Draft:New Westminster City Hall

New Westminster City Hall is the main administrative building for the city of New Westminster. It is the meeting place for the New Westminster City Council, as well as various other advisory boards and committees. It is located in the Downtown neighbourhood of the city, adjacent to Friendship Gardens and Tipperary Park.

History
Prior to 1953, the New Westminster City Hall was located on Columbia Street. It was built sometime between 1898 and 1901, following the great fire of 1898.

In the early 1950s, the city decided to rebuild their city hall at a new location further up the hill. This coincided with a growing urban shift in New Westminster where the city's commercial and business district was expanding upwards from the downtown core, into an area now known as Uptown New West. The new city hall was built on land which was initially reserved for parliament buildings for the United Colony of British Columbia, which were never built due to Victoria being selected as the capital of the new colony.

The current city hall was designed by Allen C. Smith, a prominent architect who also designed Saint Mary’s Hospital.

The building was initially shared with the New Westminster Police Department until 2001, when they moved into a new police station on Columbia Street.