This municipal complex, just two blocks from Dodson’s monumental courthouse, is low-key and understated by contrast. The U-shaped group is set in a parklike space, set well back from surrounding streets, with an entrance through a sunken courtyard surrounded by a shady pergola. The structural grid of concrete columns and beams is moderated by perforated ceramic light fixtures, wood lattices, and fir paneling, all signature Ford details of the 1950s and 1960s. The circular Civic Center Building has a cable-supported roof similar to a bicycle wheel that provides a large space clear of internal supports, a structural system Ford’s office employed at La Villita Assembly Hall in San Antonio.