City hall design goes to vote

The Newport Beach City Council is slated to vote Tuesday on a contract with the San Francisco-based design firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson to design a new $60 million city hall in Newport Center.

The firm would stand to gain as much as $647,675 for designing the municipal complex, according to a City Council agenda released Thursday.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s preliminary design for the city hall includes a large, translucent, light-catching sail on one side of the building that would jut above city-imposed height limits for the area. Residents who live near the site have expressed concerns the sail would block their ocean and bay views.

Newport Beach is still in the process of finalizing its recommendations to the firm for revising the design, but city officials have vowed to scale back the sail.

“It was designed as a civic gesture for Newport Beach,” Steven Chaitow, a project manager for Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, said of the sail. “You want to have a civic center that is clearly definable.”

The firm also helped design a city hall in Seattle that features large, curved, metal walls. The design has garnered a few architectural awards.

“The firm does really try to get it right for each circumstance,” Chaitow said. “We really spent some time learning about Newport Beach, because we really like to work from the inside out, so to speak.”

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s 81,000-square-foot, two-story design for Newport’s new city hall also features a wave-shaped roof that would clear the view plane. A park included in the design plans would feature wetlands, walking trails and an amphitheater.

The firm estimates that its city hall design would cost $36.7 million and that a parking structure would cost about $11.2 million.

With park and site work estimated to cost about $12 million, the total price for the project would be about $60 million.

City officials have said they expect to finalize the design for the new city hall this fall.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].