Tisbury officials got their first look Tuesday at a new potential solution to the chronic lack of adequate space for town offices, which now are scattered among multiple buildings in different neighborhoods.
Voters in 2024 approved $600,000 to study the feasibility of a consolidated town hall, which proved too costly at an estimated $36.7 million.
But Rick Homans, a member of the town’s finance and advisory committee who is working with the study’s architects, said that even if all plans for a new town building were dropped, Tisbury would still need to spend millions on urgently-needed work at its existing offices.
“We call [that] the ‘do-nothing’ option, which was … keep what we have, but make sure we keep it operational,” Mr. Homans said at Tuesday’s select board meeting.
Icon Architecture, which has been conducting the feasibility study, estimated a total cost of at least $4.5 million for the minimal option, including deferred maintenance at the historic town hall on Spring street and the removal and replacement of two deteriorating modular buildings at the annex on High Point Lane.
On Tuesday, the architects returned to the select board with a scaled-back, two-part proposal, which they said would cost significantly less than a consolidated town hall while achieving more than the do-nothing alternative.
“We went back to the drawing board and came up with the lowest-cost option, which introduces a town hall annex at the West William site along with a renovated town hall,” architect Mark McKevitz said.
Intended to meet Tisbury’s office space needs for 50 years into the future, the project would begin with an all-new municipal building at the town’s one-acre property on West William street, across from Tisbury School.
The 6,700-square-foot, single-story building would be the permanent home of the town’s building, planning, clerk’s and information technology departments, along with the conservation commission, the zoning board of appeals and the board of health.
A 2,800-square-foot basement would provide ample storage space, Mr. McKevitz said, and the building would leave enough land on the site for potential future housing.
If the project were to begin in 2028, Icon Architecture estimated the total cost would be $14 million for a modular building or $15.2 million for traditional construction.
A modular building comes together more quickly, Mr. McKevitz said, while traditional methods allow for better airtightness, which is a plus for energy sustainability.
Once the West William street building is occupied, he said, the second phase of the project would bring sweeping renovations to the existing town hall on Spring street.
The first floor would be gutted and rebuilt to provide 3,750 square feet of permanent office space for the finance, human resources and town administrator’s departments, Mr. McKevitz said.
The second floor would hold a large conference room, employee kitchenette and storage, he said.
The Katharine Cornell Theatre, on the town hall’s top floor, would receive updates to its lighting, air-handling systems and finished surfaces, Mr. McKevitz said.
The renovation also would include new, replica replacements for the building’s historic windows and higher-performance fiberglass windows for the more recently-added wings.
“We’re being very respectful of the original building in this,” architect Ned Collier said, adding that the design is meant to subordinate the additions on either side of the onetime church.
Icon Architecture has redesigned the additions, which currently are painted white, with larger windows and darker walls than the main building.
Select board members raised concerns about the contrast, noting that the building is located within the William Street Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
But Mr. McKevitz said that while the design is up for discussion, his firm followed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s guidelines for the National Register of Historic Places in making the additions identifiably more contemporary than the main building.
“There is a fear with the National Register and the Secretary of Interior that when you try to blend things, the understanding of what was original and what isn’t becomes difficult to read, and they view that as a very important element for additions,” he said.
Icon estimated the Spring street project to cost $10.3 million if work begins in 2028 or $11.7 million if delayed to 2030.
Town administrator Joseph LaCivita said Tisbury could pay for the projects by issuing short-term notes rather than bonds, which would affect the town’s financial rating.
Select board members Roy Cutrer, John Cahill and Connie Alexander voted unanimously in favor of Icon’s conceptual design, clearing the way for Mr. LaCivita and Mr. Homan to begin developing a warrant article for the spring town meeting.