If the proposed $1.1 trillion federal budget for 2016 passes through the U.S. House and Senate this weekend, San Antonio will receive $135 million to build a the long-awaited new federal courthouse on a vacant square block of West Nueva Street, which would clear the way to vacate the rundown, at times flea-infested John H. Wood Federal Courthouse that was originally constructed as movie pavilion for HemisFair ’68.
The fate of the world’s fair-era former cinema remains to be decided and could pit preservationists against those who want to see the southern edge of Hemisfair be opened to new development. Mayor Ivy Taylor, who held a Wednesday morning press conference to trumpet the $135 million in likely funding, answered “yes” when a reporter asked if she wanted to see the building razed.
The budget deal, which raises spending and the national deficit through tax breaks and allows for more project funding than anticipated, is set to go before the Senate and House for a vote this weekend and would then go to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature. The deal was hammered out by both Democrats and Republicans and is expected to pass and be signed.
A new courthouse would provide federal judges, prosecutor and other federal workers a safer, more secure and healthier work environment, in contrast to the existing facility where violent felons, extradited cartel hitmen and leaders and others are escorted in elevators and in close proximity with federal workers and members of the public. The building itself is highly vulnerable to attack and is too outmoded to be secured to existing federal standards.
Funding the completion of the design and the construction of the new courthouse would have a direct positive impact on two of the major downtown redevelopment projects, one already underway, the other in the planning stages: Hemisfair Park redevelopment and the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that this will happen over the course of the weekend,” Mayor Taylor said at the press conference. Details about the $1.1 trillion omnibus bill were released late Tuesday night after weeks of negotiations between Republican and Democrat legislators crafting the deal.
The proposed budget includes $947 million for eight pending federal courthouse projects across the country. The San Antonio project is eighth on the list.
“Funding for a new federal courthouse has been the City’s top priority for several years now,” Taylor said, noting the many trips to the nation’s capitol made by local officials to lobby for the funding over the last five years. Taylor, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran (D3) and Commissioner Sergio “Chico” Rodriguez returned from one such trip just a few days ago.
The New Federal Courthouse
There is about $3 billion in the General Service Administration’s Federal Buildings Fund, but disputes between the GSA and Congress have led to billions in back-logged repairs to existing federal buildings and a long list of unfunded building projects. That includes a list of unfunded new federal courthouses. The sprawling Western District of Texas with its seat in San Antonio arguably has the greatest need in terms of case backlog, security concerns and overcrowding. The district covers nearly 92,000 square miles and has divisions in Austin, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Pecos and Waco.
Yet the San Antonio project ranks only eighth on a priority list of federal courthouse projects maintained by the Justice Department’s Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, according to the bipartisan delegation that filed Friday’s bill.
Officials are frustrated by the passage of five years since August 2010 when City and GSA officials agreed to a property swap that has yet to close: The federal government would get the downtown block along West Nueva Street where the City’s former police headquarters stood, worth $14 million, and the City would acquire ownership of the John H. Wood Federal Courthouse and Spears Training Center on the southern edge of Hemisfair, worth $9 million. When the deal closed, the GSA would pay the City the $5 million difference. The City then constructed the new Public Safety Headquarters at 315 S. Santa Rosa St. and razed the old headquarters to make way for the new federal courthouse.
Lake/Flato was hired to design the new building and produced a preliminary design that features an interior courtyard and situates the building on San Pedro Creek, which will be redeveloped into a pedestrian amenity and linear park by 2018. Several years went by without approved funding for construction, and in 2013 the GSA brought design work to a halt, leaving the project only 50% designed. The project was originally estimated to cost $100 million, but construction costs continue to rise and the GSA now estimates it will take $135 million to complete the new courthouse. Others say that figure is probably inadequate due to rising materials and labor costs.
The Existing federal Courthouse
Built for HemisFair ’68, the building was meant to be a pavilion. When the world’s fair building was first remodeled to serve as the federal courthouse it was used by two federal judges and 24 staff members. Today there are seven federal judges and 280 staff members and federal employees. In addition to its inadequate security features, the building has problems with asbestos, mold, structural damage, and water quality. The courthouse on E. César E. Chávez Boulevard is named for Federal District Judge John H. Wood, who was assassinated in 1979 by Charles Harrelson, a contract killer hired by El Paso drug dealer Jimmy Chagra who was awaiting trial in Wood’s court. The judge earned the nickname “Maximum John” for his harsh sentences on drug dealers.
“We owe it as citizens to provide our judges (and jurors, witnesses, and staff) with the safest possible facility,” said Councilman Joe Krier (D10). “They are dealing with some of the worst criminals that this country has ever seen.”
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-San Antonio) were credited by City and County officials with leading the bipartisan charge in Congress to get San Antonio on the list.
“The inclusion of the funding for a new federal courthouse will allow for better administration of justice as the current building was never intended for this purpose,” Rep. Cuellar stated in a news release.
Mayor Taylor and others applauded the rare show of bipartisanship.
“Prisoners were never expected in the mass numbers that we now face,” said U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who started the federal judiciary’s push for a new facility nearly a decade ago.
“We’ve got security issues that still remain, we’ve had lead in the water – (U.S. General Services Administration) has partly remedied that situation now, we’ve had our third infestation of fleas, and we have continuing HVAC system difficulties,” Judge Rodriguez said, thanking Cuellar, Cornyn, as well as City and County officials for making the courthouse funding a priority.
“It’s not a done deal,” he added. “But we’re very hopeful.”
It’s been more than five years since City and federal officials agreed on a land swap that cleared the way for such development. Under the agreement, the federal government would get the now-vacant, $14 million downtown block along West Nueva Street where the City’s former police headquarters stood to build the new courthouse, and the City would acquire ownership of the John H. Wood Federal Courthouse and Spears Training Center on the southern edge of Hemisfair, worth $9 million.
If the deal is approved, Mayor Taylor said, she will move for both the courthouse and training center to be demolished. Taylor’s preliminary expectation is that the land will become home to mixed-use developments that would compliment Hemisfair’s own housing and commercial developments and parkland.
Official master plans for Hemisfair’s multi-million dollar redevelopment have yet to include the property, currently owned by the federal government.
The new courthouse, just west of downtown, would essentially rest on the banks of San Pedro Creek, said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, and all the necessary pieces are coming into place that would allow the courthouse to be built and the adjacent privately-operated federal prison, owned by the county and leased to GEO Group Inc., to be moved further west.
The San Pedro Creek Improvements Project aims to transform an urban ditch into a linear park by May 2018, but its proximity to the private prison was troublesome for many stakeholders.
“We finally reached an agreement with (GEO) and with the sheriff to move them over to another older facility … to the County jail in the near-Westside,” Wolff said. “We’ve got to fix that one up first.”
That will take approximately 2-3 years, he estimated, “so it ties in pretty well with the building of the courthouse and the creek itself. … We were worried about this because it’s a timing issue. What are we going to do there? We didn’t know if (the courthouse) was coming or not. Now we know it’s coming – assuming the bill passes.”
Wolff also credited U.S. Sen. Will Hurd (R-San Antonio) for his help at the federal level.
“This accomplishment is a real win for the people of San Antonio and has significant impacts on the city’s immediate future including security, economic development, and tourism,” Hurd stated in a press release. “I’m glad I was able to help drive a big-picture initiative for my hometown.”
The press conference concluded with Mayor Taylor’s call for citizens to contact their Congressional representatives to voice their support for the new federal courthouse.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the courthouse was intended to be a temporary structure. Documents provided by Beth Standifird reveal that it was to be utilized after HemisFair ’68 concluded, and research conducted by Maria Pfeiffer shows that the building was intended to be permanent.
*Top image: Conceptual rendering of the $135 million San Antonio Federal Courthouse project . Image courtesy of Lake/Flato Architects.
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Awesome!!!!
oh shit, i don’t think so.
It’s such a classic building. Would be great if it could be rehabbed and reused like so many other historic SATX buildings.
I hope they repurpose the old building…..Yikes!
Having worked at the Wood courthouse (thankfully before fleas!), I agree it needs replacement. But I wonder how it can be secure at the chosen location.
awesome collaboration at so many levels!! it really was the perfect storm!!! go SA!
Fantastic news, all parts of it!
Ummm NO!! I will chain myself up to the confluence theater building. They WILL not and CAN NOT tear that building down!!
The existing building isn’t worth keeping, but will San Antonio ever have the vision to replace it with something that is? Or will they slap together another ill-proportioned beige piece of suburban dreck, like that depicted above?
Get rid of it! Not fit for a dog.
The Courthouse is one THE most iconic buildings associated with Hemisfair. Tell me another building in town that looks like it? Could be a re-use (as it was to become a courthouse) and use historic tax credits.
I heard the news on TPR and they were able to interview Mayor Ivy about it.
She didn’t seem all that enthused about it. Either way I am glad San Antonio is getting the chance to build a new federal courthouse.
By all means, build a new federal courthouse! And see if some of our legislators can get some federal dollars to revamp the San Pedro Creek adjacent to the proposed new site.
But please don’t demolish the old John H. Wood Federal Courthouse. It was a great theater during HemisFair – and it could be again.
Tearing down that courthouse would be a crime!
Bye old courthouse. There is nothing I’d like to see more than it be torn down with mixed use housing up to the street.
Tear down that building and make Yanaguana Garden even bigger
That design is uninspired compared to the existing courthouse
Yes, move the courthouse out of hemisfair park. Put it in that ugly new building design if that is what is functional and safe. But do not tear down this significant building. Why do we need to tear down the history of hemisfair when all we need to do is correct the mistakes that followed the finale of the fair. Utilize the building as a theater or similarly appropriate use. While we’re talking about, don’t tear down the building currently used as a social security office, but instead adaptively re-use it as a mixed use residential building. These concrete buildings are so well constructed, their bones should be used for decades to come.
Oh, nice. Another tan building.
Tear it down. Just don’t put another Puro San Antonio brown building in its place.
Its unfortunate 1604 is still vastly 2 lanes and this is where money goes.
regarding the new design: a suburban site design for a downtown setting…..keepin it lame; and then the old structure…..explore rehab and design ideas first…its ugly but historically significant, if torn down, allow for new minor league baseball field there
The old circular courthouse design does have a certain charm, but I would imagine the combination of design flaws and asbestos hazard will necessitate razing it. I would prefer as much green space as possible downtown, but understand this location will fit nicely with condos that will ring the exterior of the Hemisfair redevelopment project.
With regard to the concept design for the new courthouse, I agree it could use a little color to brighten up our skyline. Although the new federal courthouse in Austin indicates that new federal structures are built to be bomb-proof fortresses with walls of reinforced concrete.
The asbestos materials will have to be removed in the same careful manner regardless of the fate chosen for the building. The asbestos insulation on the piping is easily replaced. The asbestos under the floor tile or in the walls is not causing any harm if left alone. In other words, deciding to raze a building does not save any $, and will probably be more expensive than leaving the asbestos materials in place.
The building was never designed as a courthouse, so the only “design flaws” are from its conversion to a use not originally intended for the structure. That said, the primary failing of the building is the government’s lack of routine maintenance.
I think it is a fine example of mid-century architecture, is instantly recognizable, and should be repurposed to a use more harmonious with its original function.
I get so tired of folks who can’t remember the last time they wiped themselves determing that buildings are “too old” to be preserved. I have many fond memories of the confluence theater and suggest that it should be maintained