Greeley leaders’ plans for a renewed civic campus for the future could bump up against the city’s longstanding historic core, beginning with the plan to demolish Greeley City Hall, familiar as the “round building” at 1000 10th St.
The city recently applied for a demolition permit for the city hall, which by city ordinance automatically triggers notifications to the city’s historic preservation commission, Historic Greeley and the Downtown Development Authority, giving any one 10 days to file for historic designation.
Historic Greeley has done just that with Greeley City Hall — and it’s not an argument of old vs. new, or whether Greeley should grow or not. It’s what historic preservationists believe should be a conversation on preserving history — especially after decades of many Greeley treasures being torn down at about the same age as the city hall.
“If you look back in Greeley history, that’s precisely when many of the tragic losses happened,” said Linde Thompson, a board member for Historic Greeley. “They’re just considered old, and not historic yet in many people’s minds. Across the country, buildings we’re looking at are mid-century modern buildings, and a lot of people don’t view that as historic.”
The matter will come before the Historic Preservation Commission in a public hearing on Dec. 1. The hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but the agenda said it will be moved to Dec. 1 to ensure there is a quorum to hear the matter.
Historic Greeley Inc. recently presented to the Historic Preservation Commission, noting the many buildings that were demolished in the 1960s and ‘70s, including the first Weld County Courthouse, which made way for the current courthouse; the Greeley Opera House, which is now the site of the 800 on 8th office building; the U.S. Post Office, which was demolished to make way for the Quality Inn at 701 8th Ave.; Meeker School; the Camfield Hotel, which is now a parking lot; and Union Bank, which used to be on the west side of 8th Avenue between 7th and 8th streets; the former Sterling Hotel, demolished at the site of the current Centennial Center in downtown Greeley; the former Chief Theatre; and the original city hall and public library.
The former Garnsey-Wheeler Ford Building is shown here, incorporated into the modern design of the Shelby apartments in downtown Greeley. Historic preservationists hope the city can do the same with City Hall, now under consideration for historic designation in the face of a demolition permit. (Source: Historic Greeley)The current plans would call for the city to turn the site of City Hall at 1000 10th St. into a parking lot for the newly constructed civic campus immediately to the north.
Historic designation requires a building to be 50 years or older; Greeley City Hall was built in 1968 as Weld County Bank. It operated for years as a bank before Greeley leadership expanded into it. In the application for historic preservation, Thompson wrote:
“It was commissioned by prominent Greeley banker and citizen Norman Dean, president of the bank, who desired an ‘unusual and distinctive building’ for his new bank. He admired the round building designs of architect Marvin Kneedler and commissioned him to design the two-story, precast concrete structure, then it was built in 1968 by the Greeley-based construction firm, Hensel-Phelps.”
The building “is significant for its mid-century modern styling and is iconic in downtown Greeley as ‘the “round building.” The structure features “two-story, arching precast concrete columns with curtain-wall glass from the first floor to the roof, and a domed, central skylight in the center, which slopes to the outer parapet,” the nomination packet stated.
Thompson also submitted a 10-year-old architectural structure assessment, which was completed when the High Plains Library District was interested in taking over City Hall. The analysis noted the sound structure of the building.
One of the clear issues with the building is the significant flooding it undergoes during spring. It’s a problem that has prompted city leaders to look for new offices to either build new or repair the existing site.
“I will tell you as an owner of buildings downtown, every building downtown floods when we’ve had the storms we’ve had,” Thompson said. “If you go about tearing down buildings because they flood in a huge rainstorm, that doesn’t seem like much of a solution. What I can tell you as far as the integrity of the building is, it is quite good.
“Certainly, flooding has got to be addressed, and is being addressed by the city’s stormwater project going on now,” Thompson said. She added that she hopes, as has been done in recent redevelopment, that adaptive re-use can be considered rather than full-blown demolition. The Shelby Apartments building,1100 8th Ave., adapted from the former Garnsey-Wheeler Ford foundation, is one such example, she said.
Thompson said the application may be all for naught, as the applicants for demolition are the very arbiters of the decision.
“The City Council does hold all the cards,” Thompson said. “They’re seeking to demolish the building, and they will rule whether or not it can be demolished. … We feel like we need to talk about the significance of the building and its meaning for downtown and potential for adaptive reuse, other than becoming 40 more parking spaces.”
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