Orem opens new city hall with safety, more space in mind
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- Orem Mayor David Young cuts the ribbon to open the new city hall alongside City Council members Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- The exterior of Orem’s new city hall is pictured Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- The interior of Orem’s new city hall is pictured Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- A painting is displayed at Orem’s new city hall Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
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- Orem Mayor David Young cuts the ribbon to open the new city hall alongside City Council members Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Orem’s new city hall was built with safety in mind, and nobody seems more excited about it than Orem city manager Brenn Bybee.
“According to one of those seismic studies, my old office would have been ground zero (in an earthquake),” he said. “So if I seem like I’m the happiest person here for the new building, now you know why.”
Orem officially opened its new city hall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday evening in front of current and former city elected officials, employees and community members.
The new building was needed, the city said, due to the safety concerns for the 56-year-old former city center. Seismically unsafe, the building did not meet modern earthquake standards, and even experienced structural damage when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck Salt Lake County in 2020.
The new building, which sits directly south of the old building on the corner of Center Street and State Street — in some spots just 12 feet away — was built to withstand earthquakes and includes an emergency operation center.
It also serves as a significant upgrade in space from the 48,000 square-foot former city hall, with 74,000 square feet across three stories and a basement fit to accommodate the city’s staff and resources.
Mayor David Young believes it will serve the Orem community for decades to come.
“We’ve come a long way since the first farm city hall,” he said. “It was a converted farmhouse belonging to the Stratton family, which also housed the post office and library in the city. The building behind us was built in 1969 and served as our city’s center of operations for the last 56 years. Today, we take another step toward opening up this beautiful, modern facility.”
A new building was in the works for roughly a decade and, once construction began, was completed in two years by Layton Construction. Reported in 2022 to cost around $24 million, it was finished on budget with no debts, tax raises, bonds or loans, according to the city.
“Most people in the industry told us this wasn’t possible, but like I’ve said many times before, in Orem, we’ve got the magic,” Young said.
The city hall features 738 exterior window panels and over 75,000 bricks, and was built to resemble Mount Timpanogos and Cascade Mountain.
With safety in mind, the west side of the building is considered risk level 4, meaning it is habitable post-earthquake, and the east side is risk level 3, meaning the structure will be standing but not habitable after a large earthquake.
Other features include 141 solar panels on the roof and a backup generator to power the building during outages.
“I want you to stop and look at the details of the building, whether it’s the concrete, the brick, the glass, the paint, the drywall, and see the men and women who devoted their time and energy to build it,” said Jeff Palmer, the executive vice president of Layton Construction.
The building will house new council chambers, office space for several of the city’s departments and numerous conference rooms on each floor.
Beyond the safety element, Orem officials believe the new space can enhance the productivity 0f city employees.
“A better city hall empowers our employees to deliver better results for our residents,” Young said. “A more functional city hall provides more opportunities for families to connect, find help and truly build a home in our community.”
