Overview:
The Norwich Selectboard is considering a plan to update and renovate Tracy Hall, an 85-year-old municipal building, based on a study presented by Studio Nexus architects in February. The architects identified functional issues with the building, such as poor insulation and air conditioning, and presented three options for improvements. The Selectboard will solicit public input on the project in the future, but has not yet decided on a plan. Some board members are wary of restarting the conversation and potentially wasting effort and money that has already been spent.
NORWICH — The Norwich Selectboard is in the early phases of developing a plan to update and renovate Tracy Hall.
Ahead of a Wednesday night meeting, the five board members each submitted their “vision” for the future of the 85-year-old municipal building, which drew from a study presented by Studio Nexus Architects and Planners in February.
The White River Junction-based firm was largely charged with addressing functional issues with the building. Architects identified problems like rotting window sills, poor air conditioning, insulation and air flow, and accessibility, according to materials submitted to the board in February.
Tracy Hall was last renovated in the mid-1990s, the report said.
The architects presented three options for improvements ranging from “limited functional, short-term improvements” to more expansive changes to be “net zero ready and meet long-term programmatic needs” that included redesigning some of the building’s layout.
No cost estimates have been calculated.
On Wednesday night, the Selectboard decided to invite Studio Nexus back to a future board meeting, likely Oct. 8, to discuss next steps.
Collectively, the board also agreed that it would solicit public input on the project in the future, but that it would be too soon to do so in October.
Selectboard member Kimo Griggs was perhaps the most supportive of further discussions with both architects and community members. He described the Studio Nexus report as a “preliminary guide to what might happen in the future,” but said plans have to be “defined further.”
Griggs suggested now that the architects are familiar with Tracy Hall it would not be as difficult to open further conversations about more extensive changes.
“Ask them, ‘Hey, now you know this place. What would excite you?’ ” Griggs proposed.
But some board members seemed wary of restarting the conversation about Tracy Hall and potentially wasting effort and money that had already been spent. “I didn’t find anything egregiously wrong with (Studio Nexus’) proposals and I sort of thought we were going to move forward on them,” Marcia Calloway said. “I don’t want to waste money continually reworking the wheel.”
Calloway, however, submitted a written vision for the building along with other board members. She suggested an “open-plan interior” with few closed offices and more spaces that are “flexible and easily expanded or reduced as needed.”
Similar to Calloway, Matt Swett said he felt the architectural study was “pretty close to the target as far as taking into account everybody’s needs and wants.”
After discussion Wednesday, a next step would “clearly” be assigning prices to the changes Studio Nexus suggested and to more extensive renovations, Swett said.
Board Chairwoman Mary Layton agreed that any plans would hinge on the cost difference between “gutting” the building or making less extensive renovations. But, she said she wanted to open up conversation with the board.
“I think we’re considering a study that’s probably the least amount of change that we could do … this could be a change that lasts decades,” Layton told the board.
In her visioning letter, Layton wrote that she favors a plan to combine the “best of the old and the new,” like incorporating energy efficiency and solar panels while maintaining the building’s “historic character.”
A previous plan to install a geothermal heating and cooling system and new ventilation systems at Tracy Hall, and make other energy improvements in municipal buildings failed during a special town vote in 2020 after residents said it was too expensive.
Layton also recalled the years-long Norwich public safety building redesign process which culminated in construction in 2017. She said that effort included extensive public input and residents favored a “functional, attractive design at a fair price.”