Council favors square city hall design

Whitefish City Council is leaning toward a more traditional look for the new City Hall building.

During a work session Jan. 5, council favored a square building as the preliminary design when presented with four options, including a curved building corner.

Each preliminary design shows the building constructed with brick, awnings over the sidewalks, and having curved archways.

Option 1 has an 8-foot setback from the street, with a large glass wall, translucent tilt back awnings, monument signage and a curved main stairway inside the building. This design features a square building with the southwest corner of the building setback from the intersection.

Option 2 has no setback, a three-arch glass wall, historic detailing, under awning signage and south wall stairs. This design features a square building, but has no setback from the intersection.

Option 3 has no setback, but features a sweeping curved entry wall at the intersection while incorporating the three-arched entry.

Option 4 has no setback and features a 45-degree entry at the street corner. It includes historic detailing and an internal stairway that wraps around the elevator.

Council favored design Option 2, according to City Manager Chuck Stearns.

Stearns said council liked the double entry into the building, but did ask to have the amount of glass reduced.

Council also said it would prefer the south wall of the building to be at the property line, for the interior stairway to wrap around the elevator rather than be a stand-alone stairway, and for entry doors on both Second and Baker.

Cost estimates for the combined City Hall and parking structure are about $14.6 million for a three-story building with a full basement.

Stearns said council also spent time discussing the design for the parking structure.

The parking garage is to be located on the north end of the block and shows a similar brick-style building. The northwest corner of the structure is designed to house about 3,000 square feet of retail space.

“They wanted the architectural features on the parking structure to match City Hall and to have a better integration of the designs,” he said. “They asked that the archways on the City Hall design be replicated to the parking structure.”

No formal decisions are made during the work sessions, but council did give direction on design elements. Mosaic Architecture will return with updated designs based upon the input.

A public hearing on the design options will be held Jan. 20. Council will consider whether to vote on one of the options or give more direction to the architect.