Duval County Courthouse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Duval County, Florida was created on August 12, 1822 and was formerly part of St. Johns County. The county was named for William Pope Duval, the second Governor of the Florida Territory (following Andrew Jackson, after whom the County Seat of Jacksonville is named. The county covered a huge area from the Atlantic Ocean to the mouth of the Suwannee River on the west; north to the Georgia border. Alachua, Nassau and Clay counties were subsequently carved from Duval County. ^[1]

Contents 1 Previous Courthouses 2 Financial History of the New courthouse 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Previous Courthouses

1. Duval County's first courthouse was a wooden structure built in the 1840s at what is now the corner of Forsyth and Market Streets. It was burned to the ground during the Civil War.

2. A durable brick structure went up in 1886, which served its purpose well until the Great Fire of 1901, which destroyed most of downtown Jacksonville. Among the first buildings reconstructed was the courthouse, which was relocated across the street from the old one. The walls of the older building survived the fire, were incorporated into a new armory building, remodeled again at mid-century, and remain as part of the present-day Lanier Building.

3. The 1902 courthouse, designed by architect Rutledge Holmes, soon proved too small and an annex was added in 1914. Apparently the plans contemplated the possibility of adding as many as seven more stories, but none were ever constructed.

4. A modern courthouse was constructed on East Bay Street and dedicated in 1958, ten years before consolidation and at a time when the entire county's population was just over 450,000. During that same time, Jacksonville built the Haydon Burns Library, Friendship Fountain, Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum, the current Courthouse Annex and the CSX Transportation Building, making the city, “thoroughly modern”. Shortly thereafter, the 1902 courthouse was demolished; the 1914 annex was spared and later expanded to cover the entire site; it continues to house county offices. ^[2]

5. When the Better Jacksonville Plan (BJP) passed in 2000, Duval County's population had swelled to over three-quarters of a million people. The Courthouse cost estimates were made in the late 1990s, when the price of building materials was relatively stable. They did not anticipate China's huge building boom of the following decade, which required massive quantities of concrete and steel, resulting in higher prices for those essentials.

The original budget for the courthouse construction in 2000 was $190 million. After the architectural plan was chosen, construction bids came in substantially higher than expected, resulting in design changes to economize. Mayor John Delaney authorized construction to commence, but the cost was not firmly established; some estimates were above $300 million. After Mayor John Peyton took office, the council approved increasing the courthouse budget to $263.5 million in 2006, but after close scrutiny, Mayor Peyton concluded that the most recent budget amount was not realistic, that the courthouse project was out of control, and he shut it down.

On November 16, 2007, the Courthouse Architectural Review Committee (CARC) convened to review the new options under consideration by the Administration and approved 4-1 to pursue the Administration's recommended option to build one 850,000 square foot facility on the existing LaVilla site.

Based on that recommendation, after intensive study, the Jacksonville City Council approved a $350 million county courthouse complex in April, 2008 that was supported by Mayor Peyton and Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran. The council also agreed that any proceeds from the sale of the current riverfront courthouse and the City Hall annex be used to pay for the increased costs of the new courthouse construction. ^[3] The contractor has agreed to guarantee the price and the complex could be finished by the time Peyton leaves office June 30, 2011.

[edit] Financial History of the New courthouse

Original 2000 BJP budget	$190,000,000
“vertical contingency”	$ 21,000,000	added by John Delaney
** New Funding * *
Court Facilities Trust Fund:	$ 811,000
Court Documents Facility:	$ 3,397,000
Traffic Fine Surcharge:	$ 48,292,000
2nd Approved Budget:	$263,500,000	(2004-1339)
** Still Needed * *
AdditionalFunding:	$ 86,500,000	(pending Council approval)
TOTAL BUDGET APPROVED^:	$350,000,000	(2008-1111)

^$64.3 million already spent to-date for land acquisition, utility relocation and previous design efforts ^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links