Critics say extravagant Las Vegas building waste of money

Work is nearly complete on the three-story structure for the Regional Transportation Commission and the Regional Flood Control District.

The $14.9 million building in downtown Las Vegas has 80,603 square feet for 170 workers. With red sandstone exteriors and posh interiors, it has the same architectural theme as the elegant Clark County Government Center.

"To have it be palatial to that extent is clearly a misdirection of public funds," said Laura FitzSimmons, a local attorney who said she was stunned by its grandeur during a recent visit.

Unlike the Government Center and two new courthouses under construction that are or will be used extensively by the public, the new building is almost solely for transportation and flood control district workers, she said.

"These funds are obviously being applied to feather their own nests," FitzSimmons said.

But Bruce Woodbury, chairman of the Regional Transportation Commission, said the new building is a wise investment in an attractive structure expected to last at least 50 years.

The county heard similar complaints in 1995 when it opened the Government Center, he said.

"You can make it cheap and ugly and what you get is cheap and ugly," Woodbury said.

"We've been spending more and more money on rent every year with nothing to show for it other than a continuing obligation to pay rent."

Constructed with sandstone from Arizona quarries between Kingman and Flagstaff, the 80,603-square-foot building is designed around a central courtyard with a yet-to-be-completed fountain.

Robert Fielden, the architect, described it as multilayered, without a uniform rooftop.

But beauty comes at a cost - $14,938,703 to be exact, according to Terry Cordell, the transportation commission's manager of fiscal and administrative services.

Officials set an initial budget of $7.6 million in December 1995, when they decided to build the new structure rather than continue to rent office space.

Costs increased when officials opted to make the building similar to the Government Center as a design review committee of local business leaders and public architecture proponents had recommended, Cordell said.

That meant an expensive sandstone exterior and rich interior, with features meant to symbolize the desert landscape.

"The county required us to design around the characteristics of the Government Center," which some architectural critics have called the most visually impressive building in Southern Nevada, Fielden said.

"We're proud of it and feel it's a great contribution to the community."

The foyer has rock and slate floor tile and marble-lined walls. The front reception desk has a marble top, and the elevator doors are copper-colored and inscribed with a topographical Valley of Fire map.

The second floor features a marble block that forms the bottom of a roughly 10-foot-high indoor recessed fountain. Several patios, which serve as work break areas, overlook an unfinished reflecting pool outside.

The building is being financed by five-year bonds backed by sales and fuel taxes - the transportation commission's funding sources. The commission is paying for 85 percent and will occupy most of the building, while the flood control district is paying for 15 percent and will use 12,000 square feet.

Eight percent of the building's space is available for future growth.

"It makes me choke," said Lloyd Manning, an office developer and general partner of Corporate Developers.

"Like everyone else, I love and appreciate a beautiful architectural building. But it's kind of hard for me to imagine we're getting our money's worth," he said.

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