City Hall makeover? Maybe. But this CITY HALL ANNEX proposal is truly outrageous...How long do you think it will take for the already bloated payroll to fill up those new cubicles with more HCDO stooges?


May build adjunct City Hall next to the Med Center
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A plan to build an adjunct Jersey City City Hall on a site adjacent to the Jersey City Medical Center was unveiled at Monday's City Council caucus meeting.

In the planning stage, the four-story development would be built on city-owned property on Jersey Avenue behind the Jersey City Medical Center and would include 120,000 square feet of space to house city departments and offices, and a parking deck with 130 spaces plus 50,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, said representatives of DMR, a Hasbrouck Heights developer.

The parking facility and the retail space would most likely be managed by private firms, officials said.

There's also the possibility

the JCMC would construct a medical arts building to house office to serve doctors affiliated with the hospital, officials said.

Numbers are still being crunched to determine the cost of the project, said City Council President Mariano Vega.

EARL MORGAN

MAKEOVER UNMASKS CHAMBER'S WONDERS
Back to 1896 elegance, plus air conditioning

Friday, May 23, 2008
By MEGAN DeMARCO
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

When the renovation of the Jersey City City Council chamber is complete in the fall, council members and the public will get to experience the room just as it was in 1896 - with a few high-tech amenities.

The renovation is intended to "make (the room) look and feel like the original room" but still "accommodate it for modern use," said architect Eric Holtermann, of Holt Morgan Russell Architects.

"This is a long overdue project," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said. "It's going to be a resplendent, beautiful old reception room."

The walls of the new room will be painted light red, the original color, and the original stained glass panels in the domed ceiling will be cleaned and restored.

Four chandeliers are undergoing restoration in Philadelphia and will hang from the ceiling, Holtermann said.

Aesthetics aside, members of the council and the public alike will appreciate a feature that wasn't available in 1896 - air conditioning.

The $1.9 million renovation began in January and some surprises have been uncovered, literally. Holtermann said beautiful recessed arches were discovered on the original side walls that had been obscured under layers of later renovations.

In a back corner of the chamber, a decorative stencil was revealed on the wall as well, Holtermann said. The original stencil will be replicated on the walls in the finished room. He said the chamber had accumulated several layers of wall coverings from different renovations since the turn of the last century - including a carpet layer that was installed in the 1960s.

The chamber had become a "hodgepodge of different styles," Holtermann said.

The council chamber's new features will include a projector over the door pointed at a large screen in the front of the chamber. Each council member will also have a computer monitor with a touchpad. Modern lighting will be added.

The project is on schedule and on budget, Holtermann said.

Glenn Wrigley, chief architect for the city, said the project is funded by $1.6 million from the city's capital improvement funds and a $300,000 grant from the Hudson County Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.

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Joe, you recently wrote an article for some local magazine where you quoted Barbara as saying she's so busy with the church in Newark that she's not taking any other jobs on. This is admitably a bit of an exaggeration as she just did a window for me and I know she's squeezing in some residental restoration projects here and there. But I don't think there's any scenario where she would have bid for the City Hall job. Of course in an alternate universe, she would have done an excellent job and come in cheaper than anyone else.

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exactly! - I will never change my signature! (see below)

Those JJ articles about buying from local vendors are not getting much respect even in their own house.

Based on their own reports, the 3.6 Million for "Destination Jersey City" appears to have been totally spent outside JC without competitive bid, as if this was good news. It includes an expensive web site created by a Long Island designer on behalf of a Domain Name registered to someone in Franklin Park and hosted by a service based in Texas.

But when the JJ reported (OK, when they published the lightly edited press release out of Trenton) they did not offer any insight into the selection of those out-of-town benefactors - despite the fact that the JJ's own web site development business, based in Journal Square, like all other site designers in this city, was ignored in favor of a no-bid award.

Well, at least the chambers job is only 1.5 million. I mean, it's not as if that is *real* money.

I'd be willing to bet that if restoration of the chamber's art glass is included, the project will NOT go to the internationally respected art glass restorer across Montgomery Street from City Hall. And if new and period lighting fixtures are involved, the world-famous architectural lighting firm on Cornelison Ave will also be ignored in favor of someone miles away .

How about the 1.5 million dollars going to a contractor that is not based in Jersey City. They should be ashamed that they didn't try to get local contractors to restore.....what a shame. There are articles in the Journal about supporting local vendors ...how about supporting the local tradesmen? How embarassing that our city government doesn't support local businesses!

With all the money that should be coming from all this development, the current cityhall should be converted to an arts building and a new modern cityhall built with all the modern needs for the community.

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In the world of Finance Oct 24th was an eternity ago. Don't care what Fulop voted back then - though he's well placed to understand what a credit crunch means for municipal finances going forward.

Cut the spending guys - no-one is buying munis and you're not going to get this kind of funding without raping your property owners again. We'll get raped on this, and in the next few years we're going to get raped on Abbott unless the City wakes up on financing.

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Sorry, nug. Check the October 24 agenda - Fulop voted for the renovation. They all did.

A $1.5 million spend like this would be much more palatible if it didnt add directly to our individual property tax bills. At a time when JC has real trouble balancing it's budget, and with the debt crisis (no-one wants to buy Municipal bonds/debt anymore), all this means is that every dollar of JC overspend is likely to directly hit JC property owners pockets.

Mr Fulop - you work in the big bad world of Finance. Can you beat some sense into these council numbskulls?

I agree that 'renovation of city hall' is long over due - but would take that to mean replacing the people inside rather than going shopping for PA systems and interior decorating.



Actually the way it looks now is kind of fitting.


Sorry to be a hater.

give credit where credit is due. renovation of city hall chamber is long over due.

I believe this includes a new sound and recording system that is critical to conducting business and maintaining public record.

...it would take more than air conditioning and a PA system to give me a "restored sense of pride" in the City Council.

CLEAN SWEEP
$1.5M makeover to begin at City Council Chambers

Wednesday, December 19, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

No more sweaty nights. No more straining to hear speakers. No more squinting to the see the renderings of various presenters.

It's all expected to come to an end in nine months when the 113-year-old City Council chambers at City Hall in Jersey City emerges from its $1.5 million makeover.

"Anyone entering the chambers is going to feel a restored sense of pride in this building and the community at large," said Glenn Wrigley, the city's chief architect.

Employees with Jim Loungo Construction, of Nutley, have begun taking measurements to build scaffolding for the renovations. Work begins in earnest Jan. 2, city officials said.

Holt, Morgan, Russell Architects, of Princeton, has been paid $60,000 for the design work, Wrigley said.

Completed in 1894, City Hall is not on the federal Register of Historic Sites, but is part of the Van Vorst Park Historic District, and as such, its Gothic French facade is protected by law from tampering, city officials said.

But the work inside the chambers will be carried out as if the entire building is protected. The chambers' wood benches for example, will be taken apart, cleaned, and then reassembled. Workers at some point will be hoisted to the ceiling and work on their backs to clean the stained-glass dome.

"Sound soak," a material applied to the walls in the 1970s to improve the acoustics in the chambers, will be removed and the walls replastered. The most clamored-for improvements are the new heating and air conditioning system and sound system, which represents roughly half the project's budget.

The council dais will feature built-in computer monitors and a drop-down screen for PowerPoint presentations, city officials said.

"The people of Jersey City deserve a first-class space to conduct public business," said City Clerk Robert Byrne. "That's what they are going to get."

The chambers were officially named the Anna Cucci Memorial Council Chambers in 1989 in honor of former Mayor Anthony Cucci's wife, who was killed during a goodwill trip to Peru in 1988 and had led efforts to improve the facility.