There is still some work being done on its facade and adjoining public spaces, but over the next month the remaining government offices occupying the old City Hall building are scheduled to relocate on a floor-by-floor schedule.

Built on the eastern half of the site where the old City Hall garage was demolished, with a projected 176,719-sf of gross space and 146,655-sf of total usage space, the seven-story City Hall structure along with the public plaza area is expected to come in on budget at $72 million when construction is finally completed. Upon completion and move-in the Municipal Building will then be torn down.

Located on Fifth Ave. between Cherry and James Streets across from the Justice Center., the City Hall building itself takes up only one-third of the total 56,400-sf of land being used for the project with the remaining land going to a two-floor open plaza with the City Council chambers on one end, plus a small retail outlet space and a café located somewhere in the plaza. The council chambers will feature a roof that rises 60 feet. In addition to featuring a public garden the roof of the City Hall building will be high-tech with a built in system to keep in the heat during the winter months, and to control storm water runoff and a drainage system for the garden to recycle the water used by the garden. The City Hall building itself is built with an environmental design that reduces the cost of heating and air conditioning and allows for greater efficiency in electrical use, thus reducing maintenance costs.

"The big thing we're going for is sustainability," says Martin Munguia, Communications Specialist for the City Council. "We wanted it to be something people would be proud of and glad to be going to, but nothing ornate. It looks like an office building – mostly glass, with a little marble, but no grand statues."

Expected to have a 100-year life cycle, the building will eventually house the Mayor's Office, the City Council, the Department of Finance, the Citizen's Service Bureau, the Seattle Channel, the City Clerk's office, the Office of Policy and Management, the City Attorney's office, the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and the Bill Paying Center.

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Relocating Process Started to New City Hall Building

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