Anchoring the Oval
New city hall establishes a civic focal point within Streetsboro’s evolving municipal campus Story & photos by Doug Bardwell
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f the adage “Great things come to those who wait” is a truism, then the City of Streetsboro has just received a well-deserved great thing: a new city hall. Founder Titus Street first purchased the land in 1798 and established the first settlement and cabin in 1822. Incorporated as a city in 1968, the city has never had a “purpose-built” city hall – until now. They now have a 14,000-square-foot, single-story facility at 9184 State Route 43. The $7.8 million project is prominently situated on a nine-acre parcel that includes the new fire department, a splash pad and an outdoor recreation area with a town oval the size of a football field.
Decades in the making
The first town hall was a converted farmhouse. It wasn’t until the city bought nine acres from the school board in the 1980s that they had space to grow. The school building had been constructed in the ‘50s, and not much had been done to update it. The city purchased the parcel with the school building, and moved in. Unfortunately, according to Mayor Glenn Broska, the 60-year-old school building – composed primarily of 30- by 30-foot rooms with just two electrical outlets in each – struggled to support a growing staff
of 15 to 18 employees and increasingly technology-driven operations. “We had equipment connected to extension cords connected to extension cords connected to extension cords,” says Broska. Outdated infrastructure added to the challenge, from steam heat that would have cost millions to replace to an electrical system that still contained some knob-and-tube wiring. For their five-year master plan, they had numerous needs, so they brought in a developer who proposed building and managing a community center for a reportedly exorbitant annual fee. The city quickly rejected that idea and hired a civil engineer to create the current master plan, which included shared recreational space, a firehouse and a separate city hall. “We badly needed the new firehouse, so we decided to build that
first,” Broska recalls. After completing the fire station, the next major need was a community center with space for seniors. “Through a public RFP in 2021, we chose levelHEADS for architectural services, and that was one of the best decisions we made. They designed a very nice, not over-the-top, but highly functional building. We now have a community center there, with comfortable space for our seniors. It’s really proven to be beneficial.”
Designing for two fronts
“When we were finally ready to start this project, we issued another RFP in 2023, and thankfully, we ended up choosing levelHEADS again,” relates Broska. “After months of planning, we developed a design plan, a budget, and received council approval to hire a contractor. We decided to go with a Construction Manager at Risk approach, so we wouldn’t www.propertiesmag.com 9