New Federal Courthouse: Breaking Ground [Again]

Nine years ago, the Damnations played for Intel engineers at a Republic Square groundbreaking. Unfortunately, Intel’s Design Center grew to only a shell of its imagined self. Wednesday, September 2, four U.S. Congressmen tapped deeper pockets and gathered under a white tent with hundreds of federal workers for another groundbreaking ceremony. Three bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled; a dozen or so Austin policemen, including chief Acevedo, watched from the shade of oak trees; four Marines from Camp Mabry’s 1st battalion, 23rd Marines, presented the colors; speeches were given. In the end, eleven shovels turned a patch of powder-dry dirt. And sometime in 2012, with the help of stimulus money, a new Federal courthouse will open.

The cost: $116M, the segment of San Antonio between 4th and 5th will be permanently closed and a prime downtown lot will be taken off the tax rolls.

The benefit: a new, LEED certified courthouse that faces Republic Square.

The details: $460 a square foot; eight courtrooms, basement parking plus seven levels and a green roof to be built by White Construction.

The actors in this drama: Lee Yeakel U.S District Judge, Commissioner Bob Peck, U.S General Services Administration, and Congressmen Lloyd Doggett, Michael McCaul, Walter S. Smith, and Lamar Smith. Amazingly, they all represent Austin districts.

Merrill Elam was on hand representing the architecture firm of Mack Scogin Merrill Elam out of Atlanta. The following comments have been cleared for publication by the Vice-President of the United States (for some reason, any words about a federal stimulus project must be reviewed). Asked about the design, Elam graciously shared her vision: “An architect does not just look at the fabric of the city. The design considered a lot of different levels. We looked at the whole history of Austin: Republic Square, the grid of the city. We looked at the attitude of the judges - the transparency and accessibility of the law. We listened when they said: ‘we want daylight in our courtroom’. They were very civic minded and wanted space where they could host public event.” You can view their design here. She was very happy after six years of work to see work underway and to be carrying home one of those shovels.

The project manager from the GSA office out of Fort Worth would not speak with this reporter.

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Afterward, I talked with former mayor Will Wynn. He was instrumental in the negotiations with the federal government. He pointed out that Nueces will be opened all the way to Cesar Chavez once the water plant is shut down. I asked him about losing the “Digital Downtown”, but gaining a courthouse. “Even though it won’t be on the tax roll,” he said, “I sure like a courthouse on this location, right across from the park.”

He called the Intel decision to halt construction, “a psychological blow.” From his side, the empty shell clashed with the message of a vibrant downtown the city was selling. At the time, the downtown condo boom had not begun. He thought Intel made a business decision to sell the property, after pouring $20M of concrete. Talking with the Intel site manager at the time, I sensed Intel felt pressure to either finish the building or sell the lot. In the end, they sold.

To be clear, Intel put the construction on hold. Not only had the dot com bust hit, but so did 9/11. The re-start date was out of the local office’s control. Every time the Intel site manager came back from a meeting at city hall, he carried a new bruise. Eventually, for reasons that were as much political as business (“Intel wants to maintain a good public image in the community”), the lot was sold to the federal government. In February, 2007, the building was imploded.