Hillsboro Civic Center

New Development Recreating City's Downtown Core

by Sheila Bacon

The new Hillsboro Civic Center, with its City Hall, public plazas, restaurants and housing, is setting the stage for renewed growth in the city's historic downtown core.

When the new City Hall is complete in 2005, it will give the city more than twice the amount of space it currently occupies in the Public Service Building. Image courtesy of Specht Development

Set for completion in spring 2005, the $48 million civic center gives City Hall a new 106,000-sq.-ft., five-story building; more than twice the amount of space the city currently occupies in the Public Service Building.

It also consolidates all city services into one place. The city has grown so rapidly - from 32,000 residents in 1989 to 79,000 today - that many additional city functions are housed in leased space throughout the city.

"It's all coming back to one place," said Marion Hemphill, Hillsboro's director of capital planning and development. "This will make it much more convenient for the residents."

The five-story City Hall will be built on a raised pedestal with parking underneath. The building is located in the center of the block, with plazas on its north and south sides. A curving amphitheater that will accommodate 600 people, is created with the change in levels at the north plaza.

The plaza area will be available for use by Hillsboro's summer arts fair and farmers' market, as well as the city's annual tree-lighting ceremony.

Affordable and market-rate housing will be just across the street from the plaza, and the retail aspect of the project will support the new civic center's activities. Restaurants and coffee shops are anticipated in the retail area, but negotiations are continuing for specific tenants.

"The area will be interactive," Hemphill said. "The civic center becomes a destination for more than just government."

The Hillsboro Civic Center is seeking a Silver LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, but may pursue a Gold rating if the project team agrees to cover any extra costs that may be incurred, Hemphill said.

Setting the Stage

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The plan to build more than City Hall was spurred by Metro, the tri-county agency that, among other things, manages the area's urban growth boundary. The guidelines Metro had adopted to address growth in metropolitan areas called for mixed-use, high-density development in Hillsboro's downtown core.

"Because of that, the city could no longer think of just a City Hall, but had to think of something that would set the tone for future development in the downtown area," Hemphill said

The City Council felt that its participation in the housing and retail aspect of the project would put the city in the inappropriate position of competing with the private sector, so the city hired Specht Development of Beaverton, Ore., to lead the retail development.

Specht, in turn, partnered with GSL Properties in Portland, Ore., to develop the housing segment.

Specht was one of six initial competitors for the project, and was chosen for the job from three finalists in November 2001.

Todd Sheaffer, chief operating officer for Specht, said his firm was attracted to the project because of downtown Hillsboro's unique character and the opportunity to create a significant development that would help define the city in the future.

"This assignment represents an opportunity to enhance an already vibrant community and create a civic center that will be enjoyable, functional, and efficient for decades to come," he added.

Community Input

To help guide the vision of the new civic center, the council turned to Hillsboro's residents.

An advisory group called "Hillsboro Vision 2020" was created, which met for 18 months and logged more than 3,000 hours of community participation. From these gatherings came a plan that detailed the direction in which the city would head in the future, and helped determine many of the details of the civic center project.

The design of each side of the City Hall building changes to respond directly to the immediate context and environment, said Steve Mileham, a principal with LRS Architects of Portland, Ore. For example, the north elevation has a large curtain wall of glass to welcome in the north light and reflect the giant sequoia trees across Main Street.

The west elevation faces First Avenue, Hillsboro's main civic corridor. This façade was treated in a more traditional style, in a symmetrical composition with a grand curved element above a formal set of steps, tying into the community of the surrounding public buildings.

The housing element of the project incorporates the same brick color and siding painted in the same palette as the City Hall building to unify the entire civic center.

Back to the Beginning

Hillsboro was incorporated in 1876, and like many older cities its downtown core suffered in the 1960s and 70s as shopping centers and malls sprouted in outlying areas.

Downtown Hillsboro became a collection of businesses that were merely "existing," Hemphill said.

"The city has a tradition of a downtown," he added. "The bones are still there, but unfortunately, the businesses aren't."

The development of the civic center is a conscious effort on the part of the city to help the downtown area thrive once again, he said.

Construction of the Hillsboro Civic Center started in August with the demolition of existing structures on the site, and the project is now well out of the ground. As with any sitework in an older part of town, underground storage tanks were an issue during excavation.

"We ran a pool on how many tanks we'd find,"Hemphill said. Fourteen tanks were removed from the site.

Contaminated soil from a former dry cleaning business on the site and a high water table have also presented general contractor Baugh/Skanska of Beaverton, Ore., with some problems, but nothing that wasn't anticipated.

(This is the last project to be completed under the Baugh/Skanska name. Since the project was bid, the general contractor has completed its name change from Baugh Construction to Skanska USA Building Inc.)

Project Team

Owner: City of Hillsboro
Developers: Specht Development, Beaverton, Ore.; and GSL Properties, Portland, Ore.
Architect: LRS Architects, Portland, Ore.
General contractor: Baugh/Skanska, Beaverton, Ore.

Useful Sources:

This site provides detailed information on the project and a web-cam that updates the construction process every 30 minutes: http://www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/