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Although Hillsboro is sometimes referred to as a suburb of Portland, it’s actually its own city with a history stretching back over a century and a half. Hillsboro has been the county seat of Washington County since 1860, and while the County Courthouse, Post Office and Tuality Hospital are all near Main Street, the downtown core has not been a viable area for some time.
That’s why, when the city of Hillsboro outgrew its space in the Public Services Building, it decided to create a new City Hall in the center of the city. The site required some demolition on three-quarters of a 400-by-400-foot block, but city officials are committed to maintaining downtown as the traditional seat of government and heart of the city.
As new information arose, the City Hall project grew. According to Marion Hemphill, director of capital planning and development, Metro’s 2040 plan designated the regional center of downtown Hillsboro as a node for development.
“We decided to redo our comprehensive master plan.” explained Hemphill. “That’s when we moved away from thinking of City Hall as a stand-alone to a mixed-use development.”
Around the same time, citizens helped create a Hillsboro Vision 2020, which showed that a central community gathering place was a priority. Citizens wanted a venue for concerts, fiestas, winter celebrations and other events.
Housing became part of the mixed-use project in order to keep downtown open after 5 p.m.
“We want to make it a real downtown with 18-hour activity,” said Hemphill. “There’s not enough synergy for business to stay open now but with residents in the core, little by little, businesses will stay open later and new businesses will come here,” Hemphill said.
The City Council was in favor of the mixed-use concept, but wanted private development entities to take on the retail and housing components. They issued a design competition and the team of Specht Development, GSL Properties, LRS Architects and Skanska USA were selected to partner with the city of Hillsboro on this groundbreaking project.
“Winning the design competition created excitement at the very beginning of the project,” said Trish Nixon, associate and project manager at LRS Architects. “There was high enthusiasm from every member of the team.”
The City Hall and Housing Project design contains a five-story City Hall building and a two-story plaza building oriented around two public plazas and a residential complex.
The City Hall building sits on a platform 9 feet above grade with parking at the ground level. The first floor of the City Hall is a two-story volume that contains a 250-seat auditorium. This auditorium is technologically connected to 3,500 square feet of conference rooms, allowing audio and video broadcasts from the auditorium to the smaller conference area. The conference area also can be divided into three individual spaces with partitions.
Washington County and the city plan to use the conference space for meetings, but there is no fixed seating so the space can serve public and private events as well. A catering kitchen on the first floor allows local restaurants to be contracted for events.
Hemphill was pleased that the meeting space will offer the potential to bring 300 to 400 people to local area restaurants.
“If an event is not catered, these people will need lunch and this large influx will promote the downtown restaurants,” Hemphill said. “The space creates revenue for both the city and private and commercial enterprise. Citizens expressed a desire for meeting space, too, and the community will be able to use the space at a very low cost or for free,” said Hemphill.
The City Hall building has space for retail on the second floor for a potential coffee shop or small restaurant.
The Plaza building is a two-story building connected to the City Hall building. This building’s prime retail space at the corner of First Avenue and Main Street and is targeted toward providing services to the public that will help energize the activities taking place in the adjacent plaza. City services will occupy the second floor of this building.
The central plaza, or North Plaza, is 24,354 square feet but may be expanded to 49,334 square feet for larger events of 5,000 or more people by incorporating the Main Street right-of-way between First and Second Avenues. This plaza includes a built-in amphitheater with stairs to the platform and seating for approximately 700 people. The amphitheater also provides the podium on which the City Hall building sits. A water feature, landscaping, benches and outdoor seating for retail establishments are planned in the design to enhance the plaza atmosphere when events are not taking place.
“The North Plaza is similar in scale to Pioneer Square,” explained Nixon. “It will also be used for a variety of community events, including a fairly large Hillsboro Farmer’s Market.”
The South Plaza totals 11,368 square feet and connects the City Hall and Plaza Building to the residential component.
At the corner of the project, GSL will develop, construct and operate residential buildings ranging from two to four stories. The city wanted a mix of market rate and affordable housing, so the one- and two-bedroom residential units will contain 27 market-rate apartments and 91 affordable units directed to those who earn not more 60 percent of median income. The ground floors of the residential buildings will offer 3,802 square feet of retail space and adequate parking will be provided.
“The team all focused on helping the city reach their goal of bringing citizens downtown,” said Nixon.
The city’s project criteria also required that the City Hall be submitted for at least a LEED Silver rating and Nixon said it was great to have a client interested in sustainability from the project’s inception.
Michael Jones, associate and LEED Accredited Professional at LRS Architects, said that the city further expressed a desire to achieve LEED Gold.
“If we achieve that, it will be the first City Hall to receive a Gold status,” Jones said. “We are also going through the Earth Advantage program at its Gold level.”
The site is in an urban, dense area which is near multiple modes of transportation such as the light rail and major bus lines. The city is adding showers and changing room for cyclists and alternative fueling stations for compressed natural gas vehicles. The city of Hillsboro made the decision to purchase compressed natural gas cars for city staff travel needs, which greatly reduced the need for parking.
The site is also a brown field redevelopment. Eight existing buildings on site were demolished, and Skanska worked hard to achieve a 90 percent recycling rate for the materials to date. According to Nixon, Skanska’s previous experience with LEED construction brought valuable ideas to the project.
The team gave preference to vendors that have recycling procedures, and inside the building, 5 percent of all materials have recycled content.
“We are also hoping to achieve the LEED point for 20 percent local and regional materials with 50 percent of these materials harvested locally,” said Jones.
Through the use of native plants and drip irrigation system the team reduced potable water by 50 percent, and water occupancy sensors in the building will save 30 percent more water than a normal building of the same size.
High efficiency HVAC systems, insulation, high-performance glazing and heat-recovery units in the bathrooms contribute to the building’s efficient design. Jones said that if the computer model is correct, the new City Hall will be 40 percent more efficient than code requires. The team is conducting both full commissioning and a third-party peer review of the engineering system.
The city is committed to buying furniture that is made of rapidly renewable materials and purchasing green power. The building also will include an educational component of its sustainable features for occupants and the public.
Project completion for the City Hall and housing is slated for spring of 2005.
By creating plazas, retail and housing around City Hall, Hemphill said they hope to spark private redevelopment in downtown and ultimately set the stage for an active 18-hour city center.