photo by: Bremen Keasey

The office building at 2000 Bluffs Drive in Lawrence. The former call center building has been proposed by the city as a potential new site for an updated City Hall. The Lawrence City Commission will hear a presentation about the plan Tuesday night.

Omar Maali thinks of one photo of a conference room that tells a story about the space in Lawrence’s City Hall.

In a presentation given to the City Commission on Sept. 10 that outlined plans to potentially move away from the current building at 6 E. Sixth St., one of the slides showed that photo as an example of the “challenges” of the current location. In it, you can see two hastily created desks, stuck in the corner behind what Maali, a senior project engineer with the city’s Municipal Services and Operations department, said is the executive conference room. It left him imagining the absurdity of needing to vacate your desk because a different department needed to use the meeting room, which just happens to have your desk in it.

photo by: City of Lawrence

Two employees’ workstations are located in this conference room at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

Space concerns and the need for a more flexible and collaborative environment are two of the biggest reasons the city is interested in finding a solution to move away from the downtown city hall location, which was built in 1980, to a new building at 2000 Bluffs Drive. City commissioners also seemed interested in the idea of moving away from the current building during that Sept. 10 meeting.

Before the commission takes a vote on the issue, which is expected to happen during the Oct. 15 meeting, the Journal-World wanted to look closer at why the city might look to make that shift.

The city first explored the potential need for renovating or changing the current City Hall back in 2019, and part of that need was because of the growth of Lawrence since City Hall was built. In 1980, the population of Lawrence was about 52,000 and the city was 19.5 square miles. In 2024, Lawrence has a population of about 96,000 and takes up 32.6 square miles.

Maali said the old building may have been the right fit when it was first built, but it’s not enough for city employees’ current needs.

“We’ve already outgrown this space like with the current staff,” Maali said.

Megan Dodge, the director of human resources for Lawrence, said there are about 150 city employees who are based out of City Hall or at the Riverfront building, where the city is currently leasing out space for the municipal court and the Planning and Development Services department.

Gwen Gigous and Katie Pohlman, the two presenters from architecture and design firm Multistudio, said at that staffing level, the city would need about 40,000 square feet of space for its employees. The space at City Hall only has about 35,000 square feet of space for employees, which has created challenges for being able to make space for departments since the city has grown, Dodge said.

“It is a pretty limited space,” Dodge said.

Maali said from a space perspective, the location at Bluffs Drive is the perfect fit. That location, formerly a call center and customer service location, has 50,000 square feet, which would allow the city to consolidate its departments in one location.

Multistudio presented projections that city staff for departments at City Hall could continue to grow over 10 years — potentially by another 46 people, which would mean a need for potentially 53,000 square feet by the firm’s projections. Even if that’s the case, Maali thinks the move to the new building would give city employees adequate space for the current needs, something that could not happen with a renovation of the current City Hall.

Renovations to the current location would cost an estimated $12 million, but it doesn’t include the costs of the lease for the offices at the Riverfront building. Meanwhile, the Bluffs Drive location would cost an estimated $11.7 million to renovate, but it would also cost about $4.2 million to purchase the site. The city has set aside $12 million in project funding in its long-term improvement plan to cover the costs of either project. Any construction on either project would be expected to start in 2026.

If the city looked to build an extension to the existing building, Maali said it would be “super expensive.” He said that average cost of new construction is about $450 per square foot if the building site is “optimal” — flat land, no worries with a bunch of underground wiring.

But the land by the City Hall is crammed, which would drive the cost up. If the city wanted to build another 15,000-square-foot building that could connect to the current City Hall, for example, the cost for the addition alone would be about $6.7 million, Maali said. And that’s not including the fact the current building would still need to be retrofitted with new electrical wiring, HVAC ducts and other renovation projects.

“Attaching a new building to an existing building (would be) a nightmare,” Maali said.

Additionally, the layout of the 2000 Bluffs Drive building is seen as a plus that can create better flexibility and collaboration between city staff.

As part of her work as HR director, Dodge said she conducts an employee survey to ask about working conditions and get feedback on improving the working environment. Dodge said in the most recent survey, the feedback aligned with some of the goals of the City Hall project.

The survey found barriers to employee connection between workers in other departments, with many saying it felt “siloed” and that they felt less trust for employees outside of their own department.

Dodge said if the city moves to the new site, employees would be all under one roof, making it easier for departments to interact and collaborate.

The changes to the workforce since the COVID-19 pandemic — including more remote or hybrid options — also made an impact to the consideration of the new site. Of the 150 employees that work in City Hall, Dodge said about 20% to 25% of them work on hybrid schedules, which allow them to work remotely if needed.

Dodge said there is no city mandate about remote work, and the number of employees who have hybrid schedules varies from department to department. Although she foresees those sorts of options continuing to evolve, she believes the whole review of the city’s current work conditions in City Hall will help create an environment that can allow flexibility and improve working conditions.

“It’s really about creating an environment where people feel trusted, supported and cared for as we work together to build the Lawrence community,” Dodge said.

Although there is excitement from some on the potential move, Maali recognizes the sentimentality of the old building, and that its easy access to downtown is a benefit.

Maali said fellow City Hall workers echoed some of the concerns of city commissioners about the proposed new location, like less visibility and accessibility because of surrounding hills and going away from downtown. Maali said the team is exploring options to make the building more accessible, and added a that majority of employees were excited about improving the space they spend “eight hours a day” in.

As Lawrence has evolved and grown since 1980, so too has the working world. The internet did not exist. Prospective workers have different expectations of a workspace and employer. The world will continue to change. Dodge thinks that the potential decision of moving City Hall illustrates just how things in the city are changing.

“We’ve evolved; we need workplaces that evolve with us,” Dodge said.