Hayward City Hall is the third and current Hayward

Hayward, California

Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...

 city hall building, located in downtown Hayward

Downtown Hayward

Downtown Hayward is the original and current city center of Hayward, California, and is home to the current Hayward City Hall, along with the two previous city halls, Alex Giualini Plaza and The Tower at Hayward City Center...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA. next to the Hayward BART Station

Hayward (BART station)

The Hayward station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station that serves the Downtown Hayward area of Hayward, California. It is directly across the street from the rear of Hayward City Hall. The station consists of two train platforms and a free five-level parking garage.-History:Service at the...

. The city hall opened in January 1998, replacing the abandoned Hayward City Center Building, which served as Hayward's city hall for 29 years from 1969 to 1998. Hayward's first city hall, which is also closed to the public, is now in the Alex Giualini Plaza

Alex Giualini Plaza

Alex Giualini Plaza is a park surrounding a vacant building in downtown Hayward, California. The building was Hayward's first city hall. It is located on Mission Boulevard and D Street.- History :...

, three blocks away.

Earthquake preparedness

Since the building is located close to the Hayward Fault

Hayward Fault Zone

The Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating significantly destructive earthquakes. This strike-slip fault is about long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay...

, it was designed to withstand a major earthquake. The inability of the Hayward City Center building to withstand a major earthquake, shown by damage to it from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, was the main motivation for the new city hall's construction.

Details

The interior of the building contains a time capsule

Time capsule

A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...

, to be opened on January 10, 2048, on the 50th anniversary of the building's dedication.

Events

The park and plaza facing the city hall is host to various city sponsored events, including a weekly farmer's market, and in July, the Hayward-Russell City

Russell City, California

Russell City was an unincorporated community in Alameda County, California, about south of Oakland in present-day Hayward. The land is at an elevation of 16 feet . The city was named after Frederick James Russell, who laid out the town in 1907...

 Blues Festival. The city hall contains an art gallery run by the Hayward Arts Council. in 2011, the gallery hosted a major exhibition of the work of Corita Kent

Corita Kent

Corita Kent , aka Sister Mary Corita Kent, was born Frances Elizabeth Kent in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Kent was an artist and an educator who worked in Los Angeles and Boston. She worked almost exclusively with silkscreen and serigraphy, helping to establish it as a fine art medium...

.