You could win up to $1,000 and be part of Tacoma history in Old City Hall contest
Tacoma developer Eli Moreno is still as excited about Old City Hall as he was in 2019 when he unveiled plans for its redevelopment.
His message to Tacoma: Yes, it’s still happening, though an imagined New Year’s Eve 2021 celebration at the site, complete with the bell tower ringing in the new year, is now tentatively set for New Year’s Eve 2022.
“It’s been lots of delays, needless to say,” Moreno said in a recent interview with The News Tribune. “But we are still excited about the Old City Hall project. Our architects and engineers this past year have been able to finalize the plans. And now, we submitted those a couple of weeks ago to the city for approvals and permits. We’re estimating that that is going to take about six months from now.”
Kristine Grace, working with Moreno, said work in some fashion is happening on site every day. Moreno hopes the work accelerates in September.
To help spark community engagement, Moreno and Grace this week announced the relaunch of “Restore Tacoma’s Clock” challenge, open to students everywhere, organized in teams of two to eight members, high school to graduate school.
The challenge, first announced in 2019, is to bring the clock and tower back into full use while competing for a $1,000 prize and $500 runner-up award.
The teams must come up with a plan for four elements of the project:
▪ Create a working clock mechanism that will keep time on all four faces.
▪ Illuminate the clock face so it is apparent from a distance.
▪ Light up the clock tower in an innovative fashion that will welcome visitors to the city.
▪ Create a plan to engage Tacomans throughout the build out of the clock.
Participants can be in any educational institution and will need to submit their school email during the registration to qualify.
Teams can have two-to-eight members of students ranging from high school to graduate school participants. And their work will become part of the building’s history, with names of winning team members to be displayed on a plaque next to the tower once it is restored.
Grace said the competition is more than just about getting the clock working again.
“It’s not just the clock, it’s more of a design challenge,” she noted. “We really want to see lighting. We’ve seen so many grand buildings and are looking at different towers; we want to see a lighting design so that when you enter Tacoma, you see the tower lit up and the lighting of the lantern, that lantern effect at the top of the tower. We want to do something special there.
“We want to see the clock face from throughout the city. Because right now it’s really difficult to see it,” she added.
Moreno said the tower and clock were originally designed to be a beacon for ships coming in.
“That’s what we’re trying to recreate here, too. And it’s going to be interesting to see what people come up with, like a lighthouse,” he said.
Moreno and Grace will host an online information night for applicants at 6 p.m., April 15 on Facebook Live.
And, as much as the competition is open to all, they hope a team from Tacoma steps up to win.
“As much as we would love to have applicants from all over the world, nothing would make us happier than to have someone sitting in a Tacoma public school, classroom or virtual classroom right now, get together with a team of students,” Grace said.
“One day, they could point out to that clock and say, ‘You know, I was part of it,’ Moreno added.
“And that is the feeling that we want to send to every citizen of Tacoma, that this is not our building, this is the city’s, the people’s building, Help us preserve it.”
For more information
Entries are due by June 1 and can be submitted in written, digital, graphic, CAD models, schematic or video form. For more information and to register, go to oldcityhalltacoma.com/clocktower.html, or email restoretheclock@oldcityhalltacoma.com.
Restore Tacoma’s Clock on Facebook: facebook.com/restoretacomasclock
