CAMBRIDGE — For the first time since 1965, the front doors of historic City Hall will open to taxpayers.

As part of a three-year, $5 million renovation and restoration of the landmark building, big wooden doors two metres up the sides of clock tower will again be used the main entrance, at the top of outside stairs. Today’s street-level entrance has been closed.

When an elevator was removed from the 112-year-old tower, it also allowed sunlight to stream in again through windows blocked off for four decades.

“I love this space. There are some great views,” said Bob Paul, the city’s facilities manager overseeing the project.

He said the job is on time and on budget. The have been surprises, but nothing unexpected when poking around inside a building that turned 151 years on Thursday, November 5.

The building is expected to reopen to public access in late February.

Work on historic city hall started in 2007, with a $1 million job to replace the original slate roof.

City council moved out of the old building in February 2008, when the new city office building opened next door. Meetings are held in the foyer.

Once city councillors moved out, work inside began in earnest.

Later this month a big change comes outside: steel, glass and granite stairs will be installed on either side of the clock tower, up to the old front doors.

Provincial heritage officials picked the modern stairs over wooden ones that used to face Dickson Street, Mayor Doug Craig said.

The glass and steel steps will echo the modern, $30 million city office beside it. The buildings are connected by a two-level, enclosed glass and steel bridge.

All of the older building’s wood-framed windows have been removed, restored and replaced. Acrylic panels were placed on the interior side of all windows, to make them more energy efficient. All the lighting and mechanical systems have been replaced with modern, energy efficient equipment, Paul said.

The street-level floor of the building has undergone the fewest changes. The old front door is closed, but a side door is now ready to give access to people who can’t handle the new outside stairs.

Inside, the circular, interior stairs remain and take visitors up to the second floor. To the right of the stairs, a new elevator has a cabin large enough to carry a patient on a stretcher, Paul said. Combined with the rear glass bridge to new City Hall, it gives full handicapped access – and emergency exit options — to all floors of the building, as the building code requires, he said.

The rest of the main floor remains unchanged and off-limits to the public as a climate-controlled storage area for the city’s archives.

On the second floor, the outside stairs will enter the clock tower. The city archives’ public workroom and gallery still fills most of the second floor, but the space renovated.

It’s the third floor where the biggest transformation is nearly done.

All the plaster and mouldings along the ceiling have been restored in the council chambers. Utilitarian rooms on either side of the council horseshoe that used to hold washrooms are gone. They’ve been replaced with smaller utility rooms to house the heating and cooling systems. New washrooms are now at the rear of the chamber.

Council will jump from the 19th century into the 21st, when the chambers are complete. Paul had $350,000 to wire the room for audiovisual, computer and internet access. The nine of the council member seats will have a computer stations and viewing screens. Two, metre-wide, television screens overhead will give the audience clear view of what’s being discussed.

In the ceiling, a camera looks down to record proceedings. Plans to permanently install multiple remote-controlled cameras to televise or webcast council meetings are in the works, but aren’t part of this project.

City communications director Linda Fegan said the city wants to give citizens easier access to meetings over the internet, but hasn’t sorted out exactly how to do it yet. Whatever technology is eventually installed, the building will be ready, Paul said.

“The lighting in the ceiling is what you’d find in a television studio . . . the infrastructure is all there.”

When renovation plans were first discussed four years ago, there was talk of opening up the top level of the clock tower as a public lookout over old Galt. The only way up today is a narrow wooden staircase, under escort by a city worker.

The grand plan wasn’t to be, because of today’s building safety rules.

“I looked at it. The only way we to do it was to rip out the clock, to meet code,” Paul said.

kswayze@cambridgereporter.com