City hall designs to debut

The public and city officials alike will have their first peek at possible designs for a new Newport Beach city hall.

Five architectural firms from across the state will pitch their plans for a city hall, an adjoining public park and parking structure at an 8 a.m. meeting Saturday at Newport Beach City Hall. Each team will have 90 minutes to present its design.

Like a bride choosing her wedding dress, Mayor Ed Selich said he hopes there will be one design everyone will fall in love with at first sight.

“Hopefully there will be one design that everyone says, ‘That’s the one,’ ” Selich said.

Members of the Newport Beach City Hall Design Committee are looking for qualities such as functionality, practicality, sustainability and creativity in the designs, said Larry Tucker, chairman of the City Hall Design Committee.

“This is probably the biggest expenditure the city will make for a long time to come,” Tucket said. “Newport is a special place. A lot of people feel we need to have a city hall that reflects that.”

The city has enough money to build a “world-class facility” on a vacant piece of land on Avocado Avenue next to the central municipal library, Tucker said, thanks to about $27 million in development fees from the Irvine Co. The real estate development giant is giving the city the money as part of a development agreement to create a new planned community in Newport Center.

The five architectural firms were given $50,000 and three months to develop designs.

The committee, made up of three architects and one landscape architect, is expected to offer its recommendations to the City Council on an architectural firm in November.

Chosen from a field of 51 applicants, the teams include Bohlin Cywinski Jackson based in San Francisco; Gonzalez Goodale Architects out of Pasadena; Johnson Fain from Los Angeles; LPA Inc. based in Irvine; and locals Rossetti Architects from Newport Beach.

City officials hope to begin contract negotiations with the chosen design firm around the end of the year, Selich said.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.