Comprised of over 47,000 SF, the Rehoboth Beach City Hall renovation and addition was designed to upgrade a functionally deficient facility. The municipal facility serves as the city’s primary public service & public safety building and includes city administration departments, Alderman’s court, mayor and commissioner chambers, a convention center and a police station encompassing a 911 dispatch and emergency services center. The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Chesapeake Bay recognized Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc. (DBF), with a Citation award for the design of the Rehoboth Beach City Hall and police station complex.

Outdated buildings were removed, other portions renovated, while still others remain intact. All told, the proposed facility was upgraded ADA and energy deficiencies while at the same time provided for present day programming needs.

DBF worked together with the city’s 14-person facilities task force to create a design compatible with Rehoboth Avenue’s streetscape and further promoting a civic building “look” first introduced by the library across the street. Utilizing brick and limestone-like panels, the building’s facade is broken into three smaller forms to scale it more appropriately with the other shops and buildings along the street. The entrance to the convention center, once hidden from Rehoboth Avenue, now projects into view and is accessible by both interior and exterior promenades. City hall functions and police are accessed separately and entry to the commissioner’s room is by way of a curved stairway within a light-filled 2-story atrium.