Thunder Bay just approved a $2.6M renovation of our City Hall (just structural stuff, windows and interior redesigns in the lobby and chambers) but already, we, too have the "Let's just abandon the building"/"Let's build a new one!!" arguments flying around. You're not alone.
It's kind of funny, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, cities would spend gross amounts of money on extravagant city halls, but at some point after WWII, we seemed to shun that idea, believing instead that unlike other office workers, municipal employees deserve to work in substandard buildings.