New City Hall?

In the early 1960s the city hired Alden Dow, one of Michigan’s outstanding twentieth century architects, to design a new city hall. The result was the interesting structure now in use. Dow was well aware that Ann Arbor was a growing city and he provided in the design for economical expansion of the building toward Division St.
The city has grown in the last 40 years, and probably can justify larger facilities. But it seems to me that it would be sensible to expand the present building rather than start over on another site. Some assert that it was only supposed to last 30 years. What proof do they have? They claim it will cost huge sums to modernize the present site. This should be checked out very carefully.
Meanwhile our Historic District Commission, which has fossilized hundreds of less important and much older buildings, is silent, very silent. Why?
Crawford’s Corollary to Parkinson’s Law makes it clear that we should avoid going overboard on expansion. It reads: The expansion of bureaucracy is limited by the availability of facilities.
No bureaucrat is likely to demand that an assistant be provided if that assistant would have to sit across from him and share his desk. It doesn’t always pay to think too far ahead.