BILLINGS - Progress continues at the Stillwater building, which is set to become the new city hall in the fall of 2024. However, officials say while the work is on schedule, supply issues continue to be tricky to navigate.
City of Billings Facilities Manager John Catarino says construction is about a quarter of the way finished.
The Stillwater Building was built in the 1960s and served as the old federal courthouse building for years, until the city took ownership of it in 2021 for $17 million.
Currently, the building is a blank canvas, but Catarino says it will soon serve as the hub for the city and all its departments.
The biggest sector to benefit from the new city hall, said Catarino, is the public.
“It provides a better opportunity to get better services to the citizens of Billings,” he said. “People come off the elevator bank, and they come into the main lobby.”
He says framing and wall placement is happening now and from the outside, big machinery is hoisting massive pieces of construction material into the building from the fifth floor.
“In the coming months we should have much more of the fifth floor completed,” he said.
The fifth floor will serve as the heart of the new city hall, with a large council chamber that will greet the public with high ceilings to accommodate the space.
The Stillwater building comes equipped with 213,000 square feet and. according to Catarino, roughly 750 windows.
“’It’s going to bring natural light in, so it doesn’t feel so institutional,” he said.
But the work to keep on track is tricky, especially since the city had to accommodate for delays in receiving supplies.
Catarino says, it seems these days, nobody is immune to supply-chain issues, but that the city along with its design team and architect firm planned for this, waiting roughly a year for items such as an air handler and a chiller. Those items will now arrive sometime in December or January of 2024, after being ordered last winter.
“So that’s how we made sure we were kind of future proofing our design, and meet our schedule,” said Catarino.
Each floor will serve a variety of departments police will house the entire fourth floor and municipal courts will house the second.
But perhaps the grand appeal to the new city hall is a spectacular staircase to greet the public and direct folks where to go with signage.
City officials wanted to eliminate confusion on where to access departments in the new city hall.
Catarino says things going forward in this new space will be more efficient and move people in a more effective manner.
