COVINGTON, Ky. – Covington is looking for an architectural firm to design a new City Hall.

The City issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) on Sept. 1 for a “qualified, competent, knowledgeable, and experienced architectural firm” to design a new City Hall that will be a vibrant and open space, accessible to community residents – and that would end local government’s “nomadic existence” of the last five decades.

“I want this to be a building that the community can really be proud of,” said Mayor Joe Meyer. “I want it represent this generation’s aspirations for future generations.”

Over the last 50 years, the City has had five City Hall locations. The current location at 20 W. Pike St. was intended as a temporary measure when it was selected 10 years ago to allow old offices to be redeveloped into what is now Hotel Covington. Ten years later, the 20 W. Pike location remains home to City government, even though the building’s inadequacies are increasingly apparent, and it’s too small to meet current and emerging needs. A new City Hall will be built on property that the City purchased at 620-622 Scott St.

In 2019, the City completed extensive public engagement to determine what the community would like to see in a new City Hall, creating a task force of residents and workers in Covington to think conceptually about the function and purpose of the building.

Meyer, who set the process in motion, said at the time that he wanted Covington to think big.

“The opportunity to build a new City Hall is pretty rare,” Meyer said at the time. “The temporary home on Pike Street is our fifth since the 1960s. It’s time to take the long-term view – planning not for the next decade but maybe for the next century. As Americans, we tend to take the short-term view, but this City is going to be here for 500 years, or as long as the river we’re built on.”

Among the conclusions of what was called the “BeSpoke” effort was that a new City Hall should:

• Be in a visible, accessible, central, and prominent site that is “both symbolically and physically important to Covington.”

• Not be a “single-purpose fortress” dedicated only to government offices but one with regular community events and programming.
• As a true civic commons, include “a place for community voice, debate, and demonstrations.”
• And celebrate the City’s architectural diversity and history.

With those conclusions in mind, the City’s RFQ lays out these principles.

Among the top principles were:

• Foster multiple connected venues for broad civic engagement. Meet people where they are.
• Provide many reasons to come to City Hall. Covington’s City Hall should be as vibrant and diverse as the city itself.
• Build Covington’s public square. A new City Hall is as much about the future of Covington’s public realm as it is about a new building.
• Be a center of design and culture. The building’s design should be at the center of Covington’s differentiation strategy.
• A building clearly identifiable as a home for City government and meant to last a century or more for future generations.

Requests for a copy of the RFQ, or questions about the RFQ, can be sent to Lindy Jenkins at LJenkins@covingtonky.gov. Proposals must be submitted electronically, also to LJenkins@covingtonky.gov, by September 22, 2022, at 10 a.m. (EST). Submissions received after this date and time will be considered non-responsive.

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