June 23-29, 2005

naked city

Running Numbers

June 26 is City Hall's 104th birthday. To avoid making it feel old, we're only going to put one candle on the cake — but no promises that it'll be wiretap-free! Zing!

14 Acres of floor space.

30 Years spent on construction, which began on January 3, 1871.

37 Height, in feet, of the William Penn (not Franklin!) statue, making it the tallest building-mounted statue in the world.

37 Amount of bird droppings, in — well, how should I say this — tons, that was purged from the surface of the building in 1993. City Hall: Guano-free since '93!

50 Weight, in tons, of the clock in the tower.

114.7 Miles the second hand travels in one year.

695 Total number of rooms, all of which are visited by City Councilman David Cohen each week as he looks for that confounded meeting room.

24,300,000 Total construction costs, in dollars — $7 billion by today's standards — making it the most expensive municipal building in the world.

—Nick Norlen