City Hall’s lobby loot questioned
$1M renovation due to end next spring
A city councilor is questioning the need for a million-dollar renovation of City Hall’s lobby that would reorganize security, create a separate entrance for employees and add an information desk, coffee kiosk and electric signs.
“I think we have to focus on the neighborhoods,” said District 7 Councilor Tito Jackson. “I realize that I come to City Hall on a daily basis, but we should really focus our resources on the neighborhoods and communities we serve.”
Plans for the renovation have just gone out to bid and city Chief Operating Officer Pat Brophy said he expected construction to start after Thanksgiving and run through spring 2017. Construction is estimated to cost just under $1 million, Brophy said, and will take place after normal business hours from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday.
The project will also repair lights on the sixth floor and on Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s private staircase, Brophy said, because that would maximize the use of electrical workers repairing lighting in the lobby. He said the lobby project was the first part of a larger plan to re-think the layout of City Hall Plaza.
“This is part of an ongoing effort to not only enliven the plaza but also create a more efficient use of space,” Brophy said.
Some visitors to City Hall only find out they have come to the wrong space after going through security, Brophy said, so the lobby’s new layout would place an information desk near the entryway before people would get in line for the metal detector and X-ray machine. Those will be moved from the center of the lobby to its brick-enclosed corner, which currently houses an unused desk.
That will leave an open area leading to the entryways for the building’s second floor, but Director of Public Facilities Patricia Lyons said security personnel would stop people from heading there without passing through the checkpoint first. Brophy said the new layout would streamline entrance to City Hall.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into the thought process behind that. We believe the queuing will work out,” Brophy said.
And Brophy said City Hall workers would not be part of that queue because they would be able to walk straight in, not pass through the metal detectors and go through an entrance that would scan their badges to give them access to the building.