Stop #4: The Ziggurat

• OK folks you made it to the Ziggurat, the most unusual part of our Trip down Sacramento’s memory lane. 

• Constructed in 1981, the Ziggurat is a ten-story stepped pyramidal office building and has an adjacent 5 story concrete parking structure here on the West Sacramento side of the river. 

• This building has torn onlookers, dividing our nation into two groups, those who give the building pet names, like the Minecraft building, and those we’ll call, the Haters. Whatever your stance we can agree that its design draws attention. That’s because the architect, Edwin Kado of E.M. Kado & Associates, modeled the structure after Mesopotamian Ziggurats, a region of the world we now know as Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait. 

• Kado had wanted a symmetrical building for the construction and this design promised a strong foundation. It just demonstrates that inspiration can often come from the sharing and exchange of ideas from various perspectives and experiences, which is how we celebrate diversity and inclusion of people and concepts. 

• The structure of the building is a standard column and beam steel superstructure, set upon a pre-stressed concrete, pile foundation system. The structural steel is designed to resist a seismic event of up to 6.9 on the Richter scale, an extremely high standard for the Sacramento area.

• The design of the building might be unique, but it also fits well with the sturdy aspects of Sacramento as well as its diversity, despite not being part of Sacramento City proper. As the headquarters for state agencies, the Ziggurat contributes to the local economy by providing jobs and serving as a hub for government-related activity.

• Despite the building being made for a U.S. mortgage company called The Money Store, the building has changed hands since 2001 and is now leased by The California Department of General Services (DGS), a state government agency in the California Government Operations Agency of the executive branch of CA. 

• The DGS only turns the lights on for certain events, like our National Independence Day, New Years, and Christmas! We love our events and holidays because they are traditional and cultural to us. Gestures like this also build community, giving us and our children experiences we want to share and enjoy together. 

• It’s also not the only Ziggurat building in CA! There is also the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, California. I guess great minds like architect, William L. Pereira who designed the Chet Holifield Federal Building, and Edwin Kado who designed the Ziggurat, thought alike, both inspired by those ancient Ziggurats. 

• Now, normally we are unlikely to experience any serious earthquakes in Sacramento, but our nation has been shaken up since this past year's election results. We can hardly forget that we are impacted by decisions at the Federal level when our own city has had many projects and many residents who rely on Federal investment and oversight. We are not immune to pressures coming from the top down, and we are feeling it. 

• So like Kado we want to build a strong support network from the ground UP. We find that with the structural integrity of empathy, effort, and community, we can achieve our goals for a greater coalition with all levels of government, but especially with representatives who do the work with political integrity. 

• So while we enjoy the Ziggurat and its many funny names and holiday light shows, it’s also a great reminder that diversity, integrity, and strong foundations make for a wonderful display of solidarity and community.

  • Resources:

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ziggurat

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_General_Services

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Holifield_Federal_Building