Courthouse plans

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- A new courthouse could tower over the city's downtown by the end of 2012, says James C. McGuire, cq presiding judge of San Bernardino County Superior Court.

McGuire discussed courthouse plans in an interview Tuesday and before San Bernardino officials at a City Council meeting the previous day.

The project, he said, will use $283 million of state funds. The planned 12-story courthouse is set to be built southeast of the intersection of Third Street and Arrowhead Avenue, across the street from the county's central courthouse.

San Bernardino has previously lost state and federal court facilities to Riverside. McGuire said courts can be an economic boon.

"The legal community, like it or don't like it, is an affluent community. They like to have nice offices," McGuire said.

The county's main courthouse is being retrofitted to make the historic structure more earthquake-safe and McGuire says the building is too small to handle case loads and ensure security.

The completion of a new courthouse would signal a major development for San Bernardino's downtown, but the process has generated some friction among those who say they've been left out of the loop.

For example, 1st Ward Councilwoman Esther Estrada and San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce president Judi Penman have said they wanted to have had more involvement with the planning process.

Monday, Estrada said it was a "little annoying" that officials and business professionals who have been involved in previous discussions about courthouse plans have not had more influence.

At Monday's presentation, council and audience members saw computer generated images of a 12-story courthouse. However, the images lacked detail and officials say that so far, there is no actual architectural design that state or county officials can point to and say "this is what San Bernardino's new courthouse will look like."

"There's no design. There's no image at all," said Peter Allen, communications manager for the state's Administrative Office of the Courts.

McGuire said an advisory committee involving several Superior Court, county and city officials, as well as business figures, has been formed to discuss the future courthouse.
Recently, San Bernardino Downtown Business Association president Sam Catalano has been added to the panel give San Bernardino's business community more representation.

Catalano said he's highly interested in the aesthetics of the new courthouse, and how the planned building will mesh with existing court facilities and the rest of downtown.
"My focus will be on architecture. Treatment of the building's skin and how the building and grounds integrate into the downtown of the future," he said. "It's a building we'll have for 50 to 100 years."