By Brian Biggane
Over the past three years, the South Palm Beach Town Council has consistently planned to construct its new Town Hall with structural insulated panels (SIPs), a modern approach council members have said would enhance the town’s reputation.
That may yet change.
Joe Barry, vice president of CPZ Architects, the firm responsible for drawing up plans for the project, said at the July council meeting that he plans to present options in tilt wall and concrete block construction as well as SIPs when the time comes to make that decision.
“We’ve decided to explore our options and keep them open, based on construction costs and project duration,” Barry said moments after leaving the meeting. “The council supports being better informed to make that decision.”
Council member Elvadianne Culbertson said the protracted time frame of working through myriad issues to get to this point may have changed the equation.
“Five years ago, SIPs was definitely faster and less expensive, so is that still the case?” Culbertson asked. “I want to be sure that the new technology is still what we want.”
Barry assured the council that CPZ is fully prepared to go ahead with SIPs if that’s the decision, and he recalled that when CPZ made its formal presentation to win the contract in late 2024, that an SIPs expert was one of its five representatives at the meeting.
Later, he added, “The initial studies we did early on didn’t indicate any difference (in cost) between any of the construction methods.”
Mayor Bonnie Fischer, who has been a proponent of SIPs almost since the decision to build a new Town Hall was made, said she will wait until she gets more information before making up her mind.
“I’ve been adamant about it; my only issue is it’s been three years and we don’t know if the price has gone up. That’s my preferred choice but I’m open to other alternatives,” she said.
“But I would like to stick with (SIPs). I think it would expedite the building process. And it’s something that would put South Palm Beach on the map, if we did something unique.”
Fischer and Vice Mayor Monte Berendes also quizzed Barry about altering the size of the building, Fischer wanting to make the ceilings higher to enhance the views of the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway and Berendes to make the building smaller.
“We’re going to look more closely at the overall size of the building,” Barry said. That needs to be done before other consultants he plans to bring on board get involved, he said.
Updating what has been done so far, Barry said an environmental task force had uncovered remnants of old storage tanks — containing contaminants — underneath the current building. The council approved a motion to continue that work.
“It’s not, ‘Oh my God, we have all these contaminants,’ it’s just slightly elevated,” Barry said. “So, what this allows them to do is come back and do a little more to expand their exploration, to get a better picture of what this ground contamination is doing or where it exists to get a better understanding of what we’re dealing with.”
Barry said he expects his firm will require another nine to 12 months to complete its work, meaning it will likely be at least April 2026 before a groundbreaking ceremony can be held.
“This is a typical process that I would see in most municipalities,” he said after the meeting. “What’s different is council was very careful to go through a conceptual design process first to make sure all the needs and wants were taken into account and they came to a consensus.
“The council unanimously approved the conceptual design, which is really important. I really celebrate how they went about that, and uniting them is going to help us move forward from here.”
Comments