Mobile Government Plaza:
How do I hate thee? Let me ...
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
As one awaits the arrival of an elevator at the ground floor on the courthouse side in Mobile Government Plaza, a reverie will sometimes occur, usually quite an extended reverie, often one that gravitates toward the many flaws of that very building until, at long last, the relief of an elevator with room enough for one more sardine breaks the reverie and the foul mood lifts.
In the vast catalogue, what is the worst of the structure’s offenses? To efficient design? To competent construction?
To common sense?
In a project of such size and scope, there has to be a redeeming quality, doesn't there? MGP a/k/a Gump Towers has existed for almost 20 years. Has anyone found the needle in the haystack?
We asked many of the worker bees who busy themselves Monday-Friday inside its suspect walls for their thoughts on downtown's distinctive place of toil and, to paraphrase them, with apologies to EBB (not Ebie Ball), they responded, “How do I hate it? Let me count the ways.”
(Many of the respondents requested anonymity, probably
because it was offered in advance, but also because of
an odd human tendency to tie fault finders to a fault. In the interest of fairness, MBT while asking for five noteworthy shortcomings, also asked if there was anything a patron liked about the building and the ugly duckling got a few, a very few, compliments.)
"Hate:
- 1. The looks of the place;
- 2. Air conditioning and heating a bazillion square feet of useless space between buildings at tax payer’s expense; (Has anyone estimated what that costs?)
- 3. Four elevators serving over 15 court rooms, and, no use of the stairs for intra-floor movement;
- 5. There’s nothing we can do about it and no one we can put in jail for choosing the design.
Like:
- Nothing, it’s an abomination and an embarrassment."
-- C.L.E.
attorney
"Ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly and leaks."
-- Russell W. Blount Jr.
"Fundamentally a flawed architectural idea — i.e. 'deconstructivist' whereby the building is 'turned inside out' and structural elements and what-not made visible. Traditional forms and modes upended and mocked, as in the collapsed barrel vault over the atrium, which of course has leaked ever since -- this because barrel vaults, since Roman times, were meant to be built as they always have been, but playful and foolish architects inverted the form, with the result that in the wettest city in the United States tons of water cascade down long slopes into a narrow trough, and no system in the world can keep the interior dry.
The glassed-in atrium’s 40,000 square feet of void kept at a freezing 68 or so (degrees) in summer communicates a wretched ethic in this day and age."
-- AE
"The things I dislike most about the Courthouse:
- (1) It is hideously ugly;
- (2) The atrium is largely wasted space which must cost a fortune to heat and cool;
- (3) It leaks every time it rains;
- (4) There aren't enough elevators on the Courthouse side for public use.
It also has those ridiculous 'steps of the Courthouse' in the atrium. They are, first of all, on the City/County government side. While the general vernacular speaks of the steps of the Courthouse as the place for judicial sales, the statutes actually refer to the 'main entrance of the Courthouse' and say nothing about steps."
-- Gary P. Alidor
Attorney at Law
"1. Pigeon poop on inside pipes/structure visible from office windows.
2. Windows have never been cleaned.
3. Being a tenant."
-- C.S.T.
"1. The lack of sufficient elevators in the lobby on the court side. Lawyers and citizens should not have to wait 30 minutes to get on an elevator to go to court.
2. The design is not lawyer friendly. Lawyers cannot get to clerks and/or judge's secretaries without an Act of Congress.
3. The roof has leaked since inception.
4. It is ugly, too modern, does not fit in with the historical character of downtown Mobile.
5. No place for citizens to eat or sit down and drink coffee.
-- OCS,
lawyer
"It is absurd that we cannot drink the water out of the faucet or the water fountains. Since day one the water has been brown!!!!! If we want to drink our eight glasses a day, we have to buy it."
-- PGP,
attorney
"Best:
- 1. That the auditorium was wired so that the City Council meetings are televised (sound system activate cameras);
- 2.Most of the functions of City Government are in the same building making access easier;
- 3. Underground parking for city/county officials (very nice and appreciated);
- 4.The views from some of the offices are spectacular;
- 5 Plenty of elevators on Government side.
Least:
- 2. Leaked from the very first day;
- 3. Poor sound design for atrium;
- 4/5.Waste of energy and costs of the energy in the design of the atrium."
-- Bess Rich,
former city councilwoman
"1. The elevators on the court side of the building are woefully inadequate.
2. Very poor interior design. Why is the Circuit Clerk's office on the top floor? It should be on the first floor, which would make it easier and quicker to file papers. Why are the payment windows -- where citizens go to pay traffic tickets and other fines -- located on the 2nd and 9th floors? Those windows should be on the first floor, which would alleviate a lot of the elevator traffic.
3. Design of the first floor access to the court side elevators was poorly planned and designed, resulting in the need to hire additional security personnel.
4. The 'ceremonial courtroom.' What a waste, and who is responsible for thinking up that one?
5. And, of course, the roof.
All of this is the result of poor planning and design by the architect, the county commission and the circuit judges.
Oh, and by the
way, the entire
building looks
stupid and out
of character
for historic
downtown
Mobile. That
one is the
responsibility
of the county
commission.
On the plus side: the courtrooms are nice and functional."
-- Fred Mc,
attorney
"First and foremost it is an architectural abomination. Space planning in courtrooms is poor with little space between witness stand and jury box. How many times have the showers been used and how/why did
Herman Y. Thomas get a brand, spanking new second 'office'?
On the good side, it is relatively clean and smoke free. The jury assembly room is a vast improvement over the old court house. Looks like the new probate court building will be a nice and appropriate addition to
Government Street."
-- BHC,
attorney
"Atrium is waste of space. Atrium costs too much to air condition. Atrium leaks when it rains. The courtroom design sucks. There are not enough elevators on the court side for the hoi polloi."
-- Jeff Deen,
lawyer
"Graphics are horrible, the atrium is a huge energy waster -- no air locks, color scheme (gray, white and maroon) is dreadful, the Government Street plaza and sidewalk is dull and lifeless -- a barren, windswept space, the building overwhelms the site, the windows in the atrium are always filthy.
The atrium is dull and lifeless, too -- a horrible overwhelming space that makes you want to run through it rather than linger. The only good thing that I can mention is the sculptural 'sails' on the roof.
The new county annex building is equally bad -- clumsy detailing of the cornices, pilasters and pediment. It completely overwhelms the historic Levert office, monotonous window spacing, no street presence and awkward massing."
-- KWG
"The building is UGLY and space is wasted with the atrium. Leaky roof."
-- VT,
ex-prosecutor
"1. Lack of escalator access to the second floor on the court house side. This would significantly reduce the elevator traffic to the rest of the courtrooms, the D.A.’s office and the clerk’s office.
2. The mingling of jurors, parties and witnesses outside of the courtrooms during breaks and lunch. There is probably no solution but it is frustrating to paranoid lawyers like me to observe parties talking about their case, and Lord knows what else, within earshot of the jurors hearing their lawsuit.
3. Lack of appreciation from some on how much better this court house is than the old one. I have tried cases in numerous other states and this court house is much better than most."
-- Don Beebe,
attorney
" (1) Elevators. (2) Elevators. (3) Elevators. (4) Elevators. (5) Elevators."
-- Ian F. Gaston,
attorney
"1. On the northside, where the courtrooms are and where 95 percent of all the people go, there's only four elevators for the public. On the southside, for the City there are eight elevators.
2. On the northside, where there are only 4 elevators for the public, there are no stairs. (Put some stairs in between the ground floor and the second)
3. In the courtrooms, the jury box was constructed so that at least four members of the jury cannot see the witness's face.
4. The A/C bill is about $45,000 a month for that big open air atrium.
5. No one ever has, or ever will, clean the windows or the bird poop."
-- Anonymous,
lawyer
"1) City and County lease space in the market while an entire floor sits vacant on south side of building.
2) County Plaza Building, one of the worst managed buildings in town. County should outsource facilities management. Operating costs are extremely high. Typical excuse for government is 'this is the way we do things.' Inefficient and not cost effective.
3) Large atrium leaks from day one. County did not know how to hold feet of contractor and architect to fire. County should have demanded this be fixed from day one.
4) To cool and heat atrium is a waste of energy and cost."
-- John Toomey,
commercial office space executive
"As an employee on the courthouse side, I wish we had more elevators on our side of the building. Four is not enough at all; we have far more traffic than the county/city side has on a daily basis.
Municipal Court should be on the Mezzanine level so people don't have to get on the elevator or have an escalator to the 2nd floor so the elevator could by-pass the floor all together.
Defendants are too close to the victims family in courtrooms making it very uncomfortable for the court police and corrections officers during court hearing. Victim's family and defendant's family also sit too close during trial and court proceedings.
The glass elevators in the summer are like saunas, just like the glass ceiling makes the entire lobby hot. When the rains come we have mini rivers in the lobby.
There is one thing I LOVE about Government Plaza -- it's location. Living in Spanish Fort means that I am only 14 minutes from home to my office and that is the best."
-- JBC,
government worker
"Hands down, the worst problem is access. There are too few elevators to handle the traffic on the north tower and no option to exit. Instead, they put more elevators on the south tower where there is less traffic. Why?
Access problems could actually account for several design/performance failings (Municipal court should have had a separate entrance/ exit; ceremonial courtroom is the only 'walking access' feature; no stairwell option to exit other than emergencies).
A distant second are the many leaks in the atrium roof. Despite the thousands of dollars spent, you still need an umbrella inside.
Third, since you asked, they should have designed a 'drive-up' cut on Joachim St. to accommodate more vehicles such as loading/unloading, emergency vehicles and handicap. With the Admiral Semmes across Joachim, it gets a bit tight during peak hours.
Fourth, appearance.
Fifth, after all the ballyhoo in the beginning about having an 'attorney's lounge,' what do we have? There is no dedicated space that is furnished and equipped for such use despite, I'm told, space being set aside for such use.
Also, I'm told by a few inhabitants of the building that pests (non-human types) are a problem."
-- Gordon Armstrong,
attorney
"1) elevators;
2) room around jury box in courtrooms (limited);
3) elevators;
4) wasted atrium space;
5) did I mention elevators?"
-- Russell E. Bergstrom
Attorney & Counselor at Law
"Here are my don't likes:
- 1. The architectural design;
- 2. No access to stairway even though I understand why;
- 3. Poor and inefficient planning in that there are only four elevators on the 'working' side of the building with four floors of very active courtrooms.
- 4. All of the wasted space in the atrium."
-- Debbie McGowin,
attorney
"1. The leaks in the roof.
2. The jury boxes are too small.
3. The jury rooms are too small.
4. The water in the fountains is horrible.
5. That the north tower only recently had handicapped accessible restrooms installed one year ago."
-- Karlos Finley,
ex-prosecutor now in private practice, Moore & Wolfe
"1) the Courthouse side does not have enough elevators during peak periods to take the public from the ground floor to the floors above. Wait times can be substantial, especially during the morning hours of jury trial weeks. The other side for County-City offices has six elevators for the public with far less traffic while the court side has only four elevators for the public. I cannot understand why the county provided more elevators for the public on the less used government side than the court side.
2) I do not understand why the stairways are closed off for security purposes. If the ground floor is not closed off, why is the staircase any more insecure than any other area of the plaza such as the bathrooms? We don’t restrict access to the bathrooms. Why restrict access to the stairways? If you need to run up one flight of stairs, then you would not have to wait on an elevator.
3) There should be more security lines opened up in the morning of jury weeks. At times, the lines for entrance into the court house side are more than 25 yards long. What do jurors think of the court system that greets them for the first time in a less than welcoming manner which verges on discourtesy? This problem could be solved easily. If there are not enough guards, ask the sheriff at these very limited number of hours to supply deputies. The one time cost of creating more lanes should not be significant when amortized over the time they are in use."
-- JDS,
lawyer
"Don't like -- The lines at the elevators (why four for the North tower, six for the South?); The dirty windows that apparently weren't designed to allow cleaning.
Like -- The security personnel. They're nice."
-- Tommy Boller,
attorney
"1) Only four elevators on the courthouse side;
2) Courtrooms were not designed to efficiently try cases;
3) Lots of wasted space;
4) Outward appearance; and
5) No good drop-off area for visitors to the courthouse side."
-- Pete Mackey,
attorney
"I was in the building the other day as I am periodically. I've been in it 1,000 times. Nowadays, it usually doesn't bother me, just water off a duck's back. But sometimes, like when I have to wait for a fourth elevator to go up to a courtroom or a judge's office, it can still make me seethe. Even after all these years, if you stop and think about it, that the building was built the way it was seems almost surreal, just incredible that it actually got built the way it did. Like an April Fool's Day architects' contest. Maybe that 's the key -- go back and discover the design contract was awarded April 1, 1989 or whenever."
-- ISW,
reporter
"Indeed. The list could go on ad nauseam. The settling doors, shattering windows, no freight elevator, no obvious exterior focus or entry, no weather protection for those entering off the east and west elevations, dominant orientation towards the interstate, etc etc.
I remember looking over all the entries during the competition, and what made this building win the prize was its interbraiding of city and county functions. How well that has all held up is debatable I suppose, but from a public perspective the building has never been successful. I am old school of course, and believe that public buildings should ennoble. As one woman once wrote to the newspaper after Gump towers opened (our affectionate nickname for it), 'when one enters one feels surrounded by government.' Another wag said the building looked like a Xerox machine with the lid left open. Which has all sorts of metaphorical possibilities…"
-- AE
"p.s. I am getting out of hand, but this building (and many other modern ones) is symptomatic of a cultural crisis … but I’ll quit now.
-- AE
