The current city hall, located in Downtown Bellevue, opened in 2006 after the $121 million renovation of a former Qwest data center.

The current city hall is located adjacent to the Bellevue Transit Center and will be home to a light rail station that opens in 2023.

[7][8] Preliminary plans for a consolidated municipal office building were approved by the city council in February 1963, with the $320,000 cost being funded with regular tax income, rather than a bond measure as previously attempted.

[2][10] A public library was opened adjacent to the municipal building in 1967,[11] as part of the development of the 8-acre (3.2 ha) civic center campus.

[16] The existing city hall was vacated and renovated to add a modern facade, air conditioning, and an additional floor.

[27] In early 2002, Qwest approached the City of Bellevue with an offer to purchase the building from them, as office vacancies had been high in recent years.

[33] The existing Qwest building, described as a "foreboding" structure and an "architectural eyesore",[31][34] would need to undergo a year-long renovation to become a "hub of civic life".

[35] SRG Partnership was selected as the project's lead architect, and presented a new design for the building to the city council in February 2004.

The concrete exterior would be clad in gray metal and red-brown terra cotta, and the dirt parking lot to the northwest of the block would become a public plaza and grass lawn.

[44] In 2013, Sound Transit finalized its route for the East Link light rail project, serving Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond.

The plaza includes a bronze sculpture by Dan Corson and statues from Bellevue's sister city of Hualien, Taiwan.