Redmond’s old Evergreen Elementary School building looks a bit different this week than it did when it first opened as a school nearly 100 years ago.

Automatic lights, brand-new wood floors, refurbished brick and keycard locks on doors that more than a dozen motion-activated security cameras quietly observe are just a few of the features of the resuscitated old building. After more than two years and $12 million of renovation work, it’s set to open as Redmond’s new City Hall next week.

“We’ve come a long way from what we started with,” said Jason Neff, director of central services and the Evergreen reconstruction project manager for the city.

Near where a crumbling, asbestos-laden roof had been last fall, stainless steel letters that spell out “Redmond City Hall” now adorn the front of the brick building, in the same customized art deco font found on other iconic landmarks around town. Even at night, anyone walking nearby will know what the building is.

“Those letters are actually backlit,” Neff said. “The thought was that when you walk off Sixth Street you’ll be able to see all the way down here and see it’s City Hall.”

“It’s an iconic building, so we wanted to do something that would match that reputation,” said Brent Grenfell, who owns the local sign company that made the letters.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorating the completed project will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Speeches and building tours are scheduled, and then the building will officially open for city operations Monday.

Last year, unexpected asbestos discoveries and unforeseen structural damage delayed the building’s completion date by a couple months and led councilors to approve a $270,000 increase to the project’s original $11.7 million construction budget. But now that construction is complete, Neff said he expects the project to come in under the revised budget.

“We’ll see how it turns out, but I can safely say that it’ll be six figures under the latest budget,” he said.

On Friday, a few finishing touches were still being completed — audio-visual equipment in the new council chambers had to be replaced and some windows still needed to be shaded — and the tenants of the parts of the building the city is leasing out still need to move in. Deschutes County, Redmond Economic Development Inc. and Northwest Mortgage Advisors all leased space in Evergreen, Neff said, and he expects them to arrive by March 1.

But for the most part, Neff said, everything was done.

“People are moving in and figuring out what they need, but there’s nothing structural left,” he said, noting that some city departments were already working in the new building and a few others were in the process of moving over.

The first floor, where city councilors will have their first meeting in the new council chambers in April, is also where some of the most memorable features of the building will soon be installed.

There’s the large bronze sculpture of an eagle, a wolf and a panther — the three mascots that have represented the school throughout its existence — that the city’s public art committee ordered from local artist Kim Chavez last year. Also, a collage of old photos and memorabilia that outline the history of the school will stretch across the length of an entire section of wall in the main hallway.

The school opened in 1922 under the name Redmond Union High School after it combined with the city’s only other school, and over the years it went through many additions and alterations. For instance, in 1939, a stage and dressing rooms were added to the gym and during the same decade a classroom addition was built onto the school’s main building. In the 1950s, another building — since demolished — was added to make room for vocational education.

By the mid-1960s, the school was overcrowded and in 1971 a new high school was built. The building was converted to a junior high and then an elementary school, at which point it was renamed Evergreen. After determining the facility had outlasted its usefulness as a school, Redmond School District put it up for sale in 2009 for more than $3 million. The school closed in 2010 when — after receiving no serious offers — the district sold it to the city for $250,000.

Considering the history of the school, the large wall for memorabilia might be necessary.

“It’ll go all the way down,” Neff said, pointing to the wall. “We had a lot of stuff that community members provided for it to capture the history of the building.”

The collage isn’t the only part of the building that’s a testament to Evergreen’s origins. Neff pointed out several features that the city chose to keep in order to maintain the historical characteristics of the building.

The school’s original brick was left exposed in about six places inside, he said, and many of the wooden window frames as well as the large entrance doors that face outward to SW Ninth Street were rescued and made compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The wooden banisters that line the building’s staircases are all original, too. Even an old chalkboard, now restored, has been left where it was originally hung — except now it’s in the city’s human resources department as opposed to a classroom.

The plaster that covers the interior walls have been left intact too, Neff said, even though most of it had to be patched and repaired.

On the second floor, where the city’s community development department is located, one of these plaster fixes is particularly noticeable. In one of meeting rooms, Neff points to a corner of the wall where an uneven break in the plaster reveals the century-old brick underneath.

“This was one of the last places we finished with the plaster and it fell off,” he said. “The contractor wanted to cover it up but we ended up leaving it. It’s a great story of the project.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

awest@bendbulletin.com

“We’ve come a long way from what 
we started with.”— Jason Neff, project manager