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Newly renovated Supreme Court building beautiful, but costly

More than $45 million later, the state Supreme Court, Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and their supporting entities have moved into the expanded and renovated historical building southeast of the state Capitol.

It has such amenities as private restrooms and indoor parking spaces for justices and judges, $981,667 in ornamental railings and a $68,000 stained glass art piece above the Court of Criminal Appeals conference table.

Amenities also include a $3,000 skylight with the state seal etched into it above the Court of Criminal Appeals' judicial bench, and individual, curtained courtroom entrances for each of the nine Supreme Court justices and five Court of Criminal Appeals judges behind their courtroom chairs.

While architects and art lovers may appreciate the building's grandeur, some individuals are quietly questioning its cost and why it took so long to complete.

It's a fair question, said Chief Justice Steven Taylor , who prides himself on his frugality and doesn't even have a secretary. It's also an issue over which the Supreme Court had little, if any, control, he said.

State planners say uncontrollable outside factors as diverse as the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists' attacks on the World Trade Center , rapid industrialization of China and the revolution in computer technology all contributed to the ultimate cost.

So did the way state lawmakers went about financing the project.

But Paul Haley , a state architect who monitored work on the latter phases of the project, says costs could have soared much higher if justices hadn't stepped in with numerous cost-saving measures.

In the beginning

Wording of 1998 bond legislation offered citizens no clue that money would be used to more than double the size of the existing building. Nor did it indicate this was only the first phase of a multiphase project that eventually would quadruple the dollar amount.

The original bill described the project as “renovation of the Wiley Post Historical Building for occupancy by appellate courts in a total amount not to exceed $10 million.”

Although the bill didn't say so, former legislators said there was an understanding with justices this was just money to get the project started and more would come later.

Chief Justice Taylor, who joined the court in 2004, said he's been told that in 1998 it was anticipated costs would be between $16 million and $20 million — less than half of the ultimate cost — if funded and built without delay.

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