City hall project to preserve structure's history

A design-build team plans to preserve the beauty of the historic Common Pleas Courthouse and Annex and construct an addition that will blend in with the existing architecture.

Contractor Phil Penzel's design-build team was recently chosen by the Cape Girardeau City Council for the $12 million project to repurpose the old buildings as a new city hall.

While the design has yet to be finalized in consultation with city officials, Penzel said his team is focused on restoring the exteriors of the historic structures in developing the new city hall.

Penzel said the design won't look like a concept presented to the City Council in June by consulting architect Christopher Chiodini, which proposed a modern addition to link the two buildings.

"One of the take-aways in looking at the other design is you are covering up the historic relevance of it. We didn't want to do that," he said Thursday.

"It is our intention to restore things back to their original form," Penzel said.

Several window spaces in the old courthouse were bricked up years ago. Penzel said the team wants to put windows back in those spaces as originally designed.

Penzel said the addition likely would have a brick exterior, complementing the brick exteriors of the courthouse and Annex. "We are thinking we want to tie the two together to give it more of campus look, so to speak," he said.

The new addition will be designed in a way "where we don't have to undermine the footings" of the historic buildings.

"We will do new footings away from the buildings and cantilever it in for a soft touch," Penzel said.

While the addition will be connected to the courthouse and Annex, plans call for cutting into the historic brick walls as little as possible, he said.

Cape Girardeau's iconic courthouse dates to 1854. The Annex was originally built as a Carnegie Library, which opened in 1922.

A modern addition was added to the front of the building in 1959.

Penzel said his team's plan calls for removing the modern addition.

The addition provided a new entrance to the building, but did not provide useful space, he said.

"We want to expose the front of the old Carnegie Library if we can and restore it," Penzel said. Removing the modern addition would add green space, he said.

A statue of a Civil War-era black Union soldier, erected this summer, would be relocated on the grounds, he added.

The former library would house inspections, engineering and planning offices, Penzel said.

Other city offices would be housed in the courthouse and the connecting addition. A new council chambers also would be located in the addition.

The new structure would include an elevator.

A two-level parking structure would be constructed south of the annex and courthouse where now there is a sloped parking lot. It would provide 90 parking spaces for the public and city staff, Penzel said.

The main entrance to city hall would be on the south side of the courthouse/annex site although another entrance would be located on the north side, Penzel said.

Plans call for redoing the concrete steps leading from the courthouse to Spanish Street.

Penzel's team plans to meet with city staff next month to begin finalizing the design.

The Annex is empty. Common Pleas houses some circuit court offices and courtrooms.

But those court services are scheduled to be relocated to the county's new justice center in Jackson when it opens next spring.

Construction of the new city hall could begin as early as next summer with completion by September 2021, city officials said.

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