The design has changed once again for Bradford’s future town hall at 125 Simcoe Rd.
Ronen Bauer and Diarmuid Nash of Moriyama Teshima Architects (MTA) gave council’s strategic initiatives committee an update on the most recent stage of design on Tuesday evening, Aug. 27, showing the layout has essentially been flipped along both the north-south and east-west orientations compared to the previous design from +VG Architects shown to council on Feb. 20.
The response from members of council was generally positive.
“You’ve laid it out so well,” Mayor James Leduc said. “I love the open aspect.”
Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney call the changes a “great design,” while Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott felt they created “wonderful new options.”
The four-storey administration building is now set to front the west portion along Simcoe Road, with an entrance leading into a four-storey central atrium featuring a skylight to bring in lots of natural light.
Bauer explained that area is expected to act as a public/private space, where the public would have access to the atrium, but town departments would be behind security doors to prevent unwanted entry.
On the east half, a two-storey portion replaces the previous design’s outdoor plaza by expanding the central lobby, which would connect to the atrium and face toward the Bradford and District Memorial Community Centre.
Between the new town hall and existing community centre, MTA proposed a new pedestrian plaza as almost all of the existing parking lot would be covered by the town hall.
The lobby would also provide connections to the north and south portions of the two-storey section.
To the north, the gymnasium is intended to better align with the existing community centre, and an adjacent fitness centre is planned, which could be open to the public or limited to just town staff.
To the south would be the combination council chambers and theatre space to which MTA proposed changes to reduce staff time needed to convert from one to the other.
By locating the council setup behind the stage, it can be separated and hidden from view by a curtain when not in use, and the 220 theatre seats can still be used for those attending meetings.
A balcony on the second storey is expected to add between 60 to 70 additional theatre seats, bringing the total closer to the 300 council previously requested.
Both north and south portions are intended to be able to spill out into the lobby if necessary, or that space could be rented separately if needed.
Bauer explained the design is intended to incorporate plenty of east-facing windows to bring in even more natural light and look out over the proposed Centennial Park improvements.
Another major change is the removal of underground parking, since the architects found the water table is less than one metre below the surface, and the process of dewatering, isolating and waterproofing the underground parking would be “extremely costly,” according to Bauer.
Instead, he proposed 31 surface parking spaces on a new lot to the north of the site, south of Edward Street, as well as the option for a two-storey parking structure with about 300 spaces, built over an existing surface lot directly north of the community centre.
While individual floor plans were included in the presentation, Bauer cautioned they are still being finalized, as is the HVAC system, the total number of green roofs, and the construction material — which could be lighter mass timber or heavier concrete.
Those factors could all impact the price, and Bauer explained the design has already gone out for costing based on different options and expects results within the next few weeks.
In the meantime, Steve Neely, the town’s manager of construction projects, explained updated estimates put the construction costs around $750 per square foot, which would work out to about $105 million for the now roughly 140,000-sq.-ft. (13,006-square-metre) design.
That’s a bump over the $84.7 million construction cost Neely estimated for the previous design in a report from Feb. 12.
At the time, construction of the new town hall was expected to begin as early as April 2025 and be mostly complete by September 2026, but no updated timeline was provided in this week’s presentation.
