Reinventing City Hall: New Lake Oswego Public Services Building
February, 2021
The newly constructed City Hall and public building in Lake Oswego, OR is redefining the way the city engages with its residents. With transparency and a welcoming public interface acting as the guiding principles behind the building’s design, Lake Oswego is following a growing trend among municipalities across the US and abroad.1 A trend that embraces the concept of multi-purpose public buildings, and city halls in particular, as community hubs where the public can more easily engage with elected officials and have better access to municipal services.
At the same time, Lake Oswego’s new public building is an example of Northwest regional style, engineering, and technology meeting the urgent need for improved public and employee health safety, energy efficiency, communications, and streamlined operations.
Providing Cost-effective solutions.
Lake Oswego’s previous City Hall, public services, and the police/911 dispatch center were housed in an outdated building constructed in 1987 with synthetic stucco. The building was deteriorating due to water intrusion issues and the ongoing maintenance costs were rising. The public interface was less than ideal with labyrinthian design and little open community space. Technology and equipment upgrades for the 911 call center were also needed. Renovating the existing building could have solved some of the issues, but in the long run, would have missed the greater opportunity to reduce operating costs, better serve the public, and offer more opportunities for community engagement.
When DAY CPM, a division of Otak, was hired by the City of Lake Oswego as Owner’s Representative, the options being considered at the time were to renovate the existing building or construct two new buildings to house the police department in one, and City Hall in another. Otak’s team, under the leadership of David Lintz, Senior Project Manager, took a collaborative approach working closely with city staff and leadership, as well as Mackenzie Architects and general contractor Howard S Wright. The team also solicited public input. After considering multiple scenarios and the cost-benefits of each, and weighing these against the city’s broader vision of creating a true community center, the third option emerged.
Rather than demolish the existing City Hall and police department building, a new energy-efficient building, that represented a Northwest regional style with modern amenities, would be constructed on the site immediately adjacent to the existing building. In addition to being the most cost-effective solution, leaving the existing structure intact during the construction of the new building allowed City Hall to remain open and the various departments, including finance, courts, planning, building, engineering, the city attorney’s office, public affairs, IT, and the city manager’s office, as well as the police/911 operations, to continue uninterrupted.
The new City Hall will open in March after all new furniture has been delivered, allowing city employees to enjoy a smooth transition into a fully operational new space with minimal disruption. Once the existing building has been vacated, it will be demolished, making way for a public plaza and additional public parking, which will be completed later this year in August. The new civic plaza will further establish Lake Oswego’s City Hall as a true community hub.
Improving health safety and energy efficiencies.
Health safety was a top priority from the start and the arrival of the pandemic in 2020 only served to heighten the sense of urgency. The new building’s design includes advanced air filtration throughout providing better air quality for building occupants and visiting public. Energy efficiency has also been greatly improved through the building’s engineering design, technology, and materials used, as well as the installation of solar panels and systems that will reduce operating costs. 
Stepping into the future.
The new building may be a bold step into the future, but it is also steeped in practical solutions. The city has effectively reimagined City Hall into a multi-purpose building with an inviting public interface that also includes public common areas and a home for the city’s Arts Council and Booktique. The open gallery design, a break from traditional government building design, is welcoming to the public who now have greater access to the various departments and the people who serve the community. There are public-facing conference rooms and a large community room that can easily be partitioned off to accommodate court proceedings, or council chambers. Gender-neutral bathrooms have replaced traditional bathrooms, remaining in step with current societal norms.
The building design also takes advantage of the different elevations of the site. City Hall and the various city offices are accessible from the street level on A Avenue side of the building, while the Police Department, which sits on the lower level, is accessible from 4th Street on the opposite side of the building.
In the end, Lake Oswego’s new City Hall provides a much improved public interface, increased government transparency, and opportunities for greater community engagement. It is a welcoming space for citizens, elected officials, and public servants to come together in new ways to better serve the interests of the community as a whole.