Civic Campus Open House - January 31, 2023

About 20 to 30 visitors in the Library meeting room listening to the speaker talk about the city facilities project

On January 31, 2023, the City invited the public to help us design the future of a Civic Campus project. The scope of the project was a remodel of City Hall to house the City Council chambers and Municipal Court functions, and the construction of a new Administration Building to house Community Development, Recreation, Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources and Development Review operations, along with City Manager’s Office staff.

The goal was to design a facility that enhanced how community members interact with local government for decades to come. The Open House invited the public to share what they wanted to see in the new public meeting spaces and City Council facilities that would be constructed with the project.  The City wanted those spaces to be efficient, welcoming, and safe environments for public engagement.

 

City Manager Mark Shepard speaks at the open house

At our Open House, posters told the background story of how the underinvestment in City facilities led to the necessity to expand the spaces for City operations to meet the current and future need.

After a brief introduction, participants were directed to interactive stations to share their thoughts about key features of the planned Civic Campus project. This provided the architect team with a sense of what the community thinks when they think about Corvallis’ image.  These concepts could then be used in the design of the Civic Campus Administrative building and in the remodel of City Hall.

A poster of various photos of municipal buildings and facilities at the open house

One station used a collage of images to get a sense of where Corvallis has been and where we were going. Participants were asked to identify the images that positively represent Corvallis to them and those images that don’t. Sticky notes were used to provide an explanation of what it was about the image that resonated—either good or bad.

A community member writes on a post-it note at the open house

Another station got at how community members would feel about the Civic Campus after it was completed, to suss out what design elements could produce that feeling… An example question--“Imagine it’s your first time attending a City Council meeting in the new building…what are you most proud of in the new space?”

City Councilors review informational posters about the city facilities project

There was good participation from the attendees at the interactive stations and many good discussions took place during the Open House.

The design themes that emerged from the event were:

  • FUNCTIONAL
  • ENERGY EFFICIENT
  • ACCESSIBLE
  • NATURAL MATERIALS
  • BUILD COMMUNITY
  • WELCOMING

To learn more about the City’s effort in planning buildings for the future, visit the citywide facilities project website.

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