New City Hall opens
Whitefish City Hall at the corner of East Second Street and Baker Avenue. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Alexis Guier assists Paula Greenstein Monday morning inside the new City Hall. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
City Council Chambers are on the second floor of the new Whitefish City Hall building. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
A customer gets assistance in the lobby of the the new Whitefish City Hall, which opened Monday morning. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Historic photos are scattered around the City Hall buidling including this one of Central Avenue. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
City of Whitefish employees gathered Friday inside Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish City Hall and the attached parking structure opened to the public Monday morning. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish City Manager Adam Hammatt addresss city staff Friday inside Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
A new Whitefish City Hall opened its doors Monday morning in the same downtown spot where the original City Hall building operated for nearly a century.
The $16 million new brick City Hall and attached parking garage was busy with activity on its first day of business at the corner of East Second Street and Baker Avenue.
“This is a momentous occasion,” City Manager Adam Hammatt said. “It was 100 years ago that this happened last.”
Cars were parked inside the parking garage and by mid-morning citizens were already finding their way around the new building.
While many have been keeping watch on the construction process for the last 19 months of the red brick exterior, Monday was the first glimpse of the interior that features dark wood trim to compliment the red masonry work. Natural light flows in through large windows in the lobby and second floor, and historic black and white photographs are featured on walls throughout the building.
City staff Friday gathered in Council Chambers on the second floor for a photo. Hammatt thanked staff for its hard work moving into the building last week and for their work during the construction process.
He also thanked Whitefish for a “wonderful facility which will serve the community for many years to come.”
“I want to thank everyone for their support and patience through this project and as we have been cluttering up downtown with construction activities for a while now,” Hammatt said. “Martel will continue working on touch up and other odds and ends over the next few weeks, but the disruption to City Hall business should be minor.”
Martel Construction served as the general contractor on the project. Mosaic Architecture designed the building.
Crews demolished the historic Whitefish City Hall on Oct. 27, 2015 and immediately began construction of the new City Hall and parking structure, which includes about 200 parking spaces. Also included is a commercial space at the northwest corner of the parking structure, but that is not yet occupied.
The city Parks and Recreation and Planning departments also moved into the new City Hall after previously being house in the city’s buidling in Depot Park.
An open house for the new City Hall is set for Monday, June 5 from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be tours of the new building in 15 minute intervals beginning at 3 p.m. A ribbon cutting ceremony, short speeches and the placing of a time capsule will take place at 5 p.m.