McKinney unveils new City Hall plaza and seeks Historic Preservation Board help on permanent exhibits

City of McKinney staff outlined progress on the municipal complex project and asked members of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board to help finalize a rotating historic exhibit in the new City Hall breezeway.

The presentation, led by Barry Shelton, described steps taken to recognize the site's industrial past after the city removed an unstable ice house that formerly sat on the plaza footprint. Shelton said the city salvaged brick and columns from the structure for reuse on-site and built a low brick wall in the plaza to mark the ice house footprint. "We wanted to celebrate that history," Shelton said. He described the demolished structure as "not sound" and noted the cost to stabilize it exceeded what the city council chose to take on.

Shelton told the board the plaza and promenade are intended as a community gathering space that will tie the East Side to downtown, mentioning nearby historic sites including the flour mill, the grain elevator site (now a brewery) and Old Settlers Park. He said design goals were to "leverage and celebrate the history and surrounding community" and to create a flexible building that adapts over decades.

Shelton also reviewed plans for a series of interpretive panels installed along a breezeway. Staff and the Collin County History Museum prepared a timeline and a set of historic images; the boards of panels are installed and staff would like the HPAB to review text and photo selections. Shelton said the panels are intended to be semi-permanent, changed roughly every one to two years, and that staff has provided board members a flash drive with a working timeline and roughly a hundred historic photos to help select and caption images.

Board members asked about lighting and the number of panels; Shelton said the installed design drawings show track lighting and that there are 13 panel faces planned, with the ability to use both sides. He also said annual maintenance and finish items remain — for example, survey markers for the ice-house footprint were special-ordered and were not yet installed, and some building systems (including HVAC) were still being completed as staff continued punch-list work.

Shelton invited the board to a City Hall grand opening planned for Saturday, April 19, from noon to 3 p.m., with a ribbon cutting, a dedication plaque unveiling, public tours of the building's public spaces, food trucks and booths for East Side vendors. He noted the event overlaps other East Side activities that day, including a community garden event and a local music festival. "We're going to have city staff members on each floor so you can wander the building," Shelton said, adding that public access will be limited to public spaces and not private offices.

Board members responded positively and asked to hold a work session to review the narrative and photo choices before the next HPAB meeting; staff said they would coordinate with the city secretary's office about scheduling the session. Cassie Baumgartner, acting staff coordinator for the HPAB, confirmed she could organize a work session: "We can have a work session," she told the board.

Shelton said staff hopes to finalize the first exhibit with input from the board and the communications and marketing team, which will produce printed panels. He also described smaller preservation gestures already completed in the plaza, including reuse of salvaged brick for seating and up-lighting to highlight the wall in the evenings. A plaque telling the ice house story is planned for future installation.

The presentation included several requests for assistance: board members were asked to review the posted narrative, mark up a paper copy or review the photos on the supplied flash drive, help locate additional archival images, and help select specific photos that will appear with short captions on the panels. Shelton and staff said they will return to the board at a subsequent meeting with refined text and image choices.

The City Hall project presentation and the request for HPAB assistance focused on interpretation and display decisions; no formal action by the HPAB was required at the April session.

Ending: Staff said they will notify HPAB members of a proposed work-session date and will send the board the timeline and flash-drive materials electronically. The city will formally unveil the first historic exhibit during the April 19 grand-opening event and will invite the board to a later celebration once panels are fully installed and captioned.