Beverly City Hall Renovation Design Firm Picked

BEVERLY, MA — A Boston-based architectural firm will lead the two-year design and reconstruction of Beverly City Hall in the first significant update to the building in nearly a century.

Finegold Alexander Architects plans to implement design elements and building systems consistent with the city's efforts of reducing energy consumption, in pursuit of clean and renewable energy projects.

"Finegold Alexander looks forward to rejuvenating the historic Beverly City Hall into an innovative, accessible, sustainable, and efficient building for the city of Beverly and its community," said Jeff Garriga, Principal at Finegold Alexander. "Resolving the challenges of restoring and modernizing a historic building is at the very heart of what Finegold Alexander does best."

Beverly City Hall was built in 1785 as the Andrew Cabot Mansion and was converted to Beverly City Hall in 1841. The last significant updates to the building were in the 1930s.

Finegold Alexander has more than 50 years of experience creating designs for new construction, adaptive reuse, and historic preservation projects.

The firm has worked on hundreds of projects in historic buildings, 40 of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as numerous projects on Historic Landmark sites. The firm said it specializes in creating spaces for contemporary use while respecting each building's significant features and historic building fabric.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)