Standing apart from the glittering skyscrapers just to the southwest, City Hall's 28-story, pyramid-topped tower remains one of downtown Los Angeles' most distinctive landmarks. It reopened in 2002 after a four-year, $300-million restoration project brought back its Art Deco splendor and shored it up against future earthquakes. Construction began in the 1920s, after the passage of a special variance allowing it to reach its full stature, and ended in 1928. Symbolically, the mortar consisted of sand from every California county and water from each of the state's 21 missions. Inside, the tiled dome of the 135ft-wide rotunda depicts the duties of government: Public Service, Health, Trust, Art, Protection, Education and Government. The dazzling floor is composed of 46 varieties of marble cut into 4,156 inlays. The 27th-floor Bradley Room observation deck affords, on clear days, sweeping panoramas of the Los Angeles Basin.