New federal courthouse in Buffalo still planning completion date of

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Oct 22, 2008 by Elizabeth Stull

Recent construction delays for the new federal courthouse in Buffalo have not pushed back the anticipated July 2010 completion date, Clerk of Court Rod Early said.

A specialized steel system required by the project set it back about three weeks last summer, Early acknowledged. Gazing out his office window within the old courthouse in mid-October, however, he pointed across Niagara Square to the gently curving southeast wall of the new one. The bones of the new building, slowly, are rising.

The elliptical structure will curve gently upward into a 10- story tower at the northwest corner of Niagara Square, Buffalo's civic center. A transparent veil of glass planes, suspended in front of the pre-cast skin of the curved south wall, will enclose public lobbies while revealing activity inside.

As of Tuesday, the steelwork had been installed through the seventh floor. Initial shop drawings for the higher floors and roof system were rejected by the architects and had to be reworked. If there are no further delays, and no interruptions of deliveries, the remaining work could be completed by January 2009.

New federal regulations post-9/11 and the

Oklahoma City federal building bombing

require much more robust skeletons with thicker, blast- and collapse-resistant steel. Some of the new courthouse's lower foundational support beams are so large they had to be manufactured in Belgium and shipped to Buffalo, Early said.

The courthouse's curvilinear design also adds to the construction challenge. Because of its complex geometry, Amthor Steel Inc. manufactures the steel on-site in Erie, Pa. The fabricated beams then are transported to Buffalo, lifted into place by a crane, one by one.

"It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle," Early said; each piece must fit perfectly.

The skin of the new building, a series of about 460 pre-cast concrete panels made in Quebec, began going up on the courthouse's western side on Monday.

One year after breaking ground, the 10-story, 265,000-sq. ft. courthouse is about 18 percent complete, said Renee Miscione of the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Regional Office in New York City.

General contractor Mascaro Construction Co. LLP has completed the concrete perimeter foundation, and interior work on the enclosed floors will continue through the winter. No date has been set for a topping off.

Modern spaces

A building design was selected in 2005, two years before the $137 million project received funding from the GSA.

Architects Kohn Pederson Fox of New York and Cannon Design of Grand Island -- which created the Buffalo Niagara International Airport -- designed the new courthouse "to express the dignity and transparency of the federal judicial system," according to the GSA.

It will include five courtrooms and six chambers for the district court judges and four courtrooms and chambers for the magistrates. There will be separate hallways for judges, the public and the transportion of criminal defendants.

In addition, the new courthouse will have include a Court of Appeals chamber, as well as a satellite library and preparatory space for the U.S. Attorney and Federal Public Defender. The U.S. Marshals Service, which occupies the first floor of the old courthouse, will move with the court.

The new building also will provide secure indoor parking for 54 vehicles.

"All of us have worked hard, together as a team, to make this an on-time, on-budget project," Early said. "It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of attention to detail."

Outdated facilities

The old courthouse retains its architectural interest, but no longer accommodates the federal court for the Western District of New York.

The Michael J. Dillon U.S. Courthouse at 64 Court St. was built in 1936 under the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, for about $2.5 million, with a pentagonal design to match the shape of the building site.

Over the years, the seven-story building has housed a number of federal offices, including the U.S. Postal Service, FBI, Social Security, Immigration, Social Security Appeals and the U.S. Attorney. All of those former tenants moved out years ago, but the expanding federal court still lacks needed space.

There is no room for expansion in the Depression-era courthouse, where three federal district judges and five magistrate judges jostle for elbow room. The judges' chambers are cramped and court clerks are crowded, Early said.

Their workloads have been high enough to justify adding another district court judge, according to the Judicial Conference of the United States. Two new Western District judges also could be added when two judges become eligible for senior status in the next four to five years.

Existing courtroom conditions also are less than ideal. Only two of the eight courtrooms (four for magistrates and four for the district court) are of a standard size. The others have support pillars and other visual obstructions that interrupt sightlines.

The only hallways are public and are shared by judges and defendants, jurors, plaintiffs, lawyers, the press and everyone else.