Courthouse leak turns into $3.4M project

Their request was relatively modest: Turn off the fountain and consider replacing the Kentucky blue grass with Buffalo grass that would require far less than 300,000 gallons of water during the summer — some of which was leaking into the garage.

The response from the General Services Administration: a $3.4 million plan for redoing the courthouse landscape, putting up solar panels and installing giant underground cisterns.

GSA owns federal buildings, and the judges are, in effect, captive tenants with no control over projects like this. Nevertheless, they cringed at the expense — which is nearly 10 percent of the $41 million it cost to build and landscape the seven-story high Pete V. Domenici Courthouse in 1998.

An artist’s rendering of what the makeover will look like. (courtesy of Rios Clementi Hale Studios of Los Angeles)

Judge William “Chip” Johnson said the work looks first rate and the project may well end up enhancing the beauty of the courthouse.

But he said judges wonder whether, during a time of threatened government budget cuts and potential furloughs for court employees, the entire project hasn’t gone more than a bit over the top.

“Whether this GSA landscape project is a wise and efficient use of taxpayer dollars is an important public issue and one certainly subject to debate,” Johnson said.

The GSA sees it differently.

“It is a wonderful project,” GSA spokeswoman Tina Jaegerman said. “This is one of those projects that they’re already talking about awards for design.”

Jaegerman, who is based in Fort Worth, said GSA’s plan was to make the project a “showcase for innovation in sustainability and to further GSA’s goal for a zero environmental footprint.”

The landscaping makeover at the court building includes large underground cisterns to capture rain water from the roof and grounds to irrigate new plants and trees.

Trifecta

So how did the cash-strapped federal government find millions for an award-winning landscape project to fix a leak? That’s where the trifecta comes in.

• The 2009 federal stimulus package meant there was money available.
• The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 approved by Congress ordered that federal buildings be made environmentally sustainable.
• An executive order signed by President Obama in 2009 increased the pace of the 2007 law.

So in fixing one leaky underground garage, the GSA could show it was following the president’s orders and Congress’ orders and didn’t have to ask for extra money.

“The project presented a unique situation at a unique time,” Jaegerman said.

Big leak

Before the leak repairs began, the front of the courthouse consisted of wide concrete sidewalks, stairs and courtyards, Kentucky bluegrass lawn and a fountain, all sitting on top of an underground parking garage.

When the lawn got watered or the fountain was turned on, water leaked into the underground garage.

Over time, it wasn’t just a drip.

A trench on the east side of the court building is the future home of the twin 8,000-gallon water cisterns.

Commercial crews had to be brought in on a regular basis to vacuum out the standing water in the garage.

Judges were concerned the water would damage the integrity of the underground garage structure and require expensive repairs.

Since the federal judges don’t own the courthouse at 333 Lomas NW, the site of the old McClellan Park, they asked the landlord to fix the leak.

Federal court buildings throughout the country are owned by the GSA, and the Judiciary branch pays rent from its budget. So modest or not, any fix was up to the GSA.

It began simply enough. The fountain was shut off and the judges asked about some native grass needing little water to replace the water-guzzling Kentucky blue grass. But when they got a look at the GSA-approved plan, they were concerned.

Johnson is the representative for the judges in the 10th Circuit on the Judicial Conference Committee on Space and Facilities, which means he gets to deal with the GSA on a regular basis.

So, his colleagues asked him to relay their concerns, objections and questions.

• The judges asked GSA only to fix the leakage into the garage and look at reducing water use on the lawn. They were not consulted and were not in favor of a project of this magnitude and cost.
• The judges were concerned about how the landscape changes would drastically alter the front of what they consider one of the most beautiful buildings in the state.
• How would the landscape affect the public use of the front lawn for free speech assemblies?
• Would the rent bill increase to cover maintenance costs for the project once it is completed?

So much for judicial input.

“Notwithstanding the concerns raised by judges of this district, GSA went full steam ahead with the landscape project,” Johnson said.

‘Reduce waste’

Jaegerman said that one of GSA’s major goals “is to reduce resource waste in federal buildings.”

The design calls for tearing out the Kentucky blue grass lawn and planting “native and adaptive plant species to reduce watering requirements.” Large underground cisterns will collect and allow reuse of all site and building storm water runoff for irrigation.

Solar panels will be installed on the roof of the courthouse to provide most of the site’s exterior energy needs.

The project was designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios of Los Angeles, and AIC General Contractors of Albuquerque won the $2.8 million bid for construction.

Of the three Downtown courthouses, the federal courthouse has been involved in the least amount of controversy.

It was completed Nov. 23, 1998, and was built on time and on budget.

Of the three courthouses at the Lomas and Fourth NW intersection, it also cost the least. The Metropolitan Court project, including public garage, cost $83 million, and the State District Court House cost $45 million.

Both of the local court projects became mired in the kickback scandal involving former Senate Pro Tem Manny Aragon, D-Bernalillo, who is scheduled to conclude his federal prison term next summer for his part in siphoning money out of the Metropolitan Court construction project.

The biggest controversy surrounding the federal courthouse was where to put the “Madonna of the Trail” statue and the planting of the Kentucky blue grass during a city water conservation campaign.