Los Altos Hills council begins operating out of town hall; dedication ceremony set for June 16
By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Above, Los Altos Hills councilmembers convene for the first time in the town’s new council chambers. |
The smell of new carpet, fresh paint and recently cut wood trim was in the air when Los Altos Hills officials unveiled their new town hall last week. The finished building culminates years of planning and debate over cost, design and function.
Those who attended the first city council meeting held in the building last Tuesday were greeted by a light gray, one-story building capped by an overhanging roof. The new town hall seemed to hug the land it was built on.
The building’s board-and-batten exterior consists of vertical planks reminiscent of historic barns. Other design features include copper edging along the roof, expansive windows and a courtyard surrounding an ancient oak tree - the centerpiece of the property.
“It’s a rural solution that’s in keeping with the mandate of this town,” said Peter Duxbury, the project’s architect. Duxbury’s architectural firm has been based in Los Altos for 10 years.
The building is welcoming and the simple, gabled form suits the character of the town, he said.
Despite its size, the 8,555-square-foot town hall suggests the houses that dotted the landscape in the early days of Los Altos Hills. It is more than double the size of the old town hall.
Although much of the work on the building has been completed, city staff have not yet moved in. The town hall is scheduled to be open for business May 25. Until then, city operations are headquartered at the former Bullis-Purissima school site on Fremont Road.
Another important date on the horizon is a dedication ceremony scheduled for June 16.
About $5 million went into constructing the building, initially expected to cost $4.2 million. The new town hall committee, which shepherded the project, managed to offset some costs through rebates, bringing expenses down to just under $4.5 million. The project is the largest capital improvement plan in the city’s history.
Why it was built
Controversy surfaced during the 2004 city council election race over the council’s decision to take out a $2 million loan to pay for part of the project.
Jim Steiner, former chairman of the city’s finances committee, calls the loan unnecessary, but remains supportive of the project.
“I think this is a town hall the town can be proud of for many years,” he said. “(The project) went through a lot of trauma, but I think what they have now is reasonable. Hooray, we’re finally there!”
Steiner was a member of the committee when it recommended a new town hall and earmarked $3 million to start the project.
Another person who has followed the project since its inception is Duffy Price.
“The setting is shown to its best advantage,” she said. “I think it’s a conservative but very well thought out edifice for our town. It’s been fun to have been involved in every meeting from the get-go and to see it brought to fruition.”
Leadership through design
The committee chose to install a solar power system and passive solar design features, such as translucent skylights and solar tubes, a kind of skylight that refracts light through a lens. The design provides enough ambient light for city staff to work without electric lighting, though that was installed as well.
“The idea is it’s not always necessary to have the lights on,” said Councilman Breene Kerr, committee chairman.
The committee continued the lead-by-example theme through the site’s landscaping. It rejected a plan for a 4,800-square-foot lawn, referred to as the “town green,” in favor of a demonstration garden showcasing water-conserving plants designed by Los-Altos based landscape architect Tom Klope.
The landscaping is meant to promote water conservation in the city since expansive lawns and over-watering are blamed for residents exceeding their water allotment through the Purissima Hills Water District.
The landscaping, which costs the same as installing and maintaining a “town green,” will save nearly 20,000 gallons of water per month during the summer.
The area within the town hall courtyard and along the serpentine donor wall, providing public seating, will serve as a community meeting place rather than the grassy lawn.
Since landscaping was not included in the town hall project budget, Mayor Mike O’Malley kicked off fund raising with a $5,000 donation. He intends to send letters to business leaders in the community asking them to match his gift. New town hall committee member John Radford and former Mayor Bob Fenwick have promised contributions.
In the case of the building’s solar power system, the environmental design feature will not only save the town money, it could generate money. It is estimated that over 13 years, the system could bring in more than $100,000 by producing excess electricity that can be sold back to the grid. The system consists of roof panels and a “solar orchard,” panels supported on poles interspersed among trees on the town hall property.
Among the building’s achievements is that it beats Title 24, California’s energy efficiency standards for public buildings, by 27 percent, Kerr said.
Budget ups and downs
The building’s increased price tag hit a chord in the community, evoking memories of the 2002 uproar caused by the initial proposal of a more expensive mission-style town hall. Town officials and residents rejected that proposal because the design was not deemed compatible with the town’s rural setting. Opponents added it would have wiped out nearly all of the city’s undesignated funds and required massive fund raising.
The committee scaled back the project after the mission-style building proposal, but not without going through a few bumps in the road, one of which was a lawsuit that resulted after firing the project’s first architect, replaced by Duxbury.
At another point TBI, the firm in charge of constructing the new town hall, faced skyrocketing cement, steel and lumber prices as a result of the impact on the global economy by booming construction in China and the war in Iraq. The firm succeeded in rebidding projects and altering structural plans so that the construction budget was only surpassed by $55,000.
Earlier this year, Kerr identified the audiovisual and broadcast system as the biggest budget challenge. The committee fired one audiovisual consultant and hired a new one just months before the building was scheduled to be finished. The new consultant shaved thousands of dollars from the cost of the system.
Councilmembers eliminated another cost when they decided to forego spending $14,000 on new chairs for themselves. In total, about $80,000 was spent on new furniture for the building.
Another $200,000 was saved when Los Altos resident Brian Cilker, owner of Sunnyvale-based Pine Cone Lumber, advised the committee not to use costly cedar siding for the town hall. He came forward after reading about the committee’s budget challenges in the Town Crier and donated $3,000 toward a different siding.
“If it had been cedar it would have cost a fortune,” Cilker said. “I thought it would be nice to help out. I know you always have cost overruns with a project like that. (The other siding) will save them money up front and over the long term.”
The committee switched to a more sustainable and durable fiber-cement siding that simulates wood and requires less maintenance.
“We haven’t changed the look of the building,” Duxbury said. “Lifecycle-wise, I think this is going to be a big plus.”
Leaving a legacy
“We’re going to have speeches, music, refreshments and tours through the town hall,” said Price, one of the organizers.
All Los Altos Hills residents are invited to attend, she said. Officials from surrounding communities will also receive written invitations.
A highlight of the evening will be the donor wall with tiles painted by residents.
Duxbury called the wall “a kind of thread to weave the exterior spaces together.” The curved wall serves as a buffer along the street, but also highlights the demonstration garden along the front of the property and the town hall in the rear.
“All public buildings need some community art,” Duxbury said. “It’s been an ongoing link to involve the community.”
The wall serves not only as a building design feature, it has also been a fund-raising tool. Residents purchased the tiles and then decorated them locally. The fund raiser has earned $116,000 toward its goal of $140,000, Price said. About 350 tiles have been sold.
“This has really been a community experience with public art,” she said. “It’s been a very good thing.”
The wall isn’t the only object serving as a legacy for generations to come. A time capsule to be opened in 2055 will be added to the town hall during the ceremony.
Ten-year-olds from the town have been asked to write poems and create art to be included in the capsule, Price said. The idea is for those 10-year-olds to return in 50 years to open it.
