October 2002

Ran: San Diego Union-Tribune - Saturday, October 5, 2002

Civic centerpiece

Poway set to break ground on City Hall expansion
By Brian E. Clark

MISSION VIEJO - When Rick Howard worked for the city of Poway from 1986 to 1990, he remembers his office being more that a little cramped.

"Everyone thought Poway needed a new City Hall back then," said Howard, deputy city manager of Mission Viejo.

Now Poway hopes to duplicate Mission Viejo's recent success in building a City Hall on a "constrained site."

"Constrained site" is contractor-speak for a construction juggling act: building a major project on the same land where building filled with people already exist. The trick is keeping the people and the construction from interfering with one another.

Poway' s new civic campus, to be built cheek by jowl with the existing City Hall, will have a different architectural look than Mission Viejo's. But they will share a number of structural similarities and construction techniques. The groundbreaking for the $14.6 million project is scheduled Monday.

A dozen years ago, the not-too-attractive solution to Poway's space squeeze was to buy three trailers and plop them down in the front lawn of City Hall.

As Poway's payroll grew, workers were dispersed to out-lying rented offices. Little was done for the council's meeting chambers, which continued to overflow when controversial issues were debated.

In the years since Howard's departure, the so-called "temporary modular units" have leaked, cracked and split, requiring numerous repairs. Working conditions remain cramped, city employees say.

Now those days are numbered, and Howard says he couldn't be happier for his former co-workers.

"We love our new buildings up here," Howard said. He has given Poway officials tours of the Mission Viejo project, which included the expansion of the city's library.

Howard said Mission Viejo's library, which is directly across the parking lot from the new City Hall, remained open while the library was expanded.

"We had a lot of fencing up, but people were dropping off books and using the library seven days a week, even as we were adding 15,000 square feet to that building and building the new City Hall," he said.

"They did a lot of work at night,so the only delay we had was that the library opened three hours late one day."

Poway's creaky trailers won't disappear overnight, however. The will continue to be used until what Mayor MIckey Cafagna calls the "plain vanilla" office building is completed in early 2004.

First, contractors will tear out the lawn around the trailers and build a parking lot, said Penny Riley, Poway's deputy city manager. That work is scheduled to begin Oct. 22.

If all goes as planned, the parking lot will be completed by the end of this year. Crews will start on the 50,000-square-foot office building. The back edge of that two-story structure will be just five feet from the existing City Hall, on what is now the parking lot.

The entrance to City Hall and offices will be moved to the back of the building. When the new office building is done, nearly all city employees will move into it, and the old City Hall will be demolished. Then work will begin on new City Hall, on the site of the old one.

"It's going to be somewhat complicated," Riley said.

That's why the city has hired San Diego construction company, Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc., which also coordinated the Mission Viejo project. The company was build numerous public buildings and schools around the county, and is part of the team putting up the new Padres baseball stadium.

Barnhart is no stranger to Poway, either. Doug Barnhart, the company's chief executive officer, has lived in the community since 1973. His firm built Poway's performing arts center, library and sheriff's substation.

"I like to do community building where people gather," said Barnhart. "My favorites are theaters and city halls and other civic structures because they define a city and say what it thinks of itself."

The new City Hall, with nearly 6,000 square feet for council members' offices and the council chamber, will be Poway's statement.

"The office building, which will have exposed wooden timbers, a wooden trellis and a stucco finish, won't be anything terribly fancy." Cafagna said. "But the City Hall, meeting rooms and council chambers will be the jewel of the campus."

The council chambers also will increase in size, from 1,000 square feet and seating for 50 people to 2,100 square feet and seating for 128 people,

Chris Klee, a 35-year Poway resident and an administrative assistant in the city's Redevelopment Services Department, said working on what will be a noisy construction site will be worth it.

"We'll get to test our coping skills," said Klee, who works in Trailer C. "And while this place is clean and neat, it has definitely seen its better days."

Klee said she has looked at the office and City Hall plans and found them attractive.

"They look great," she said. "And while new space is definitely needed, as a Poway taxpayer I'm glad they go over the top with this. It'll be something we can be proud of, but not too extravagant."

Not everyone, however is entirely pleased with the upcoming move from the trailers.

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