Height of Dome: 307' 6" Fourteen inches higher at the spire than the dome of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (at the tip of the statue of Freedom).

San Francisco City Hall is the fifth largest dome in the world.

Diameter of Dome: 90'

Height of Rotunda: 183' 6" from grand marble staircase

Size of Building: Two city blocks, covering more area than the California State Capitol in Sacramento

Total Area: 516,484 sq. ft.

San Francisco City Hall, which opened in 1916, is one of the finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture in the world, and is considered by preservationists to be one of the most significant interior spaces in the U.S. The whole of San Francisco's Civic Center is designated a National Historic Landmark District, of which City Hall is a Contributor Building. The Civic Center is one of 16 National Historic Landmarks in San Francisco, including the Cable Car system, the Old Mint and the Presidio.

The exterior of City Hall is of Raymond granite from the foothills of the Sierra. The interior is lavishly finished in California marble, Indiana sandstone and Manchurian oak. There are three acres of marble tile floors. Two large, open Light Courts with glass ceilings are situated on either side of the Rotunda. The original dome was covered in copper plated with lead and gilded with 23 1/2 karat gold leaf. It was not correctly finished and the deteriorated copper took on the familiar green patina. The restored finish, which follows the designer's intent, is gold leaf on special paint that is a matched substitute for lead. It is protected to last more than a century.

San Francisco City Hall designer Arthur Brown, Jr., born in 1874, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1896, where he and his future partner, John Bakewell, Jr., were proteges of famed Bay Area architect Bernard Maybeck. Brown graduated from L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1901. City Hall was built in the spirit of "The City Beautiful" movement at the turn of the century. Brown's design for City Hall was inspired by the gilded lead-plated dome and spire of the Baroque Church of St. Louis Des Invalides in Paris, now housing the tomb of Napoleon.

When they won the design contest for San Francisco City Hall, Bakewell and Brown had designed Berkeley City Hall and Pasadena City Hall. They went on to design the PG & E main office, the San Francisco Art Institute, Temple Emanu-el, the Santa Fe depot in San Diego, the Horticulture Building at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, and many buildings at Stanford University and at the University of California at Berkeley.