Culver City : Cut Urged in City Hall Plan

A projected cost of more than $23 million for the new City Hall has prompted the Redevelopment Agency to send the design back to the architect.

The agency has ordered CHCG Inc. to cut at least $1 million from the project.

At a meeting last week, agency members, meeting jointly as the City Council, discussed which features they wanted to eliminate from the new City Hall. They declined to set a construction budget.

The estimated construction cost of $23.5 million was $8 million more than the figures CHCG submitted to the agency during the design competition early last year. The architect attributed the increase, in part, to changes by the agency, which called for an additional 100 parking spaces, shower and locker facilities, a third elevator and structural reinforcement beyond the required seismic standards.