Blue Room - Design Commission

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Architectural History
Blue Room
Board of Estimate Chamber (The Bullpen)
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Third Floor
2010-2015 Rehabilitation
City Hall Portrait Collection

Architectural History

Blue Room

Board of Estimate Chamber (The Bullpen)

City Council Chamber

Governor's Room

Rotunda

Third Floor

2010-2015 Rehabilitation

City Hall Portrait Collection


Blue Room

Mayor de Blasio in the Blue Room, 2014.

The Mayor’s Reception Room after the Grosvenor Atterbury restoration. Photograph by Apeda NY, circa 1915.

The Blue Room is named for the color of its walls, which were painted blue during Mayor John Lindsay's administration. Located on the southwest corner of the first floor, the room is currently used for Mayoral press conferences, meetings, and receptions. It originally housed the Mayor's Public Office, with the Mayor's Private Office adjacent to it. The Blue Room contains one of the few remaining original architectural details of City Hall: a black-and-white marble mantelpiece.

The room remained the Mayor's Public Office until 1902, when it was renovated by architect William Martin Aiken and renamed the Mayor's Reception Room. At that time, the Mayor's Private Office was moved to the northwest corner of the building, and the room outside the current Blue Room was turned into a foyer, as it remains today.

As part of a larger City Hall restoration project in 1915, architect Grosvenor Atterbury restored the room based on his study of the original building drawings by John McComb Jr. The plaster seals that were installed during the 1902 Aiken renovation were removed from the walls and ceiling, the room was repainted, and new furnishings provided.

According to a January 29, 1937, article in the New York Sun, the northwest corner office was too small and drafty for Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, so he moved his private office into the Blue Room. However, LaGuardia was the last Mayor to have his office there.

During the 2010-2015 City Hall Rehabilitation, minor repairs helped to better outfit the Blue Room for its many uses, while retaining its namesake blue.