ROANOKE (1080 KRLD) - Roanoke is home to a brand new city hall that mixes modern luxury with timeless design.
Roanoke’s old city hall just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
“The building that we were in was built in the 80s,” says Roanoke Mayor Carl “Scooter” Gierisch. “We had outgrown that space.”
So starting in March of 2017, work got underway on a new city hall just a few blocks south -- and on March 2nd of this year, they cut the ribbon on the new building.
To say that it's bigger is a massive understatement.
“We were about 2800 square feet (in the old city hall), and this is almost 30,000 square feet,” says Mayor Gierisch.
Roanoke wanted its new new city hall's design to resemble the classic courthouses that grace small Texas cities.
“We didn’t want to have a modern day City Hall,” Mayor Gierisch says. “We wanted to have a city hall that would fit with the period that we were trying to redevelop downtown.”
While the architecture and furnishings harken back to yesteryear, the new city hall does have modern amenities.
“All of our lighting is an historic lighting look, but it's all LED lighting,” says Mayor Gierisch.
Unlike the old, cramped city hall, the new city hall has community rooms and office space — which Mayor Gierisch is especially pleased about.
“I’ve been mayor now 14 years, and I finally have my own dedicated office, so I can host a meeting in my office now,” he says.
No detail went overlooked in the new city hall, and that includes the council chambers.
“Obviously the council is not the hierarchy. Council is here to serve. And so when we build our council dais, we built it at eye-level with the citizens,” says Mayor Gierisch.
The classic design also extends outside the building, including a building on the south side of the new city hall styled like an old train station.
“It’s a dual-purpose,” says Mayor Gierisch. “We have a 1923 LaFrance, which is Roanoke’s first fire truck. So we've now moved our museum from Main Street down to the south end of Oak. Our ‘23 LaFrance sits in one side and the backup generator sits on the other side. So it's a multipurpose building but with a historic look.”
The new Roanoke City Hall is at 500 S. Oak St. — at the very southern end of the street.
While it may be less than a month old, its design takes folks back 100 years -- and sets the stage for Roanoke's future.
“This will serve our citizens for the next hundred years,” Mayor Gierisch says.