Courtesy Lehi City

Growth in Lehi isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. While new residents and businesses move in, city leaders felt that it’s important to display some of Lehi’s rich history through the design of a new soon-to-be-built Civic Center campus.

The new 60,000-square-foot Civic Center facility will house new council chambers, a community room, administrative offices and a new library, offering increased space and enhancements.

Lehi officials say the current library building is over 60 years old and is becoming difficult to maintain, and the administration building is at capacity.

The new facility will be located at the corner of 100 North and 100 East, just south of the existing City Hall. With the change, 100 North will be vacated and become part of the Civic Center plaza.

In a future phase, the plaza will extend to Main Street between 100 East and Center Street, according to Communications Manager Jeanteil Livingston.

Curtis Booker, Daily Herald

The design is an ode to the historic Lehi Tabernacle that was built in the early 1900s but was demolished in 1962. The landmark was said have served as the cultural center for Lehi. The new Civic Center will feature a central tower, with shorter towers on each corner, reminiscent of the tabernacle, a description on a city website states.

At the groundbreaking ceremony in April, Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson said the inspiration behind the decision to build the new Civic Center to resemble the historic tabernacle came after he and other city officials traveled to Dallas and Phoenix to research design ideas and options.

“The old tabernacle was a pretty stately building and everybody seemed to love it,” Johnson said. “Whether you want to make a religious connection to it or not, the thing is, that it was a monument in Lehi.”

Though paying homage to Lehi’s heritage through architecture to have an iconic and timeless community space, the city says their goal is to also build something that will serve the community for generations to come.

“To be able to pay homage to our history and what built Lehi to be what it is, I think, is a phenomenal thing that we have an opportunity to do,” Lehi City Council member Paul Hancock said. “I look forward to this being just a great asset for the community to leverage and for us to continue to serve a great community.”

Building for the future

Courtesy Lehi City

The new Lehi Civic Center will feature multipurpose community rooms for public space, including lobbies, conference rooms, a community room and the City Council area. The new council chambers will double the size of the existing one. Also included will be new office space for staff members and administration, the information center, and legal and finance departments.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade is to the library. The current facility is 18,700 square feet, with a 1,500-square-foot programming room, circulation and technology services rooms, and support staff offices. The new library will be about 25,000 square feet, with double the space for programming, support staff, quiet study rooms and a recording studio/conference room for making podcasts and videos, just to name a few of the enhancements.

Temporary impacts

As crews are in the early stages of construction on the new facility, there are several impacts for people using the current library and City Hall, mostly related to parking.

For the next six to eight weeks, parking for the library will be located in the lot on the south side of the current building along 100 North at Center Street. The library ultimately will be demolished to make room for the new Civic Center. City officials will announce at a later time a temporary space for library users.

Parking at the City Hall is closed, but the building is still open. Citizens will have to use the stairs on the east side of the building to enter it.

Once the new facility is open, the existing building will remain in use.

Ballot boxes and drop box for Lehi City payments are now located on the south side of the Lehi Police Station.

These configurations are subject to change as construction progresses.

Lehi’s new Civic Center is anticipated to be completed in fall 2025.

Newsletter