Marble Falls begins designs on rebuild of new City Hall
The old Commercial National Bank building at 110 Avenue H will soon be Marble Falls City Hall. An architectural redesign of the structure is underway with a recent approval from the City Council. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Marble Falls recently hired an architect to redesign the old Commercial National Bank building into the new City Hall, at least temporarily. The City Council approved a $76,000 contract with Seaux Pierce Architecture on March 4 in a 4-2 vote.
The split decision was due to a difference of opinion on how long the building at 110 Avenue H would serve as City Hall.
Marble Falls purchased the old bank building for $2.5 million in January with the intention of moving most of the city’s cramped and scattered offices into a central location.
A new City Hall has been in the comprehensive plan since 2009, according to Deputy City Manager Caleb Kraenzel. At 7,000 square-feet, the current City Hall on Third Street in the downtown district is too small to house all of the departments and staff.
While much bigger, the 12,000-square-foot Avenue H building was always supposed to be a temporary City Hall, with a permanent location to be built in the future. However, the redesign plans for the bank building include a potential addition to accomodate a new council chambers and meeting space.
“I’m not recommending that we do any additions,” said Mayor Dave Rhodes, who voted against the contract. “It’s expensive real estate to have just for council meetings and a few other meetings.
Rhodes and Place 4 Councilor Bryan Walker, who also voted no, expressed concern about spending time and resources on designing a major improvement to a temporary site.
Place 6 Councilor Craig Magerkurth agreed with Rhodes and Walker about the interim nature of the new City Hall but had reservations about totally rejecting the idea of an addition. He advocated for at least seeing what the redesign would look like with its inclusion, which the City Council ultimately voted for during the March 4 meeting.
“I agree with Dave. I’d like to have a new City Hall built, but I just don’t know what that is yet,” Magerkurth told DailyTrib.com. “I just want more options.”
Even with the approved redesign, nothing is set in stone and the additional structure being drafted by Seaux Pierce can be phased out if the council desires.
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If they are going to do the add on as shown in the plan that was presented then that building needs to serve as City hall for a minimum 50 years. Forget building something else 5 ,10, 15 years down the road. Sure its expensive property but so is the land they bought down on main street which was supposed to have been the new city hall. Also the add on appears to have far more seating available for the public to attend the meetings should they wish to do so.