From The Tribune Staff Reports
TRUSSVILLE — The future expansion of Trussville City Hall will draw on the city’s past and modern architecture for the project.
Turner Batson helped design the Trussville City Hall Expansion (Photo courtesy of Mayor Buddy Choat)
Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat announced the upcoming renovations at Thursday’s State of the City Address and showed off renderings of the site.
Choat said the building expansion is planned to expand the administration side of City Hall. The current City Hall building will become the public safety building. Choat said, “it’s mixing a little bit of a modern architect with some of the historic that’s still here.”
Choat said the goal is when people drive down Highway 11, they will see a clean transition with all the buildings appearing similar in design. The building exterior and landscaping would take several cues from the surrounding area. For example, the gazebo across the street inspired the stacked rock. The silver roof is inspired by the houses in the 1930s Cahaba Project nearby. The windows connect with the more recent renovations such as Edgar’s Bakery and Hitchcock Maddox Financial Partners.
“I think what you’ll see when it’s all said and done is a plan that will change the landscape of the city facilities forever,” Choat said.
More importantly, the new landscaping will be guided by the city’s “2040 Plan,” Choat said what they would like to do is cut all the curb cuts the extension of Railroad Avenue and create a convenient and safer route for the people to get to City Hall, Trussville Utilities, and the Public Safety Center.
The renderings show a safer and more convenient way to reach the buildings in the area. (Photo courtesy of Mayor Buddy Choat)
The goal is to extend Railroad Avenue and close the entrances on Highway 11, so people will either have to enter at the light on Parkway or enter by Bryant Bank and come down the extended Railroad Avenue.
“We’ll end up closing these on Highway 11,” Choat said. “We would actually with the new widening the road was coming in, if we could do it now, we would do it during the construction of the widening project. So what we’ll do we’ll end up closing those once we get all the construction over here finished to help people get access.“
Choat said there is already a plan to move forward with the design and funding for the City Hall expansion, but Choat hopes that the building process will be completed by late 2023. This plan includes connecting Railroad Avenue to Parkway Drive.
“We’re pretty excited about it; we think that it transitions people as they come into Trussville on Highway 11,” Choat said. “They see our beautiful park on the right, and then they keep coming on down to City Hall.”
