[0:00] And compliance with the Open Meeting Act, Nebraska Revise Statue 84-1407, a current copy of the Act is available at this meeting. Madam Clerk, can you call roll? Augustine Cholte, here, bar, hemer, jablach, sha, lore, roth, shelling, here. Council President Augustine Cholte, the role has been called. Thank you. We have one item on the agenda presentation by BVBH architecture on the design of the

[0:29] date for our new community building project Tara. Yes. Are you starting? Sure. So, as the

[0:36] agenda item says, BBH is here, Mark Bacon and Matt Smith are here to give you a presentation

[0:43] on all the work that's been happening since November beginning of November since the vote passed

[0:50] on this project. So, they're going to give you a nice overview of how we've gotten to where we are

[0:56] and all the work that's gone into it over the past several months, so feel free to ask questions

[1:01] as we go along, okay?

[1:06] Okay, well it's great to see everyone. Last time we were in this room,

[1:10] as when we were interviewing for this great project, so I'm excited to be in front of you this

[1:15] evening to be able to show you the immense amount of process that we've been able to progress,

[1:22] that we've been able to make. And Rick and Tara and Karen have been great to work with,

[1:27] highly informative, engaged, and bringing in the right people in need be.

[1:31] So it's been a great process so far.

[1:34] And so what we're going to talk about tonight real quick

[1:37] is just do a high level overview of the floor plan

[1:39] and then also the exterior design review.

[1:44] Okay, so with that, again, my name is Mark Bacon.

[1:46] I'm a principal at BVH Architecture

[1:48] and I'll turn it over to Matt Smith, who's the project manager

[1:51] from BVH Architecture.

[1:58] There we go.

[2:00] So, like Mark said, we're going to go over two parts, we'll go over the four plans, roll

[2:05] through those, and then I'll hand it back over to Mark and he'll go through on the exterior

[2:09] design.

[2:10] So, if I go the right way.

[2:15] This is just a little chart.

[2:17] This is how we think, just in kind of a big picture.

[2:20] So we've done all the scribbling and the mess that you see on the left.

[2:24] So but last time we met at steering committee, we've made some good progress and we're at the point now where we can just definitely

[2:33] Unveil the exterior design and also the floor plans to to date so we're getting towards that kind of last loop there as we move forward, but

[2:42] So plan review

[2:45] So everyone knows buildings on the current side of the library as well as it kind of extends out on to 25th Street there

[2:53] And then the parking lot is actually, the future parking lot is actually where City Hall sits.

[2:58] So kind of Dorian everything, looking back, you see Frankfurt Square there on the bottom left corner of the screen.

[3:05] So site plan, we've been working on this, I do want to kind of go through, we're really looking at the

[3:12] extent that's in the dashed area, trying to build it into potentially an overall master plan for the downtown with some of the street updates.

[3:21] But really what we're talking about today is everything inside that area.

[3:25] So really looking at how we can make this building, really tie in, bring some activity,

[3:32] bring some life, connect it back to, obviously, what we're shooting for is Frankfurt Square

[3:36] there as well, really create a hub for the community downtown here.

[3:41] So the building itself is made up of kind of our three main entities, the library, the

[3:48] museum as well as city hall offices. So we'll go through these three fairly quick

[3:53] here. This is looking at the first floor. We have the library on the left. There's

[3:58] a an area for a coffee tenant to be able to move in and build out in open

[4:04] up shop. We also have the water offices there in the pink as far as utility so

[4:09] people can come in pay their bills and whatnot and then the library and then

[4:14] the children museum on the right. So that orange area you're seeing there is really

[4:18] are kind of our center front porch area that we'll mark will elaborate on as we get further

[4:22] into the discussion tonight as well as we're kind of indicating kind of a front porch on the exterior

[4:28] as well so you can see the cars along the back there along the alley so we have we have drop off for

[4:35] the water bills we have dropped off for book return and book pickup as well as the future coffee shop

[4:42] So,

[4:46] second floor, go up. The library extends from first to second. We have arts

[4:51] council as well. We kind of have a little center front porch where showins where the

[4:56] library or the arts can use that space for programming uses for whatever events

[5:03] they may be putting on. And then we're also showing the children museum which is a

[5:07] two-story space in that kind of X area, but then we have a mezzanine that will

[5:12] overlook that space as well so we can really get the interaction for all the kids

[5:16] as they are in that space.

[5:20] Third floor this is where we're showing right now in the

[5:24] yellow community room and also the council chambers so the future home of all of

[5:29] you so we have it we have it set up right now where the yellow is kind of the open

[5:34] area it's a dividing room we'll kind of go through some of those options as we go

[5:39] through further into this presentation but really looking at making this a flexible space that can

[5:45] be really utilized for the city for whatever needs may be there. And then the pink areas you can

[5:53] see are the city hall. So we have open offices, some enclosed offices as well as some of the other

[5:59] amenity spaces and conferencing for the building itself. And then that orange bar you see is since we

[6:06] have a kind of a larger area at the pre-function space before and after events that are utilizing

[6:12] the community room. I've got a question. We've got the community room and the city council

[6:20] on the third floor. Yes. To me that doesn't seem like it'd be very accessible. Yep. So

[6:29] In fact, it's on the third floor, you know, right now, you know, we're here, we're ground level, I guess I'm not too hung up on, I'm hung up, should say, I'm not on that third floor, but anyway, that's my opinion.

[6:48] Yeah.

[6:49] And we do have our elevators and access and an essential kind of grand staircase that goes through the center of the building as well to make sure we have adequate access.

[6:59] We wanted to really accentuate the views down towards

[7:03] Frankfurt Square and really make this a destination spot for the building.

[7:08] The last thing we wanted was this big kind of 3,000 square foot room that

[7:12] maybe sent empty or set empty for a majority of times are really making it a

[7:18] destination, trying to activate it as much we can and trying to prepare for as

[7:23] many uses as it can be. It also has a tie-in and I can get into that as well.

[7:28] the library has a use for it as well and it does tie in with the stairs the

[7:34] connect. I'll hop into that real quick to hopefully answer a little bit more.

[7:40] So this is the first level library you can see in the gray here. So this is the

[7:48] stair that's connecting the two floors of the library. It also extends up to that

[7:52] community room, and I'll flip real quick to the third to the second floor. This is where the

[8:01] little kids are going to be as we've gone through programming with Karen and her staff and really

[8:07] allowing for that accessibility up to the floor because they do have events where there's like

[8:10] 300 or so kids and trying to get them up and into the space that they need to be in as soon as possible.

[8:17] so really trying to accent. So that's one of the reasons for the location of that

[8:22] community room.

[8:25] I'll go back real quick.

[8:29] So you can see the front entry and the

[8:30] orange. We have the access to both the Chilean Museum as well as the library right

[8:35] off that front porch area. So you can have access on both sides. The coffee shop

[8:41] is connected. We're looking at how we can operationally have both of those open

[8:46] so you can access it from inside the library. But it also can be shut off so

[8:50] So if operational hours differ, neither both of them can be the same time or they can

[8:55] be open independently as well.

[9:00] Going up to this second floor, this is the area where we have the teen and youth areas.

[9:08] We have the little ones, the children's areas, as well as what we're calling the business incubator.

[9:14] So computer tech support, everything for the community, heritage room, conference rooms that

[9:19] the community can run out and utilize as well as that front porch area that's kind of

[9:25] a flux space. So in the first and second floor both of those areas can be utilized by whether

[9:31] the children's museum, city functions, the library, it's really set up so whatever program

[9:36] is needed there, it can be utilized as much as we can for the building. And then the gray

[9:44] area right here is that centralized library staff. Currently in the old building, they

[9:50] are all kind of scattered apart, so really pulling them in together to make more of a collaborative

[9:54] environment for them so they can work together and develop programs for the community in a much

[10:00] more efficient manner. The white area there is open area. That's, yep. So this is a two-story

[10:09] way to space? Two story area. It's two stories for taller exhibits. Yep. So

[10:19] sometimes they need taller exhibits for for what they're putting in there. So

[10:22] we're trying to provide for that. I don't want to be critical about it. No, no,

[10:27] no, it's perfect.

[10:31] And then we talked about the community room up there. We are

[10:34] showing different layouts for it. So we're looking at kind of a 200 to 250

[10:40] 50% capacity for this space as well as the city council showing we'll go through

[10:46] multiple of these but this is showing kind of that at max capacity we could get

[10:50] even more than that if we do chairs and like the kids sitting on the floor so

[10:55] we can go higher than 250 in this space per code as well so we're just showing

[11:00] kind of the seated arrangements that essentially could happen and how it can be

[11:05] set up.

[11:08] We do have it set up. We can have collaborative tables so tables facing

[11:13] each other in kind more of like a work session, banquet seating, shown with the

[11:18] tables in the round, and then also seminar seating so that kind of teaching

[11:23] where everyone's at a table and they have similar tests that can be used and

[11:28] then looking towards one direction. And then also go ahead. If we're gonna have

[11:34] tabled out there. I didn't count them, but there's a bunch of them and turn 50

[11:38] chairs and everything. Where are we going to store all that stuff? Good question.

[11:41] So you can see this kind of jumbled mess. I can find my mouse. So this is the

[11:46] storage area for all of these. So what we're actually showing is all the tables.

[11:49] They actually flip up a nest so we save as much space as possible. So we've we're

[11:54] actually putting in the amount of tables that we're showing here or actually

[11:57] showing here as well. So we have the proper amount of storage for the tables, the

[12:01] the banquet tables and the chairs all together.

[12:03] So that's what that kind of secondary yellow area is there.

[12:11] And then something else we are looking at as well

[12:15] is showing this space being divisible.

[12:18] So there's a partition that will be able

[12:20] to divide the space into two.

[12:22] So if you maybe have two functions that wanna activate the space,

[12:28] maybe there's someone who doesn't need quite all the space,

[12:31] you still wanna have a council meeting.

[12:32] you can really multi-use and then do all use that space try to make it we're

[12:38] trying to make it as flexible as possible so it maintains. What is the pink space

[12:42] again? So the pink space there is the the council chambers area so that's more

[12:46] of a permanent space it is raised up or raised it up similar to what you have

[12:50] here six inches so we can elevate that we also are looking at adding we're still

[12:57] working out the furniture arrangement everything getting into those details but

[13:01] adding some sort of curtain divider to.

[13:04] So if you do have a presentation like in this style,

[13:09] you could have a presenter that could present here,

[13:11] we could have a screen that could come down

[13:14] and they could present to that.

[13:15] So you could have still that kind of front stage set up

[13:18] if you so choose.

[13:20] But then now,

[13:24] so you can all

[13:30] close off.

[13:31] That's it.

[13:31] Oh, okay.

[13:33] So we really know that a lot of this equipment

[13:35] it just it just is what it is and it has to sit where it does but trying to

[13:39] try to use it as best we can but also dividing it off so it's secure too. Do

[13:43] also want to point out there is a secure entrance much like you guys have

[13:47] here that's towards the back here as well. If we go into an executive session where

[13:54] do we go?

[13:59] Okay yeah so where is the elevator in this? Oh the elevator you can see it

[14:05] here. So the elevator we have is right here in the center. So we actually have two elevators

[14:10] in the building right now. This one is here, I'll get to the other one here in a second.

[14:15] But we have our main stair that goes up the three stories and then we have the elevator

[14:19] here. So as a council member you can come up here, you come down a hallway here and then

[14:25] you're entering into the chambers. General population would come, we have two entrances

[14:30] reason as light locks here. So if someone gets here late or or something they don't

[14:35] become disruptive when they're trying to sneak in the back. Is there a caterer's

[14:41] kitchen? Yep, so we do have a catering kitchen slash teaching kitchen. So we've

[14:46] been working with the the library staff as well on this because they're going to

[14:52] be programming events out of it as well. So it not only will act as a catering

[14:56] kitchen for someone draining out the space, but it's also

[15:00] So we're looking at setting up as more of a teaching area as well. So when the library programs

[15:06] or whoever wants to program a space, there's amenities there to do so.

[15:16] And then going back

[15:18] down to the first floor. So this is that children museum space. Like we said, we have that

[15:23] two-story area. So if we have taller exhibits, we can account for that. Also connecting on

[15:28] the two floors. This will be like a mezzanine up here. So when I go to the second floor, you

[15:33] see that, but providing interval bathrooms, and then there is a second elevator shown

[15:39] right now for transportation of exhibits and whatnot up and down. Delivery of exhibits

[15:46] and we'll be through the north east corner here, off to the side. So we start the trucks

[15:53] here, off-load, bring them in, you can bring them straight in the space or you can bring them

[15:57] straight into the elevator. There is a shared wood shop as well for the building as well

[16:03] as for the children's museum to utilize, shall they need it?

[16:08] How many square feet do we have in the children's museum?

[16:13] So overall, children's museum is 10,500 square feet,

[16:19] same as the program.

[16:21] Yep, so we have...

[16:26] That's the mezzanine area also?

[16:29] Yep, it includes everything.

[16:30] So there's about 8,000 square feet on the first floor,

[16:33] and there's about 22,500 square feet on the second floor.

[16:36] So, and here's the second floor, so you see that mezzanine, and then that open to below situation here.

[16:43] As you look down with family restrooms that are independent. So all the restrooms in this are independent.

[16:48] As we're going through security measures for the children's museum, just trying to understand how we can make sure everyone is protected as they're in this space.

[17:02] And then hopping up City Hall, so you can see kind of that other half, there's a community room with the council chambers.

[17:10] the access, there's access back here so if you need to dismiss into session there's

[17:16] conferencing back here to be able to utilize. This is a shared break area for both

[17:21] city hall staff and library staff so we're not doubling up with those. We're

[17:26] using one shared space for both of those entities and then if there's anyone

[17:32] from the public who's visiting we do have this entry lobby so this will be

[17:35] your main, so you come off the elevator,

[17:38] you come off the elevator here,

[17:40] and then enter into kind of a secure lobby,

[17:43] so we can maintain security before anyone's allowed

[17:45] into the kind of city hall proper.

[17:48] And then we also are providing two open conference rooms here.

[17:53] So if anyone has a meeting set up

[17:55] or someone comes here to want to stop to anyone,

[17:57] they can come out greet them

[17:58] and then actually take them into one of these conferences

[18:01] because they're having to bring them back through the space

[18:03] is really how that's set up.

[18:05] And then there's a variety of different sizes and types of conferencing open workstations as well as some private offices in the city hall areas.

[18:17] I know that was fire hose of information, so any other questions on that on the plans?

[18:24] Just a comment on the coffee shops, and I think it's important to clarify, maybe everybody understands that this is not a city run coffee shop.

[18:36] this will be put out for bids for at least it's something everybody believes is

[18:44] really nice for this facility but it's not the city competing with Starbucks

[18:49] or maybe it is a Starbucks but it's not the city I just my point being I want

[18:54] people to understand we're not getting in the coffee business no just

[19:11] for a scooters

[19:12] But, you know, that it is set up well for a future tenant.

[19:16] Yep.

[19:19] All right.

[19:23] Excuse me.

[19:24] Yeah.

[19:24] We can go back to the level here.

[19:27] What's that white area on the bottom?

[19:30] I can't read that.

[19:31] Oh, so this is that open, that two story space

[19:33] we were talking about.

[19:34] So it's just open to below.

[19:36] Oh, right.

[19:37] Yeah.

[19:37] So it's a two story volume that does not have a form.

[19:40] Yep.

[19:41] And that's to allow for the taller children's museum exhibits.

[19:44] OK.

[19:44] All right.

[19:45] Yeah.

[19:45] Thank you.

[19:51] So as we've been working through the entire project,

[19:54] we had set up these project challenges with the entire team.

[19:59] And when I say entire team, that means Rick, Tara,

[20:01] and Karen, all of us were coming up with,

[20:04] what should this project be about?

[20:06] And when you have to make decisions,

[20:08] you reflect back on these project challenges.

[20:11] And so what you're seeing in front of you

[20:13] is those challenges that we came up with.

[20:16] And so I'm going to go through each one of them

[20:17] as we work through the exterior design.

[20:19] This gives you a little bit of a peer behind the curtain of how architects and designers

[20:24] think when we're trying to design a building in your community.

[20:30] And so first I want to start with just how do we make a building that fits in Columbus?

[20:36] It can't be anywhere else, it doesn't look like it belongs anywhere else but it belongs

[20:40] right here and withstands the test of time.

[20:43] So, part of that is about durable materials that are easy to maintain, but also does it look

[20:51] current today and does it look current 10 years from now? All that's really important so that you

[20:56] don't have a building that becomes dated quite quickly. And so, we always start with, you know,

[21:02] the context that we're working with in that being the downtown. So, you're probably familiar with all

[21:07] these buildings. You know, there's lots of government and civic and church and retail spaces.

[21:13] And so just to isolate a few, this is what we started to focus on.

[21:19] And what you'll notice is the downtown is primarily consists of some sort of masonry,

[21:27] whether that's stone, whether that's brick, you know, it's used in a myriad of ways.

[21:34] The other thing is, at the street level, there's oftentimes glass.

[21:38] So glass is important for the retail shopping experience to see in, but also when you're inside the facility to be able to see out.

[21:46] And then as you'll notice this also has an overhang on it, which helps protect the glass from unwanted solar heat gain or sun heat gain.

[21:57] But it also provides cover for people walking to and from each store and to and to and from a store.

[22:05] So you're getting out of your car and you can go while it's raining you're not getting rained on as much

[22:11] so

[22:12] And then also again what we've we've looked at is just how the what the downtown makeup is

[22:18] So these blue lines just represent the different repetition, you know

[22:23] Sometimes the the city plat or the block that creates the width of the building sometimes it's about the structural system

[22:30] sometimes about materiality, but really what you should know is, you know, they're using those for

[22:35] very specific reasons. Oftentimes that's to define entry points or large amounts of glass

[22:42] or that retail experience where you notice that heavier blue line or a blue swatch there,

[22:47] which just really shows like street presence that these buildings have in downtown. Also height

[22:54] is really important or as we would call it scale and proportion. So again,

[22:59] retail is oftentimes two stories. It's meant for, you know, people coming in and

[23:04] out and there's oftentimes retail in the first floor and offices or

[23:08] residences on the second floor. When you get to a government service building,

[23:12] like a bank or such, you know, they get a little bit taller about a story and a

[23:17] half and then a government building oftentimes is about strength and

[23:21] permanence and but also they just they're taller because they have more spaces, more program

[23:28] packed into them. And then you get to the Plac County Courthouse which as you notice here is one

[23:32] of the tallest and one of the tallest buildings in your downtown. Again that's about just you know

[23:38] it's anchoring the Frankfurt Square. It's one of the tallest buildings it's sign of permanence and

[23:44] strength. And so all these things are important as we start to unpack the design and work through it

[23:50] and explain it.

[23:52] But again, the primary thing we got to remember

[23:54] is we're designing for people.

[23:56] This should be a building that people want to come to,

[23:59] people brag about to the other communities,

[24:02] brag about to their relatives.

[24:04] And so we want to make sure that we're keeping that in mind.

[24:06] So again, how do we create a warm and welcoming environment

[24:10] that it is a source of city pride?

[24:13] So again, just reflecting back on the context

[24:15] that those entry points, that clear idea

[24:19] of connection back to the street scape. So what's happening along on our, in our

[24:25] case, 14th is really important. So again, when we're looking at how we design

[24:31] for people, it's how do we make a building that is three stories tall, feel more

[24:36] human, more approachable. And so one of the things we've looked at is, you know,

[24:42] a building that kind of steps back like the profile that you see here. So the

[24:48] The second story roof sticks out a little bit further than the second floor itself and

[24:53] the second floor sticks out a little bit further than the first floor.

[24:56] That's about creating connection, again, linking back to that retail idea of a lot of glass

[25:02] connecting to the street, also on the second floor getting, you know, those nicer views,

[25:10] but also being able to be connected with happening at the street level.

[25:14] So again, this is where a building becomes alive when you can have all of those connections happening.

[25:20] So this is a depiction as if you were sitting in the library space having a cup of coffee,

[25:27] reading your book and looking out toward 14th Street.

[25:31] So that is the opportunity to have a lot of connection to the street.

[25:37] And a view looking east, so standing underneath those overhangs that we are just talking about looking back toward the east or where the new parking lot would be toward the Children's Museum.

[25:51] So again, this is an area where we've tried to reinforce this idea of the front porch. The idea of a front porch is symbolic where all are welcome.

[26:00] All can all belong here. All should come and use this facility.

[26:05] It's also a way to shade and provide outdoor space.

[26:10] So for outdoor learning, we know during the pandemic that outdoor learning has been

[26:15] highly influential in space, and so being able to create that, but it also gives you

[26:22] the opportunity to have outdoor play as well.

[26:27] So as children are here, there's places for them to play.

[26:32] Also, you know, like the plantings and things begin to act as safety devices so people

[26:37] that don't put their car in park don't end up driving through your building.

[26:41] So there's just things like that that we're trying to be smart about when we're designing.

[26:46] And so a view from Frankfurt Square, that intersection looking back toward the building,

[26:51] Platt County Courthouse there is off to your left, you can barely see it, and then, you know,

[26:57] the view.

[26:57] you. Again, you'll see it most frequently with trees in front of it, but we wanted to

[27:03] show it without the trees, so you can just understand how the trees begin to soften

[27:08] that. They will change in color, they help shade the building, all those things. So I'm

[27:14] going to provide additional outdoor canopy and shading for the users. So one of the things

[27:27] We have created a physical model of your building, and some people respond better to seeing

[27:34] a three-dimensional model of that building rather than those images I was showing you.

[27:40] And so, this is a Iggy Peck Architects book, I'm sure it's on Karen Shelves, you know,

[27:45] whenever you have to create something, or whenever you have something in mind, you have to

[27:50] create it, you have to build it to show it.

[27:52] And so, you know, that's what we're trying to do here and so feel free, you know, at any point

[27:58] you want to get up and look at it, but it's a diagrammatic look at what your building will be.

[28:04] It's not going to be all wood as this shows. So, again, this allows us to just help connect it back

[28:12] to your community, help us understand the design. So, again, standing on from the south,

[28:18] This would be in the current city hall parking lot that's across the street from the library

[28:23] being able to look at that view

[28:25] And so I'm going to focus this in on several aspects of the project right now

[28:30] again the front entry

[28:33] Being able to bring you into the front entry

[28:35] undercover gets you out of the elements, you know be able to drop off

[28:39] You know family friends and

[28:42] Allow them to have a covered entry into the building

[28:45] Again, children's museum off to the right, the library off to the left.

[28:50] And then if we stand back at the Frankfurt Square intersection again and start to focus

[28:55] on the lower portion of it, the side porch is where the coffee shop and the public library

[29:00] have an outdoor seating area.

[29:03] So again you can see the Platt County Courthouse kind of off there in the background.

[29:07] That provides not only an outdoor space for people to use, but also shading for the glass

[29:14] that's on the west side since it does face west or like the tables and chairs

[29:20] will they be fixed or will they be movable or what what your plans there yeah we

[29:25] would need to work through that right yeah yeah right now we're just

[29:29] establishing the budget for the furniture yeah but we'll work through that and then

[29:34] if we start if we begin to look at the second floor level which on this end is

[29:40] the children's, yeah, the children's area of the library.

[29:44] Again, it's facing west and so we wanted to be able to connect it back to Frankfurt Square

[29:50] and those views, but also protect the building so that we're not from unneeded sun control.

[29:58] Sorry, unneeded.

[30:04] And so we've looked at, again, we haven't designed the interior of this. This is really a concept image of being able to have these playful areas in the children's area that then, you know, they can step up on a platform and have those views back out toward, you know, something that's iconic within your community. Then if we start to look again from the city hall.

[30:29] the parking lot, we look at the community room and what you'll see is it's a

[30:34] taller space. Now that is purposeful for many reasons, one of them being the

[30:40] type of events that happen in there. Because it's you know a large space you

[30:45] have to have a taller volume bigger screens for you know audio visuals because

[30:50] the projector has to be far away so that the people that are sitting in the

[30:53] back row can see. Also it helps as we'll show later connect it to the downtown

[31:01] context that we're designing within. So again when you're up on that third floor,

[31:06] you can have all these spaces be completely dark so you can give an AV

[31:12] presentation but you can also open them up and have views out to the south

[31:18] across 14th down to Frankfurt Square. Something else that should be mentioned to just

[31:25] beyond these, you know, this wall here that my cursor is kind of floating over is a

[31:32] rooftop terrace. So that could be, again, part of the revenue generation part of

[31:38] that, or also just be a spillout area for, you know, for this community room.

[31:44] Again, we would have great views out toward Frankfurt Square.

[31:49] You answered my question because I was going to ask you about that flat area if that was possible.

[31:52] Yeah, it's limited in size just for egress reasons but it's there.

[31:58] So it's definitely an amenity for this community space.

[32:01] So again, one of the reasons we put the community room up on that third floor.

[32:06] So the overall material palette is quite simple and quite durable.

[32:10] looking at brick, you know as we talked about in different values of glass being

[32:17] clear glass and sometimes we're using opaque glass, opaque glass helps us

[32:23] control the sun, but it also is a fun thing like if you, yeah, the study space

[32:29] right on the other side on the inside, it actually acts as a whiteboard, so you can

[32:33] draw on it with dry erase markers and it becomes highly functional there too. So

[32:38] So again, it does a lot of different things for us and does some heavy lifting.

[32:43] Again, we live in a beautiful state that has an infinite horizon and an infinite sky,

[32:49] and we should always consider that as part of where we're how we're designing, and then

[32:55] also just the context of the existing historic buildings that make Columbus what it is.

[33:02] So, you know, we've quite simply just used materials that are quite familiar, as well

[33:08] as, you know, I won't go into this in detail, but details that are familiar, too.

[33:12] So we're looking at different aspects of your downtown and appropriating them to the

[33:18] building.

[33:19] So, again, that it can fit in.

[33:22] So one of the things, too, is we're highly conscious about the amount of glass, because,

[33:29] We want to be able to have good views in and out of the building and not make it a dungeon,

[33:35] but also we don't want it to be a utility or an operational issue for you.

[33:41] And so one of the things we've looked at is this becomes diagrammatic.

[33:44] A black and white drawing is on this side of the building, the south and the east,

[33:51] you can see the glass percentages.

[33:52] 50% of the South facade is glass, and that's where the most demanding program that requires

[34:00] glass needs to be, so that's where the library is at, right, where you can have those types

[34:05] of spaces.

[34:06] I was just telling the other group an hour ago that it's about a sticky space.

[34:11] So a sticky space is defined by how do you get people to stick in a space.

[34:17] Those things that make people stick are access to views, access to natural light and power, right?

[34:25] Because we all have devices today that we want to be able to plug in.

[34:28] So, we've been able to do that through access to views and natural light

[34:32] and the overhangs are doing a lot of work for us.

[34:36] And I'll show you how we're able to confidently say that through some computer simulation that we've done.

[34:43] Just for a reference, the police station, your new police station, there is the glass percentages.

[34:49] So, you know, we're well within kind of what your, one of your newest buildings in the city is.

[34:59] So, as we come around to the north side, so this is kind of that service access where you can pay

[35:03] your water bill, drop off a book, and get a cup of coffee. And, again, 20% on the

[35:13] north, 12% on the west, and then this is relative to your police station.

[35:18] So again, we, you know, that's just a good visual for you to, you know, because that building

[35:24] is built.

[35:25] So you can kind of see, you know, about how much glass is going to be on this new building.

[35:31] So again, just coming back to these views, again, we're looking at the roof, which provides

[35:37] user impact, you know, so the roof overhangs impacts the way people use it.

[35:42] as well as helps with your utility bills, glass,

[35:46] even though I went through those each side of the building

[35:50] has a certain percentage of glass.

[35:52] When you total up the amount of glass

[35:54] for the entire building,

[35:56] relative to the amount of surface area,

[35:58] only 27% of the building is glass.

[36:02] So it's a fairly low number, which is actually good

[36:07] because once we get to 30% or above,

[36:09] there's certain energy codes that start to kick in and so that's a threshold

[36:14] that we're trying to pay attention to. So that's why we're highly sensitive to

[36:20] the amount of glass as well. And then brick. So the other balance of your

[36:24] building is brick. Highly durable, stands the test of time, looks great, day one,

[36:30] to day 20 and so or year 20 sorry you know yeah and day 20 yeah yeah day 21 is

[36:39] maybe I don't know so you know but you know and it helps just connect it

[36:44] back to the downtown place it's really hard to render brick you know so we

[36:51] tried to zoom in and show you but you can see I mean you know the brick right

[36:55] over here on the wall is what we're talking about so again trying to connect it

[36:59] to the downtown. So remember I showed you all the repetition and how those things are

[37:04] important in downtown, how we've begun to use them. Again the repetitious columns which

[37:08] create the front porch and kind of define that as well as the street transparency which

[37:15] talks about the retail connection and just the connection to people that are at the street

[37:21] is really important and being able to reinforce that through the front porch, a highly active

[37:26] front porch at that, and then how we define the entry.

[37:31] So again, using that repetition to define an entry point.

[37:35] So people know where to go.

[37:37] The building works for wayfinding.

[37:40] So people intuitively know how to enter the building.

[37:45] So again, with that overhead canopy.

[37:48] So again, I talked about why it's important not only

[37:50] from the way that the community room is being used for those AV views, but also as it

[38:00] begins to relate to the downtown context.

[38:04] So the Plac County Courthouse being one of the tallest buildings.

[38:06] So we're trying to relate the scale of the new building to Plac County Courthouse.

[38:12] But then on the eastern edge of the site, we have the church here.

[38:17] And so that's a much shorter building.

[38:19] So we wanted to be able to tie that back to the context as well, plus this second floor

[38:27] overhang is the definition, you know, the leading edge of the front porch.

[38:32] So again, just trying to relate it to where we're building.

[38:35] This is not a view you would ever get, but we wanted to show you how it relates.

[38:43] So you have Plac County Courthouse and the Church and your new project between them.

[38:49] So, again, this isn't a view you would ever get, but you can see how it starts to relate.

[38:56] Again, I'll just walk you around the building real quick, and then I'm going to take you

[38:59] into the computer simulations that we were talking about.

[39:02] So, again, just that view from the current parking lot across the street from the library, and

[39:10] then from the new parking lot on the east where you would go, you know, kind of adjacent

[39:15] or through the outdoor play area, this park-like setting, and come into the building.

[39:23] On the right hand side of the new building is that service lane for, you know,

[39:28] where you can pay your water bill and such.

[39:30] So again, trying to work through all the vehicular circulation

[39:33] and the pedestrian circulation in order to keep them separated so there's no conflict there.

[39:39] So again, when we talked about the third and final goal,

[39:42] How do you make it safe and secure and natural light and views to the outside?

[39:46] You know, there's all sorts of research out there that people learn better, have they pay attention better when they have views to

[39:52] the natural light

[39:53] and to the exterior and so again as we're thinking about this is just you know the sun diagram as the moves around the building and as I said

[40:03] We rarely want to just be able to say well, you know, we think this is going to work

[40:09] work. We want to simulate it and we have the ability to do that. And so we've been able

[40:14] to look at daylight, glare, and access to views. So anything that is trending toward the

[40:20] red means that we have more and more daylight. So obviously when you have more and more daylight

[40:29] that can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. You can get a lot of glare. But

[40:33] the good thing about it is you actually have views to the outside and are connected that way.

[40:38] So what we wanted to do is be able to mitigate that glare.

[40:44] So anything that's in closer to green is really good.

[40:48] Means it's not overlit.

[40:50] That means you can sit at the window, work on your laptop,

[40:53] and not have any glare on your screen.

[40:55] So again, when we're talking about sticky spaces

[40:57] and to get people to use those, this is really important.

[41:01] So our computer simulations shows that we're 10% or under an overlit,

[41:06] which is a really high quality space. But then just for our own reference, we took away the overhang

[41:14] to see what that did. And you can begin to see how just like a radar, the darker the color,

[41:23] the worse it is. Okay, and so with no overhang, those spaces will be, you'll be hot sitting right

[41:30] at the glass, you won't want to sit there because you have glare. So we've been able to fine tune

[41:35] in our design using this computer simulations.

[41:38] So again, this front porch is intentionally designed

[41:40] not only for user impact and user and human comfort,

[41:45] but also for your utility bills.

[41:49] Again, we're talking about views.

[41:51] So the building being viewed from inside and from outside.

[41:55] Again, we can simulate that with the quality of views.

[41:58] So anything with the darker blue means

[42:00] that you get better access to views,

[42:02] which is usually a correlation to the amount of glass that you have.

[42:07] So, again, by using that overhang, we can have glass in very strategic places to give you those views.

[42:14] So, you can tell how much glass has been a topic of discussion because it is so critical to usability,

[42:23] but also to how you operate your building. We don't want crazy high utility bills.

[42:28] So again, reinforcing that view, sitting from, you know, in the library looking out the front porch or on that third floor, you know, looking out across Frankfurt Square.

[42:39] So again, those are how we've begun to design the building and to leave you with one view just the nighttime rendering when we presented this.

[42:49] The first time it was actually raining, so it felt right, but, you know, it adds that dramatic effect.

[42:55] But what you can see is the building will come to life even at night by glowing and being something that is

[43:03] Field safe and secure

[43:05] But looks like it belongs downtown as well

[43:07] So will the frontage

[43:10] sidewalk area be?

[43:13] Designed to accommodate

[43:15] unloading of passengers and and

[43:18] Traffic and then do we go in one entrance and then go left for the library right for the children

[43:24] I mean, is there one almond entrance?

[43:27] That's a great question.

[43:30] Yes, there is a defined entry drop-off zone at the street

[43:36] that then you would come into one primary entry.

[43:40] You would literally go left to go to library or go right.

[43:43] And the other to go into the Children's Museum,

[43:45] the other thing that should be reinforced

[43:47] is you can go into that front porch interior area

[43:52] and go up to the third floor to the community room, to City Hall, you know so

[43:57] that front porch is connecting everybody so again and you could walk back and

[44:02] pay your water bill from that. Walk back and pay your water bill, you can walk back

[44:06] and drop your book off and the other thing is it can be everything else can be

[44:10] locked down around it and you have Columbus days on Frankfurt Square, the front

[44:15] doors can be open and now you have access to restroom facilities and but nobody

[44:21] can get anywhere else within the building. So we've really tried, I mean, you know, Rick

[44:25] and Tara and Karen have really been guiding that to make it multi-functional.

[44:30] You answered my question about getting to the third floor, you know.

[44:35] Yep.

[44:36] The citizen comes in and says, okay, I need to go to City Hall, okay?

[44:40] Yep.

[44:41] What's the best way to go?

[44:42] Yep. So there will be, it's a really, and this is our next step is to start working on

[44:47] the interior design, but there's a really grand stair if you want to take the stair

[44:51] three stories or the elevator is just right there next to the stair and you can go

[44:55] up. And then it's a left to the community room or a right to the

[45:00] City Hall. So pretty simple.

[45:03] Yeah. You mentioned the agility. How will this building be heated? All electric or gas? Yeah. Yeah. Matt, you want to answer? So right now, we have gas per heating.

[45:25] Yeah. Yeah,

[45:30] John. You alluded to a being able to see the brick that's going to be used. If you've got a panel over here, Edward Jones thing, is that what you're alluding? Not yet. No, we haven't actually selected the actual brick.

[45:42] We're just saying brick right now do that how do you decide what color you're

[45:46] going to so we will we'll go back to surveying the downtown and looking at

[45:52] you know the bricks the brick blends all of that and we'll most likely choose from

[45:57] what we see in this area so I was really involved in the building of the

[46:05] hospital out there about 20 years ago now and that was a very controversial thing

[46:09] what color do you make this hospital and there were a lot of people that wanted to use a dark red brick

[46:15] because hospitals were all dark red brick and there were windows and things like that. You really

[46:21] don't want to be going to the hospital in the first place and when you see this. So to make a

[46:27] long story short we ended up with a lighter colored brick. This was a prairie style architecture.

[46:32] Okay, yeah, sure. It's worked out very nicely but it didn't, well there wasn't anything

[46:36] there to begin with. And so everything else has come in as kind of had to, you know, play

[46:41] off of that style and color as opposed to them playing off of something else. But it

[46:47] was different, but it was different, good. Okay. Good. Yeah. Well, you know, as we, I mean,

[46:53] that'll be a bit down the road, but yeah, we'll be, there's lots of different brick colors

[46:58] to choose from and we'll work to choose just the right one.

[47:09] Soops is what the next steps

[47:13] are and deadlines. When are you going to have plans ready? When do we go out for

[47:19] bids? What kind of a time one you have? Yeah, I'm going to let Matt answer that.

[47:24] He's all over the schedule.

[47:29] I'm feeling better about the city hall being

[47:32] upstairs on the third floor. Yeah, so next steps we have we're producing our

[47:42] or it's foundations and primary steel.

[47:45] So steel package.

[47:46] So we're kind of getting the bones together

[47:49] and that'll be going out to bid here in mid-May.

[47:53] So it's happening pretty fast.

[47:55] We have actually, I believe construction

[47:57] is gonna actually start happening out there.

[47:59] I believe tomorrow, work is here.

[48:03] I might step in just for a minute,

[48:06] and the council may not have seen this

[48:07] because it came out about 3.30 or 4 o'clock,

[48:10] but the city put on a press release this afternoon to highlight the closure of the streets that will start to take place next Monday for the construction with the fencing off.

[48:24] So that's all just come out this afternoon, 25th Avenue from 14th Street North to the alley will be permanently closed.

[48:33] The North Lane of 14th Street, 25th to 26th Avenue will be closed during the duration.

[48:43] The alley between 24th and 25th Avenue will be restricted with partial full closures

[48:49] at times.

[48:51] 26th Avenue will remain two-way traffic with a slight center lane shift for the duration

[48:58] of the project.

[48:59] and the public parking lot located in the southwest corner will be closed.

[49:04] This will become all construction area and that all takes effect a week

[49:09] from today and it was released this afternoon. So we'll be in you know in the

[49:16] paper on our website so on so forth. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. I think just

[49:21] real high level the the schedule is you know we have an early package that's

[49:25] going to come out which helps move the design and construction along and that

[49:30] comes out in May and then our final drawings go out at the end of the summer.

[49:35] Yep. And then the building will open in the spring of 2023.

[49:46] As you can tell

[49:46] there's going to be an activity that's going to start to happen on and around the

[49:50] site in order to facilitate that.

[49:58] Council members are there any more questions

[50:01] comments?

[50:04] Gentlemen we thank you for your time your presentation was excellent and

[50:08] We appreciate all the work you've done for our community.

[50:10] Thank you so much.

[50:11] That is a thank you everyone.

[50:12] It's been a lot of fun, so it looks good.

[50:15] Good.

[50:15] Thank you.

[50:17] And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

Committee of the Whole 4/5/2021

Transcript