Olympia City Hall Project
The crane marks the spot
It's easy to locate the site of Olympia's new City Hall. Just look for the construction crane towering over downtown Olympia. At the operator's booth, the crane is 155 feet tall.
In June and July, crews are pouring the concrete for the pile caps and installing the shear walls and grade beams. Then they will pour the slab for the first floor. Utility connections in the street will also happen in July. Construction is scheduled for completion by January 31, 2011.
A model and renderings of the building are available for public viewing in the current Olympia City Hall lobby, 900 Plum Street SE, during regular work hours. Hoffman Construction of Seattle and Belay Architecture of Tacoma is the developer team.
The City intends to apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification once the building is constructed. According to Hoffman-Belay, the proposed design may meet LEED Gold standards.
With the new City Hall, services and employees now housed in several different buildings will be co-located in a single building for improved citizen service. The City currently pays about a half million dollars a year to rent several office buildings in the general area of the current City Hall. That money will instead be used to pay for the new City Hall.
Once the move occurs, the current City Hall complex on Plum Street will be converted into the City's Criminal Justice Center, including Municipal Court, Court Services, Probation Services, a Day Reporting Center, prosecutor offices, and the Municipal Jail.
Answers to Frequent Questions about Olympia's new City Hall
Construction Underway
Construction on Olympia's new City Hall started Monday, May 18, 2009 with a groundbreaking ceremony and the beginning of pile driving.
Good news ... pile driving was completed in just over three weeks, two weeks less than anticipated.
Soils remediation is a positive benefit of the project. The site was the former location of light industrial and automotive businesses. Under an agreed order with the State Department of Ecology, the contaminated soil has been removed.
Once complete, Olympia city services and employees now housed in several different buildings will be co-located in a single building for improved citizen service. The current City Hall building will be used for Olympia’s Municipal Court, jail, and probation services.
Project Goals.
A building that meets:
- Contemporary office needs for technology, staff and customer space, and energy efficiency.
- Silver level criteria for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
See all of our Project Goals (pdf file).
Energizing East Bay
Learn about the public/private partners to revitalize Olympia's East Bay waterfront, including a permanent home for the Hands on Children's Museum, a public plaza and gathering space, LOTT's new administration and education center, and much more. Olympia's new City Hall will be located just two blocks from this exciting new waterfront redevelopment.
Banner Picture: Walkway to the main door of Olympia's current City Hall.
Olympia's current City Hall was completed in 1966. The one-story round structure originally came with a moat surrounding the center core (the City Council Chambers). The moat has since been filled in with rhododendron bushes and grass, as depicted above. City Hall was designed by architect Robert Wohleb.