Jump To:
May 1, 2025
April’s construction activity
It has been another busy month for the team working on the new City Hall. The team completed the third level floor and columns and started working on the fourth level.
What to expect in May
Crews will finish the fourth level work and start work on the fifth level. Another team will start layout and framing the interior walls for the basement. The contractor will also begin constructing the steel Brise Soleil.
What is a Brise Soleil?
Brise Soleil is a French term that directly translates to “sun breaker”. It is also the name given to an architectural feature that acts as a solar shading system. The Brise Soleil is a series of horizontal and/or vertical blades that help control the amount of sunlight and heat gain to a building. The Brise Soleil will shade the new City Hall terraces.
The contractor is also scheduled to start installing the precast outer shell of the building sometime this May. More to come in the next few weeks on this exciting addition to the building.
May 14, 2025
The new City Hall will look a lot different in the coming weeks, as crews start installing the precast outer shell of the building.
What does precast mean?
Precast is a concrete product created offsite and then delivered to its project destination for final use.
The precast panels for the City Hall building are coming to Raleigh from Gate Precast Concrete in Nashville, Tennessee. Members of the City’s City Hall team had the opportunity to visit the precast contractor and filmed a short video that shows part of the fabrication process. The contractor is installing the panels one floor at a time, from the first floor working their way up.
To help coordinate the different crews, the contractor is going to a 24-hour construction cycle. Crews will complete concrete pours for the floor slabs and pillars from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. The precast install crews will work from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. (Please note that concrete pours do not occur daily.) The 24-hour cycle schedule allows the team to maintain the construction schedule. Right now, the team is building out each floor every 16 days.
May 22, 2025
The fourth-level floors and columns are in place, and now the team is working on pouring the concrete floor and columns on the fifth level and starting to form out the sixth level. Next, they will pour the columns and start framing the sixth level. Each level takes about 16 days to complete. The new City Hall will be taller than the Raleigh Municipal Building (RMB) in the next few weeks.
Some of the construction is very forward-facing, and the public can see the progress as they walk or drive by, but work is also ongoing in areas we can’t see. Crews are working in the basement and on the first floor of the building, laying out and framing the interior areas and installing the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing rough-ins. Rough-in is a term that means the initial stage of installation in a building, where pipes, wires and connections are installed before the final fixtures and finishes are added.
May 29, 2025
Last week, the contractor installed the steel for the first level of Brise Soleil. In case you missed the May 1 project update, the Brise Soleil is a series of horizontal and/or vertical blades that help control the amount of sunlight in a building. The Brise Soleil will shade the new City Hall terraces.
Crews also continue to install the precast panels on the building. You can see the new panels along the back side of the building. The team has also completed the fifth level and is now working on the sixth level.