Construction of Fort Worth’s new City Hall and council chambers will continue through 2025.
The city’s project management contractor, Athenian Group, is finalizing plans for new signs, additional parking and public green space to polish off the city’s$230 million development. Meanwhile, construction continues on several floors inside the tower and the new City Council chambers.
The first of 17 floors under renovation will be completed in November. The city plans to move staff over to the new building in waves. The first wave, about eight floors, will move into the new building by June 2024.
The council chambers, which received its long-awaited federal floodway permit, is expected to be completed for its first council meeting at the end of 2024 or early 2025. Tanyan Farley, project manager with Athenian, also updated council members about the percentage of minority- and women-owned businesses participating in the project.
Both the architect and construction manager are within 1% of minority business participation goals of 26% and 30%. Council member Charlie Lauersdorf asked that the city include veteran-owned businesses in its participation metrics.
To support staff moving into the new building, project managers are planning to add more security measures, signage to make the building more accessible to the public, and parking.
“Parking is a very hot topic both on how it’s built, what it looks like and how the program works,” Farley said.
Future City Hall will get 265 more spaces by building new floors onto an existing parking garage. The city will also retain an existing surface lot primarily for visitor parking. Construction is expected to be completed by mid-2024.
The exterior of the building will have new signage to help visiting residents find parking, City Council chambers and the green space set aside at the back of the building facing the Trinity River.
The new green space will not be a public park, Farley said, but includes native plants and walking trails as a part of its design. Council member Elizabeth Beck asked if Farley could connect with the parks and recreation department to turn it into a public park.
Project managers will meet with department managers this week to discuss parking, safety and amenities ahead of moving in.
The building’s new security system will go online in November before department’s move into the building. Security measures will include marshals, camera systems, access control systems and destination-driven elevators. Now, residents sometimes have to wander through City Hall to find their destination. Better signage will help.
These are “aimed to create a secure environment that’s also welcoming and inviting,” Farley said.
Rachel Behrndt is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at rachel.behrndt@fortworthreport.org or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
