Ames City Hall is hoping to get a facelift for the doors of its building.

At their meeting Sept. 11, members of the Ames City Council voted unanimously to authorize the submission of a grant application to cover part of the cost of replacing City Hall’s doors.

The Historic Site Preservation Grant would provide a maximum of $100,000 toward the replacement of 31 of the building’s exterior doors. The remaining amount needed, $136,775, would come from other city funds.

“The maximum amount we can request is $100,000,” said Ray Anderson, city planner. “We plan on matching and exceeding that amount.”

Built in 1938, City Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“What that designation does is encourage special steps to preserve historic buildings,” said Bob Kindred, assistant city manager.

City Hall’s doors, which are constructed of a solid wood core and an oak veneer, were installed in 1989. City Hall was remodeled for its current use from 1988 to 1990.

Since then, the building’s wooden doors have become weathered due to natural conditions including wind, rain and extreme temperature changes.

The City Council decided that the doors needed to be replaced, and that replacing them in a historically accurate manner would best maintain the building’s appearance and in the most cost-effective way.

“It’s actually less expensive if we get the grant,” Kindred said.

The City Council had considered alternatives, but the replacement project would not be eligible for the HSPG grant if the city had decided to go with less historically accurate options, such as metal doors.

“Metal doors may not be less expensive,” Kindred said. “If you put metal doors on the building, you would also need to replace the wooden trim around the doors.”

Kindred added that the additional cost of replacing hardware and other parts of the building’s door frames to accommodate metal doors would drive the cost of replacement to approximately $150,000.

“We’re stretching to come up with the $136,775,” he said. “This is a lot of money, and we’re concerned that we get the best value all around.”

The city has consulted with an architectural firm that has experience in working with historic buildings. Photos of the building’s original doors were used to help determine what the new wooden doors would look like, and aspects such as handicap accessibility and future security improvements were also taken into account in determining the design of the new doors.

“We will certainly meet the requirement for accessibility through the [Americans with Disabilities Act],” Anderson said.

Meeting those requirements includes putting double doors in some locations where there is presently only one door.

Plans also include the addition of three podiums with buttons that can be pushed by people in wheelchairs to open the doors automatically.

Anderson said that although the application for the grant has not yet reached final approval, he hopes that the replacement can be complete by November 2008.