The new Carlton City Hall combines community center, city office, and police department functions into one new building a block from the small city’s downtown core. The design’s organization, form, materials, and features create a fitting presence for City functions tailored to Carlton’s history, character, and industries.
Holst’s involvement with the project began with helping guide a group of George Fox University students to develop a program and concept for a City Hall addition to the existing police station currently on site. The students contrived a building defined by a large barrel roof inspired by Carlton’s wine industry. While the basis for the project evolved due to practical considerations—rehabilitating the existing building as an essential facility would have required significant, expensive seismic upgrades—the student concept helped set the groundwork for the program and for an intentional, defining gesture in the final design.
Holst’s design divides the building into two wings—a secure public safety wing to the west and a public services wing to the east—flanking an inviting recessed public entry courtyard lined with wood in contrast to the classic brick facades. The sloping roofs of the two wings address each other in a relationship that recalls local agricultural structures. The local wine industry inspired the building’s color palette, including wine-tinged color variations in the reddish-brown brick and the interior’s clay and earth tones of the local terroir.