New City Hall Opens
Today, Guelph’s new City Hall is officially open to the public. The new building located at 1 Carden Street is home to City departments that have, until now, been based out of five satellite locations around the city.
Just inside the front doors is ServiceGuelph, the City’s centralized customer service, makes access to information, services and resources even simpler. People can purchase transit passes, sign up for recreation programs, buy dog licenses, pay parking tickets and property taxes and more. ServiceGuelph is open Monday to Friday, 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. A full list of services is available at serviceguelph.
Guelph invested $39,090,010 in the building, and will now save over $658,000 per year in rent costs. The Province of Ontario contributed $803,000 to restore the historic Winter Fair Wall which is incorporated into the design of the building, and $3,000,000 in Federal Gas Tax funds paid for the building’s heating and cooling system. The efficient system uses 38 per cent less energy and emits fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a typical system.
The building has a number of green features; a green roof, living wall, eco-friendly building materials and fixtures that use 30 per cent less water than a typical office building. Guelph’s City Hall is built to the LEED Silver Standard set out by the Canadian Green Building Council.
The combination of striking heritage features and contemporary design expresses Guelph’s proud history, its continued vitality and its vision for the future.
