Costs for a much-touted federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles have tripled to $1.1 billion, according to an audit that said the grand plans might need to be scaled back dramatically.
The audit, released this month by the General Accounting Office, raises questions about the elaborate courthouse federal judges want built -- a landmark building that Los Angeles officials hoped would be part of the revitalization of the tired civic center area.
The proposed courthouse, the largest in the nation, would rise at the corner of Broadway and 1st Street on a vacant lot that until recently housed a long-shuttered state building.
That building was demolished last year amid hopes the project would finally move forward. And at the time, federal officials said they hoped to begin construction in 2009.
But the audit said the current costs are far too much and that other alternatives must be considered. Right now, the federal government has about $366 million set aside for the project -- only a third of what's needed.
The federal judiciary has considered a new Los Angeles court a priority for more than a decade.
A 1996 judiciary plan concluded that the Spring Street courthouse, which opened in 1938, was obsolete and had poor security -- an issue that became even more pressing after 9/11, when security around federal buildings increased dramatically.
According to the report, almost half of the courtrooms in the Spring Street building do not meet the judiciary's standards for size or security, and prisoner passageways in the building are not used because they are considered too dangerous or inefficient.
Originally, Congress authorized a 41-courtroom building, and plans for the federal courthouse called for "a shining example of sustainable design innovation" that would blend "environmentally progressive public spaces with traditional symbols of American courthouse design," according to the project's architect, Perkins and Will.
But as downtown boomed and the scope of the project swelled to a 54-courtroom facility, the project suffered a series of delays and cost escalations. About $33 million has been spent so far on the design of the project and acquisition of the site, the former Junipero Serra State Office Building.
The report suggests options for resolving the courthouse project.
