Lackawanna Courthouse project moving forward, second and third room court windows finished, trees ripped out, law library, proposed arts plaza

scrantonluna · 10-19-2007, 10:28 AM

I haven't seen any posts on this, so correct me if I missed it.

Progress has been continuing on the Lackawanna County courthouse, as the ground stabilization is finally done and the first part of landscaping is actually starting to occur. A good vantage point would be the rooftop of the parking garage on the corner of N. Wash and Linden, if you care to look. The front sidewalks are all in, the granite blast slabs are in place, the center oval is actually sodded, and they have planted around ten trees. They are supposed to plant up to 100 trees, ranging from ten to twenty feet high. I do not know if they are going to keep the few remaining old trees on the Linden side, as they may have to come down for the razing of the 1960s addition. It looks like they installed park benches this morning all around the main oval; I'll have to take a better look later on. I was told they are planning a dedication to the veteran's plaza, which is what they are calling the area in the immediate front of the court house, within the next two weeks, which will give anyone who wants an upclose view the opportunity. I hope to see the fountains operational soon, as they should be fairly impressive; it looked like they were being supplied with 6 inch piping.

I was also quite relieved to see that they addressed the area between the courtroom windows on the second and third floors, which were covered with a type of corrugated metal panel. Believe it or not, it seems that there was a sort of paneled surface (stucco?) underneath the metal sheeting, and the crews appeared to have simply revealed, cleaned, and painted these up. They look a thousand times better. I am not sure at what point the windows were carried over to the third floor; after the addition in 1896, they were simply a blind arch and then later changed.

Other changes to the front include the new front entrance, which will look very similar but is drastically changed. The stairs have been removed, and the public will now walk directly into the ground level of the courthouse; the floor above that was once the main entrance has been removed, creating a large open area. This area is now shielded with (I believe) ballistic glass, with a door on either side. Initially this looked awful, as the aluminum framing was exposed, but this has been corrected and now is very smart looking. The base of the columns in the front were heavily deteriorated, and these had to be cut and rebuilt with I-beams and as such, have now been capped with a smooth white stone. This white stone then carries over into the main entrance, and meets two-story tall columns of west mountain stone. The small entrance to the left of the main entrance that was once used for the law library has been removed; I am unsure of what is to happen with this. The only other change I notice is that the restored soldiers and sailors monument has sod right to it's base, as it was in the early 1900s, and I do not see the cannons that flanked it. I do not know if these were moved or will be reused. The whole layout of the sidewalks, by the way, does closely echo the original incarnation.

The bulk of the work occuring now appears to be happening on the Spruce side and the proposed arts plaza, as the front side seems to be all detail work at this point. Feel free to ask about anything in particular, I may know about it or be able to ask one of the construction guys who frequent all of the downtown.

FightinPhils · 10-19-2007, 10:33 AM

I can't believe they ripped out all those trees....what a shame. The interior of the courthouse needed some work...the rest of it should have been left alone.

scrantonluna · 10-19-2007, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conorsdad

I can't believe they ripped out all those trees....what a shame. The interior of the courthouse needed some work...the rest of it should have been left alone.

I was talking to one of the guys when they started ripping out the trees and they said that most were in sad shape and were diseased or damaged, in particular most of the exposed roots were sliced up from being unshielded. The rest were simply in the way and would have either hampered the ground stabilization or just did not fit with the new sidewalk design. An article in the Times last week echoed the count of 100 replacement trees, and that it was actually ten more than they had on the square originally.

weluvpa · 10-19-2007, 10:45 AM

Conorsdad I agree 100% the century old trees should have been left alone they were as much a part of the history of the court house as the underground bathrooms that they buried again were. I'm sure that it will look good, but at what cost to our history.

weluvpa · 10-19-2007, 10:47 AM

Scrantonluna those trees were fine they were determined to be in "sad shape" by a engineer not a Arborist. Do not beleive everything you read in the times either. Its was a way to get a contract to have them removed to one of the county commissioners buddies, thats all no more no less they should have left them there. If they were in such "sad shape" then how have they managed to last for over a hundred years!

FightinPhils · 10-19-2007, 10:53 AM

Just like they are ripping down the annex, so those offices can be scattered all over the downtown to buildings owned by Cordaro and Munchak's cronies. These commissioners are killing us.

Not to mention that Bob's 20-something mistress is on the country payroll in a $50,000+/year job as a "press secretary." What a joke. Since when do Lackawanna County commissioners need a press secretary? To talk to a reporter from the Scranton Times once in a while, maybe someone from WNEP or WYOU once in a while? I'm sure CNN and Fox News aren't beating a path to their door. What a joke.

They can give us these little 4 and 5% tax cuts all they want...but I'll never forget the 48% increase, especially after they ran on a platform of cutting taxes 25%. To blame the past admin is a joke, since Bob was a commissioner before with the past admin and should have known what was going on. That he promised a cut, but raised them 48% means he is either a liar or stupid. Either one makes him unfit for office.

I'm not exactly thrilled over Washo and O'Brien, but I will vote for them because the arrogant Cordaro and his pal AJ need to go.

scrantonluna · 10-19-2007, 10:59 AM

The bathrooms were destroyed after discovery, something to the effect that the project would not meet code because the vault could not support a piece of fire apparatus. As for the 'history' of the trees, there were once a LOT more trees on the square; older photos make it almost impossible to see the courthouse with all the tree cover. Signs of the times, I guess. I watched them do a lot of the shore-up, and I would have to agree that it would have been near impossible to do the job without removing or damaging the trees in the process. The guys doing the bore work said bedrock was around 90 feet down and there were a LOT of gaps in between. There were several directly under the courthouse as well, with voids under the main entrance and several spots in the basement. As a result they had to reinforce all the ground floors so as not to destabilize the building. I think they pounded in almost 200 beams on the outside to get the ground where they wanted it.

scrantonluna · 10-19-2007, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conorsdad

Just like they are ripping down the annex, so those offices can be scattered all over the downtown to buildings owned by Cordaro and Munchak's cronies. These commissioners are killing us.

Not to mention that Bob's 20-something mistress is on the country payroll in a $50,000+/year job as a "press secretary." What a joke. Since when do Lackawanna County commissioners need a press secretary? To talk to a reporter from the Scranton Times once in a while, maybe someone from WNEP or WYOU once in a while? I'm sure CNN and Fox News aren't beating a path to their door. What a joke.

They can give us these little 4 and 5% tax cuts all they want...but I'll never forget the 48% increase, especially after they ran on a platform of cutting taxes 25%. To blame the past admin is a joke, since Bob was a commissioner before with the past admin and should have known what was going on. That he promised a cut, but raised them 48% means he is either a liar or stupid. Either one makes him unfit for office.

I'm not exactly thrilled over Washo and O'Brien, but I will vote for them because the arrogant Cordaro and his pal AJ need to go.

I probably should have expected it when I posted this thread, but can we leave the politics out of it? I don't care about the politics, I care about the building, and that's why I posted this. It's not meant to be any sort of political statement. I'm a history buff and this is history. So please guys, just leave it to the building and that's it. I'm not here to bash or defend people running for office, start another thread of your own if that's what you intend to do.

scrantonluna · 10-19-2007, 11:40 AM

And... that's the end of the responses. ha ha ha ha ha

I LOVE PA! · 10-19-2007, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrantonluna

And... that's the end of the responses. ha ha ha ha ha

Where would we all get our 'jollies' if not for all the politcal posts on here

I agree...everything turns into a political war...shouldn't there be a completely separate forum for such?

As for the Courthouse square, I for one can't wait to see it all done. It is truly beautiful and hopefully when it is finished it will still have the same breath taking effect. It's a shame that it has to look this way with 'The Office' cast coming to visit.