Olympia City Hall Project

Jib sections of construction crane over downtown Olympia
Design concept for Olympia's new City Hall
Olympia City Councilmember shovel dirt to break ground on new City Hall

New City Hall Photos

View the progress from your computer. View the new City Hall construction photos online.  Updated September 8, 2009

The Crane Marks the Spot

It's easy to locate the site of Olympia's new City Hall. Just look for the crane towering over downtown Olympia. At the operator's booth, the crane is 155 feet tall.

  • Status of project: This summer, crews poured the concrete for the pile caps and installed the shear walls and grade beams.They poured the slab for the first floor, and made utility connections in the street. Pilings and floors are currently rising. The building will be four stories high. 
  • Currently construction is scheduled for completion by January 31, 2011.

Public Viewing of Model:

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.

LEED Certification:

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.

Improved Customer Service:

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

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.

City Hall 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.