Community celebrates official opening of Sunshine Coast City Hall

More than 1500 Sunshine Coast residents helped make part of local government history at the weekend as the first people to enter the newly opened Sunshine Coast City Hall.

Situated in the heart of the new Maroochydore City Centre and has been designed and built for our community, the official opening of the Sunshine Coast City Hall on Saturday saw Mayor Mark Jamieson unveil the landmark green-star building to the community.

Mayor Jamieson advised “City Hall has been built for the people - the 350,000 residents who call the Sunshine Coast home.

“From today, Council’s Customer Contact Centre and Development Services representatives will be located on the ground floor, welcoming residents and assisting with any council-related enquiries.

“On Level 1, governance in action will be easily visible and accessible to our community with our council chamber easily accessed from the ground floor and clearly visible from outside of the building.

“City Hall is also a contemporary workspace for our teams and an easily accessible and inviting facility for our valued community members who will visit for many reasons.

“Every employee, regardless of their nominated workplace throughout the region, is welcome to work from City Hall.”

Mayor Jamieson said the building was setting a new benchmark for sustainable internal and external design, for the City Centre itself and for the Sunshine Coast more broadly.

He added “we are now seeing this standard of design being modelled in other building designs in the Maroochydore City Centre.

“As we look to the future - to 2032 - I am conscious that the Maroochydore City Centre is very much our Olympic and Paralympic Games city.

“Just over the Maud Canal to our west will be a 1374 bed Olympic Village.

“In addition, Maroochydore will also play an important role, offering a range of places to gather to celebrate the Games, while we are part of staging aspects of the world’s greatest event in 2032.”

City Hall’s top floor, when its fit-out is complete mid next year, will also be for the people.

It will be used for a wide range of council-hosted and sponsored events, citizenship ceremonies and community engagement workshops, and will be available for hire for specified community and business events.

Architects Cottee Parker were tasked by council to draw inspiration from the Glass House Mountains, using the National Heritage listed feature in the building’s forms and colours, the stepped roof, curved façade and the native species incorporated into the building fabric.