City City
Bang Bang
Ho w ham m e r ing away
at City Hall co uld
r e sto r e an d i mpr o v e
the iconic bu ild ing
By Shannon Finnell
C
ity Hall was a lauded public building when it was built in 1964, with wood fins symbolizing Oregon’s
connection to the forests, a very public terrace and a design that bubbled with democratic values and encouraged
a connection between government and citizenry that wasn’t dominated by an imposing tower.
But after years rusting in the garage, Eugene’s own City Chitty Bang Bang might be razed rather than
remade into something special.
Earthquake issues (aka seismic inadequacies) plus the end of steam heat and a decade without structural (or even
cosmetic) maintenance mean the building, as it stands, has to go. Now the Eugene City Council faces an as-of-yet-
unscheduled decision: Knock down City Hall and build a new one, or strip the structure to its skeleton, repair it and rebuild
an improved version?
Because City Hall is no magic car, and the issue of what to do with it is too tough a decision without an in-depth study,
the city formed a citizens’ committee to examine its options. Between budget, square footage, sustainability and historical
value, a rebuilt city hall seems like a winner, without the risks and unanswered questions that would come with a
partnership with a developer. And yes, it could even be a pretty City Chitty Bang Bang again.
Two teams of architects created reports on both rebuilding and building new, then adjusted them based on citizens’
committee feedback. These studies don’t hold all the details of what exactly would be built under each scheme; they are
merely the committee’s conceptualizations, created to help City Council make a decision based on real information before
it moves forward by commissioning real plans.
Beauty & The Pits
Kevin Matthews, editor of ArchitectureWeek, says
that the spirit of Eugene City Hall’s original design is
lost under peeling paint, and that renovations have
obscured the original design, making it feel less open and
as if it’s lost its entry marker. Matthews says a rebuild of
City Hall would be an example of what’s known as a
re-skinning, where the aesthetics are stripped of “messy
things that have happened over time” and beautified in
new ways that are more in keeping with the original
design. “Some of the most exciting spaces to be in are
old spaces that have been updated so that there’s an
interplay between old materials and new materials,” he
says.
David Mandelblatt, a Downtown Neighborhood
Association member who participated in the citizens’
committee, says that although the new building was an
attractive option, he favors rebuilding the historic
structure with modifications to make it more open from
a street perspective. Mandelblatt says that creating more
square feet inside City Hall is the best use of limited
dollars, adding that taking the risk of having something
created by developers which could be left aesthetically
unfinished troubled him. “I felt, and I think that other
people did as well, that we’d actually get a fuller product
sooner,” he says of the rebuild. “And that was important.”
Paying for “shelled space” now — space that appears
finished on the outside, with the interior just finished
enough to rent or finish later — was also an attractive
option to Mandelblatt. He prefers it to developing more
space in the future with funds that might never come,
while also spending money on office rent for other city
departments downtown. He says the rebuilt space could
house either retail or city staff when their current leases
run out in the next decade. “I see it as a plus because it
gives you flexibility for the future,” he says.
Mandelblatt says that one of the principles guiding his
14 MAY 17, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
thought process was ensuring that the space would be
used to its best potential. He says he doesn’t think
leveraging the space with a developer for retail or office
space should trump using it for city staff and public
meeting space. “More competition for space, with so
much new space just created, that makes me nervous,” he
says. “I’m afraid of a failure. Downtown deserves
better.”
According to Matthews, there’s another benefit to
re-skinning: sustainability.
Concrete Green Machine
“When you take a concrete structure like we have at
City Hall and put insulation on the outside of that concrete,
then you already have a really good start at making an
efficient and comfortable building, particularly for a
climate like ours that has relatively neutral temperature
swings,” Matthews says. The concrete behaves as a part of
the interior of the building and acts as free insulation itself,
he says.
This would be an incredibly expensive thing to do from
scratch, and Matthews says that’s part of why using the
existing building proves to be energy efficient, as well as
providing a unique architectural style that wouldn’t be built
today due to the cost of the concrete frame. “There’s no
fundamental reason that you can’t take that building and
create a super efficient building energy-wise,” he says.
“The bottom line is that it’s not sustainable to tear down
a building with a good existing structure just to build a new
building for the same purpose,” Matthews says. “That’s
just completely unsustainable.”
The rebuild option presented to the citizens’ committee
also contained plans to build a roof on the 7th Avenue side
that could accommodate a solar array in the future.
The build-new option, according to the study, would
minimize energy use by being compact, thin and oriented
east-west to use daylight.
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