Long Beach Civic Center

The Long Beach Civic Center (LBCC), a multi-faceted development in the heart of downtown Long Beach, California, encompasses a new city hall and civic chambers, a headquarters for the Port of Long Beach, and a public library. The project replaced maintenance-plagued, seismically-unsound structures with new civic buildings that play a vital role in the City’s efforts to revitalize downtown, without added cost to taxpayers. The state-of-the-art Civic Center development was delivered under an innovative public-private partnership (P3), utilizing a design-build-finance-operate-maintain (DBFOM) contract, which enabled the construction and long-term maintenance of the Civic Center in exchange for land that will be privately developed. The project is  the nation and North America’s first municipal DBFOM. The project is also the first North American hybrid DBFOM to combine public infrastructure and private development within a single project. 

Located in the city’s urban core, the Civic Center development encompasses more than 600,000 square feet divided among four structures and spread across several city blocks. Outside of the project’s vertical elements, the project team also delivered roadway and pedestrian improvements, creating public plazas and pathways that connect the new structures. 

The architecture of the new Civic Center campus creates a stark contrast to the City’s prior municipal buildings, offering a vibrant civic hub that infuses new life into downtown Long Beach. The vision for the Civic Center focuses attention on the community-centric role that government plays in major cities, while also recognizing and celebrating Long Beach’s long and rich maritime history and its leading role in global commerce and trade. 

Targeting LEED® Gold certification, the new Civic Center optimizes operations and maintenance, maximizes street parking, and expands bike infrastructure to create a hierarchy and quality of place – one that befits the city’s dynamic center for culture, recreation, education, and government.