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Some really liked the concept of the
future town hall, some had questions and
some wanted to be sure the refined plan
would include architectural details to
tie the building to downtown buildings.
There were not a lot of
residents Tuesday night when Little
Diversified architects Steven Hawley and
Vicki Grant explained how the building
will fit into the land along Brooks
Street. The computer drawings of the
building’s exterior are “just a mask,”
Hawley said, that will be refined and
redefined as the planning process
continues.
East Owen on the east side
of Brooks Street will be closed and
graded to become a plaza with a central
water fountain that leads to a round,
glassed-walled rotunda that will be the
entrance lobby on that floor and the
100-seat council chamber above. There
will be a sweeping stairway linking the
two levels and extending down to the
Taylor Street level.
The most arresting feature
of the rotunda will be the circular
clerestory windows that top the council
chamber. The windows can be lit at night
to provide a beacon or lantern, Grant
said.
“I think you’ve done a great
job,” architect Matt Hale said. “Thank
you for not making it a Greek temple. I
think you guys made it look very of this
century.” He also said he liked “the
green stuff and the attention to outdoor
spaces. Those are the kind of things
that are going to draw people to
downtown.”
Janet Rose, a designer and
owner of The Wake Weekly, said a lot of
people had called and e-mailed the
paper. “People are very concerned about
a contemporary box.”
She suggested a number of
ways to change the currently plain
façade of the four-story building
attached to the south side of the
rotunda to reflect elements of the
town’s history. “At least incorporate
some brickwork or some interesting
features’ from the downtown buildings.
She particularly noted the
“cornice detail work, the guttering and
some of the clay tile” on the brick
buildings along South White Street.
“There are two more phases.
This is a conceptual design,” Grant
said, and Hawley said it was their
intention to begin adding those details
as the plan develops. Part of their
displays Tuesday night was photographs
of downtown buildings.
Along with the current
American Legion building and the Green &
Wooten Insurance building, the plan now
foresees demolishing the current town
hall and police station. That last
building would remain until the
companion building across the plaza is
built in five years or so.
“I’ll put in my usual plug
for the building we are sitting in,”
Hale said. “It seems a shame to just
tear this thing down.” He suggested
tearing out the walls, leaving just
exterior walls, a roof and a concrete
slab.
“This could be used for art
exhibits and concerts. It would be a
pavilion in the park. It would be
recycling a building you already have.”
Alphonza Merritt said the
town could save money if it built the
exterior of the second building at the
same time as the first and finish the
interior later.
The town hall, rotunda and
second building for police and safety
personnel will front on both Brooks and
Taylor streets with parking at the sides
of the buildings. Taylor Street – the
right-of-way is dedicated – runs from
the current town hall entrance, through
the parking lot, in front of the police
station and eventually will be extended
to Roosevelt/Wait Avenue just west of
BJ’s Restaurant.
Because there is a 16-foot
drop in elevation from Brooks to Taylor,
Hawley said, they can build the parking
areas as two-story decks. Visitors can
enter the lower level at grade from
Taylor and enter the upper level at
grade from Brooks.
The gray building at the
corner of Brooks and Owen that now
houses almost all of the planning and
inspections department – they have had
to overflow to the white house next door
– will remain for future uses after
planning and inspections moves to the
new building. Planning Director Chip
Russell said it is in sound condition.
The town renovated the building and
installed an elevator to allow use on
all three floors.
The gray building was
designed to house the mayor’s office,
the policeman’s office and the jail on
the first floor, with the local
Recorder’s Court (forerunner of today’s
District Court) on the second. It was
built about 1929 or 1930, and the
construction, the commissioners noted in
their minutes, was to cost $5,500. At
the same time, they planned a fire
department building for $1,500, but that
was never built. Instead the fire truck
was tucked into a garage inside the
building on the north side.
The one-story addition on
the north side was built by the town in
1940 to house Wake Electric’s first
office. J.L. Shearon was the first
manager, and Ira D. “Shorty” Lee was the
lineman from 1941 until 1959. Wake
Electric moved out to its present
building on Wait Avenue in 1950, and the
addition became the town clerk’s office.
Today’s town hall was
completed in the spring of 1979, funded
by an EDA grant for $820,000. It was
built as a steel frame with
non-load-bearing interior walls.
Currently the engineering
department and Deputy Town Manager Roe
O’Donnell are housed in the modular unit
between the town hall and the police
department, and the town has to rent
storage space for records. |
