St James Bldg.

JACKSONVILLE'S NEW CITY HALL
St. James Building at Hemming Plaza

Fast Facts

The renovated St. James Building includes five floors and a basement.

Some 620 employees will work in the new offices.

Space in the new city hall totals 345,000 square feet. The former Bay Street city hall has roughly 97,000 square feet.

The entire building is designed to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with wheelchair access ramps at all entrances and restrooms accommodating the disabled on all floors.

Great care was taken to preserve original architectural features, such as the capitals on the tops of the columns, decorative art deco vases, and the atrium.

A historical display room featuring pictures and artifacts is located on first floor.

The four passenger elevators in the lobby, featuring cherry wood interiors, are replicas of the building's original elevator cages. The interior backs of the elevators include material from the originals.

The building's five-story atrium reaches up 75 feet from the ground floor to an octagonal skylight 75 feet across.

The first floor City Council chambers seats 378 visitors. The floor is sloped theater-style for better visibility and the room sports state-of-the-art electronics and 10 wall-mounted TV monitors.

According to Bill Watson, chief of Public Buildings Division, the biggest renovation challenge was opening up the atrium. The original atrium was two floors high, closed in the 1920's to make floor space. Workers had to cut through four floors to reopen it.

The renovation took 19 months to complete. At its peak, 200 workers were laboring in the building each day. The process of moving employees, furniture, and equipment will begin December 1 and conclude by January 1.

According to the Public Works Department, the new facility is officially called the City Hall-St. James Building at Hemming Plaza. The city hall building on Bay Street, which opened in 1960, will be called City Hall Annex.