Architect blames city's team

Holl says attempts to reach mayor on court project were 'blocked'

Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 11, 2006 at midnight

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The relationship between noted architect Steven Holl and the city of Denver over a new courthouse fell apart because the architect could not reach the mayor, Holl said Tuesday.

"I couldn't get through to the mayor," Holl said from his New York office. "I said the city needs an advocate for public architecture within the city. The mayor didn't have the time to be an advocate."

Holl said his dealings with the city came apart over a monthlong period, from August to September.

Design was not the issue, he said. "The design didn't shift. The attitude changed. I don't think the project manager wanted us in the picture. My communications to the mayor were blocked."

Holl said his design was not $30 million over budget, as city officials have said, but closer to $4 million.

Mayor John Hickenlooper said he thought his management team was up to the task of overseeing the project, but he now wishes he had become involved in dealings with Holl earlier.

The mayor said that discussions with Holl should have taken place in June or July.

"The first I heard that we were having serious problems was August, and even then we thought we would work it out," he said.

"To be quite honest, I'm not sure if I'd been more involved two months ago (whether) it would have made a difference, but I certainly wish I had done that."

The mayor expressed regret at the outcome.

"I think he's a brilliant architect," Hickenlooper said. "I wish there had been a little elasticity in the budget."

Holl blamed some of the budget excess on the city's team. For example, he said they objected to the use of what they described as exposed concrete.

"There was no exposed concrete," Holl said. He planned to use an aggregate material that includes crushed stone.

Instead, Holl said, Denver officials added "luxurious materials" into the equation, which ended in estimates far over budget.

"This was their decision," he said. "The design we had wasn't over budget. They were inserting a different value system framework. They specified different materials. I need to be able to have a little freedom."

Hickenlooper said the change added "somewhere between $8 million and $10 million" in costs, but that he told the staff, "That's the architect. If he wants to build out of balsa wood, that's OK."

But that was not enough to reconcile the issue of time and money.

"We are on a critical path," Hickenlooper said Tuesday. "I don't think either side is blameless, but it took so long."

Holl had asked for six more weeks to present a design, and the city is facing $1 million a month in costs on the project, Hickenlooper said.

"We had no flexibility on the budget," he said. He called philanthropists, asking if they would kick in money to cover the difference, and found no takers.

"Nobody wants to give money to a courthouse. We would have had to build fewer courtrooms. As much as I love architecture, you make a contract with the city on a ballot initiative."

The situation was not helped by a call in which Holl expressed his frustrations to the mayor.

Holl had written Hickenlooper on Sept. 13, saying that since a successful presentation July 21, "the decision-making process on the part of the city has not been collaborative, and this has worked to the detriment of the architecture. The project may not survive this type of process."

The two spoke by phone Sept. 20. Holl said he told the mayor that "unless (he) refreshed his management and got an advocate for public architecture, this design can't go down this path."

Holl believes the remark was overheard on speaker phone by the very managers he was criticizing.

But the mayor said the comment was made before he turned on the speaker phone for the team gathered in his office.

"(Holl) wanted to vent," Hickenlooper said. "I couldn't repeat to them what he had said. I told him I was putting it on speaker. But (Holl) may have repeated it later."

Holl and Hickenlooper spoke a couple of days later, too, Holl said. But by then, it was too late.

"Four days later, I was pushed out," Holl said. "The city gave the OK to (Denver architectural firm) klipp to give us a termination letter. I am not a quitter. I am a businessman. I have a reputation, too. I wasn't going to do a bad building . . . They were shooting us off at the ankles."

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