Finding Civic Identity

Renovation and Public Realm Improvements of the Mandan City Hall in Mandan, North Dakota

Project Summary

Community: Mandan, North Dakota

Technical Assistance: Market Analysis and Site
Reuse Design

Former Use: City Hall

Future Use: City Hall

Mandan, North Dakota is a city on the eastern border of
Morton County. The eighth-largest city in the state,

Mandan is a core city in the Bismarck-Mandan
Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the 1980s, downtown
Mandan experienced a railroad fuel spill and diesel oil
contaminated the groundwater. Today, the area has been
remediated and new developments are occurring. A
downtown Mandan subarea study was completed in 2018
that engaged community members in planning for the
future of the downtown. Despite significant investment in
outlying neighborhoods in the past four decades,
downtown Mandan remains the cultural heart of the
community and the primary source of identity for the city.

The Community's Challenge

Mandan City Hall is currently located within the World War
Memorial Building, a building with historical significance to
the city. The building contains a number of city
departments and community resources, and is where city,
school, and park board meetings are held. The needs of
Mandan city government have changed in the five
decades since the building was last renovated. The
building currently is not designed to support the changing
needs of the departments. The city is looking for support to
redesign the existing World War Memorial Building to
better accommodate City Hall functions and improve
overall public realm design in downtown Mandan.

EPA's Land Revitaiization Technical Assistance

In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Land Revitaiization Program provided contractor technical
assistance to conduct a market analysis and develop a
site reuse design for the World War Memorial Building.
The report incorporated city employee input on existing
spatial and use challenges of the building into three

options of differing levels of intervention. The preferred
alternative recommended major renovations and full
system upgrades to the World War Memorial Building.

Upgrades to the World War Memorial Building included
accessibility upgrades, relocation of meeting rooms,
reconfiguration of public-facing and secure spaces, and an
expansion of public access to the previously secured
upper floors. Additional recommendations addressed
public realm upgrades in adjacent streets to create linear
plazas and green connectors, supported by a series of
case studies on successful public realm improvements.

Rendering of the Renovated Mandan City Hall

For more information, contact Ted Lanzano, EPA
Region 8 Brownfields Program, at

Lazano.Ted@epa.gov.

United States
Environmental Protection
^*^1 M * Agency

Office of Brownfields and Land Revitaiization
560-F-23-334

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