{"nrhp_refnum":"91002055","name":"Marin County Civic Center","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of N. San Pedro Rd. and Civic Center Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Rafael","county":"Marin County","state":"CA","lat":37.99807658650005,"lon":-122.53184808633608,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-07-17","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1991-07-17","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A county government complex in San Rafael, Marin County, California, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It has a 580-foot Administration Building and an 880-foot Hall of Justice joined by a central rotunda, plus a nearby U.S. Post Office, on an 81.5-acre site.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the last major work of Frank Lloyd Wright and the largest constructed public project of his career, and the only one for a governmental jurisdiction. The post office is described as his only federal commission. It is presented as a leading example of his organic architecture and of his ideas about democratic government expressed through design and landscape.","narrative":"Two long concrete wings, the 580-foot Administration Building and the 880-foot Hall of Justice, bridge the valleys between low hills in San Rafael and meet at an 80-foot-diameter rotunda. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Aaron Green's San Francisco office, the complex has precast concrete roof shells, gold anodized aluminum details, open light wells and a drive-through archway. The rotunda holds the supervisors' chambers and the county library beneath a shallow dome, with a tall tower beside it. A small elliptical post office near the entrance, Wright's only federal commission, is also included. The nomination treats the complex as Wright's last major work and the largest public project he built. It argues that the layout puts public services ahead of the instruments of government, and that the buildings and landscape were conceived together. It was prompted by Marin's postwar growth, which left county offices scattered across rented sites.","period_of_significance":"1960-1970","architect_builder":"Frank Lloyd Wright","architectural_style":"Modern Movement","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Described as still in use for government offices, courts and library; the form lists current function as the same as historic. Correspondence in the file concerns a proposed jail addition that could affect its integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.611286-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/91002055_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91002055/b5891ffd11-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91002055/b5891ffd11-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Frank Schulenburg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marin_County_Civic_Center_(2026)-L1001193.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Schulenburg</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marin_County_Civic_Center_(2026)-L1001193.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857954","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1150950"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/marin-county/marin-county-civic-center-91002055/"}