull around on the first floor. Womp. I would love to see what the atrium looks like from above and get get a closer look at the peach ceiling and its skylights.

This will have to do for now. And I’ll happily take it.

Hope you enjoy as much as I do.