The new St. George City Hall is a shining example of a collaborative process between owner, architect, and general contractor, producing a world-class facility that will serve the community for the next 40-plus years.



By Bradley Fullmer

Designed to Mesh

with Historic District

Located at 61 South Main in the Historic Town Square—across from the iconic St. George Tabernacle (originally completed in 1876) and Town Square Park (built between 2006-2007)—the new 78,200-SF City Hall was designed to seamlessly blend with neighboring buildings. 

"We're located right in the very heart of our downtown, next to some of the most historically significant buildings in Southern Utah," added Mortensen. "So, that was a challenge for us when we were designing the building. We wanted to create a building that looked like it was built in the 2000s, and yet it needed to tie into the old historic buildings. We tried to use colors and materials that would tie it in, and we think we've done a pretty good job. It was a team of people, including Galloway, Big-D Construction, and the City of St. George. It was a great partnership." 

Initial discussions for a new City Hall started a decade ago. By 2018, Mortensen said the original plan was to renovate the old City Hall, which was built in 1980. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, "We were actually one week away from beginning to move departments to satellite locations during the renovation," Mortensen said, as a majority of City employees began working remotely. "That made us take a step back and ask, 'Are we really solving a long-term problem, or are we just putting a band-aid on our situation?' At that point, we determined that we needed a new location."

City officials looked at Tech Ridge (site of the old St. George Airport) and some other downtown locations and ultimately landed on a three-acre site across from Town Square Park, which was being considered for a performing arts center. The City negotiated with then-owner Wells Fargo to acquire a parking lot and a bank teller building, which were eventually demolished once the project resumed post-pandemic. 

Designed by Galloway & Company—led by renowned Principal Jim Child—the building's massing and materials create a timeless, modern aesthetic, highlighted by a stunning glass atrium that spans all three levels of the lobby, offering copious daylighting throughout the space, while also serving as a connector to a 281-stall, four-story, post-tension cable system parking structure. 

The exterior features an attractive mix of glass/curtain wall, metal panels, manufactured stone, stucco, and architectural concrete, producing a dynamic aesthetic that blends nicely with the historic nature of the area. 

Child, who was working for JRCA (acquired by Galloway in 2022) at the time, had done design work on a renovation/expansion of the existing City Hall, only to have it scrapped when the pandemic hit. 

"The design process stretched out over so many years; we were revisiting and changing plans, getting different City officials involved [...] that was perhaps the most interesting aspect, that it was designed and redesigned over a number of years," said Child. "[The City of] St. George was a good client to work with, and it was a good process." 

Collaborative Effort During

CM/GC Process Produces 

a Dynamic Building

The pivot to a brand-new City Hall building allowed City officials and Galloway to work in close harmony with Big-D in a quasi-design assist collaboration, ensuring the final product not only fit the City's vision of future growth, but maintained a cognizant budget. 

The lobby's main floor offers convenient access to administration services and features several displays, including one that celebrates the popular St. George Marathon, which will host its 50th annual race in October. 

One of the "wow factors" is a unique, large custom art piece that hangs on the north wall near the west end, opposite second floor administrative spaces in the atrium. It was created from 1,740 individual, hand-drawn tiles, more than two-thirds of which were done by City residents and creatively stitched together by a pair of Calgary, Canada-based artists to create a stunning replica of people hiking in majestic Snow Canyon, located eight miles from downtown St. George and named after Erastus Snow, the City's first mayor. 

The glass atrium also serves as an important connector to Town Square and the parking garage, said Chris Child (Jim's son), who served as Sr. Project Manager on the project, providing a dynamic father-son duo that produced great synergy between the entire architectural team. "The interior atrium was created to connect the [parking garage] amenity through to Town Square," he said. "As part of developing that area around Town Square, we wanted the exterior materials to wrap into the inside, with that connection capping it on the east side."

Chris, who transitioned at the beginning of the year to a new role as a Design Manager at Haskell's Salt Lake office, said this project is certainly one of his career highlights, and that working in tandem with his father was a magical experience overall.

Chris spent more than 18 combined years at JRCA/Galloway, and said he learned a ton working for his father, experiences he'll always cherish. This project was certainly special, and a fitting conclusion to his time at the firm. 

"Working for family has its ups and downs, but this project, being the twilight of [Jim's] career, for me it was a pinnacle project in my career," Chris added. "Being able to work hand-in-hand with him and the City, from the initial remodel design through the reiteration of the new building, it was cool to see it through." 

Contractor Team Perform

at a High Level, Delivers 

Excellent Final Result

Big-D oversaw the demolition of the existing bank teller building and parking lot, and then proceeded to navigate through several bid packages, including the main building and the parking garage. 

Judd Bundy and Brian Hatch serve as Regional Managers for Big-D's St. George office and worked together on what stands to date as one of the GC's top municipal projects ever, and certainly the most prominent building since opening a Southern Utah regional office. 

Bundy said they worked closely with Galloway's team on designing an aggregate pier system while also modeling the parking garage, producing significant value engineering and overall cost savings.

"That's the beauty of the team—it was an ongoing process, and we worked well together," said Bundy. "It was a joint effort, and it was important to us to be good stewards of the City's funds."

"The CM/GC process, I'm a big proponent of it," added Hatch. "It allows complete buy-in from the owner, and we were able to propose who our trade partners are. It's not the world of low bid; we select trade partners [subcontractors] who can provide the best value for what we need. The collaboration between the owner and the design team made it a fun project. It's not to say it wasn't painful at times, but it turned out great." 

Big-D self-performed all structural concrete—the company has proven itself through the years as a leader in concrete work—while subbing out the concrete flat work. 

Bundy said the parking garage is "really unique for this area", and one of the few post-tension cable systems in Southern Utah.

The project was extra special for Bundy, whose father, Les, capped a 50-year career as a rebar subcontractor, including 30-plus-years at the company he founded, St. George-based Bundy Steel, which installed all rebar and post-tension cables. 

"He retired after this job—that was special for me to have him on this project," said Bundy. "It was unique for me because I started my career working for him." 

Mortensen, who is in his 28th year with the City, said he couldn't be more thrilled with the final outcome, praising both Galloway and Big-D for a yeoman-like effort. 

"Putting the majority of [administrative services] in City Hall makes it readily available to the public, with all public meetings on the ground level for ease of accessibility," he said. "Our sole focus is how does the public engage with us. All services are very easy to access, and just the flow of the building, it all works very well. It's an iconic project."