Completion of federal building due in 2005

Cape Girardeau's new federal courthouse is moving forward again, this time with the promise of a design-build process that should speed up construction.

Design-build involves an architect and contractor working together through the entire project so both understand the requirements and can address problems as they arise. Other federal courthouses have been built using the method.

"It is faster this way," said Brad Scott, regional administrator for the General Services Administration in Kansas City, Mo., the agency in charge of federal construction projects.

But there are still more delays in the courthouse project, which has been plagued by them since site selection began in 1994. If all goes well, the new courthouse could be under construction on a four-acre site at Independence and Frederick by 2003 and completed by July 2005, Scott said. The General Services Administration is in the process of buying land west of city hall for the project.

Emerson's support

The design-build method has the support of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, who objected to the design work of a Chicago architectural firm earlier this year.

The proposals would have to fit into building requirements as spelled out by the federal government, Lloyd Smith, Emerson's chief of staff, said Thursday. The General Services Administration earlier this year canceled its contract with a Chicago architectural firm for design of the new courthouse after the Office of Management and Budget in Washington concluded the project should be scaled back.

The federal government paid the firm nearly $500,000 before terminating the contract. The architectural firm of Ross, Barney and Jankowski had proposed a courthouse with an atrium and skylight that would be left open in the summer. The atrium wouldn't have been air conditioned.

Emerson shot down the idea, saying she wouldn't vote to spent money to build a federal courthouse without air conditioning.

Smith said judicial and security needs will dictate much of the interior design. The exterior won't be too modern or too old-fashioned, he said.

"It's not going to be something like a totally glassed-in building and it is not going to be something as traditional as the Common Pleas Courthouse," said Smith.

Three courtrooms

The new courthouse won't be scaled down to a single courtroom as was proposed by the Office of Management and Budget in Washington. It will have three courtrooms with space to construct a fourth and four judges' offices under a plan that has the backing of Congress.

Emerson and U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond won passage of legislation this year that guarantees the federal government will build a 150,000-square-foot courthouse as wanted by judges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Congress still must approve funding for construction of the new courthouse. That won't occur until next year, said Smith.

Supporters say the courthouse is needed because the 33-year-old Federal Building at 339 Broadway is inadequate to handle the growing caseload.

The Federal Building, which also houses other federal offices, has a large courtroom and a small courtroom.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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