Mercer Island council reviews schematic plans for combined public safety and maintenance facility; staff estimate $105–110 million

City Manager Jessie Baum and the project team presented schematic designs on Feb. 4 for a new Public Safety and Maintenance (PSM) facility that would combine the police department, public works operations, the emergency operations center (EOC), IT/GIS and a customer-service storefront on the City Hall/Public Works campus.

At a planning-session presentation, Baum said the design effort follows the council’s October 2023 decision to permanently close the old City Hall after an asbestos discovery and seismic concerns. Architects from Northwest Studios showed site plans that place public access and parking on the north side of the campus, the main two-story PSM building in the midblock, and large covered and high-bay operations and storage yards to the south.

Why it matters: the city has been operating without a storefront and with staff dispersed after City Hall closed. The proposed PSM would centralize many essential services and be built to high seismic and resiliency standards (described in materials as a “risk category 4” / level 4 facility), so it can continue operating during major emergencies.

Design and program highlights

Northwest Studios presented an organization of the site into a public-facing north edge, a central PSM building and a two-part lower and upper yard. The PSM building is shown as roughly 36,000 gross square feet across two floors. The western/second-floor zones are primarily…