Bellevue City Hall is an adaptive reuse of an outdated office building located in downtown Bellevue. Terminating the east end of the city's central pedestrian corridor and close to the transit mall, convention center, and central library, the site was ideally suited for a public facility but posed several challenges. New parking requirements combined with an odd bunker-like existing entry meant that a new entry needed to puncture the building core, allowing in light and views along with requisite vehicular access. The design team's solution was to extend the building into the landscape at two levels using water to dramatize the connection. The building atrium reaches out diagonally to the city and frames a new civic open space while concealing 200 new underground parking stalls.
