By Elizabeth Cloutman

After spending the past month interviewing four regional architectural firms, the Los Altos Hills City Council voted unanimously Thursday to offer John Goldman-Goldman Architects of San Francisco a contract to design the town’s new town hall.

“We have glowing reports of the work (Goldman) has done in the mission style the council is leaning toward, given the history of our area,” said Mayor Toni Casey. “I believe John Goldman’s prices are significantly less (than the other firms’) and that he would get it done in a tighter time frame.”

City Manager Maureen Cassingham said the present town hall, which was built in the late 1950s, is no longer adequate in terms of working space and structural integrity.

“It’s past the end of its useful life on almost every basis: the (leaking) roof, the electrical wiring, seismic issues, meeting the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, and the office space doesn’t work for … customer service needs,” Cassingham said.

While initially $750,000 of the town’s capital improvement plan funds were set aside to fund construction of a new city hall, those funds will remain in the capital improvement plan reserves, Cassingham said. Instead, the city council has decided that the project, which is expected to cost $3 million, should be funded entirely by donations from Los Altos Hills residents, Casey said.

“I think the council is unanimous in that decision,” she said. “Council members have already pledged $250,000 of their personal money.”

Casey stated earlier this month that she believed residents would “feel more a part” of the project if they pledged their own funds. Fund-raising will not begin until after Goldman Architects has completed a scale model for the residents to examine, she added.

Town staff will probably draw up the contract for John Goldman-Goldman Architects within the next two weeks so that the council can vote whether to approve it during August. After signing the contract, the architectural firm is expected to complete the first phase of construction the schematic plan in about seven weeks, Cassingham noted.

“The schematic plan - the essentials of siting and design that takes it up to a model - is the first phase,” she said. “Several phases after that comes the working design.”