A Little Rich Even For Beverly Hills : Civic Center: In 1982, the estimated cost of the project was $30 million. Now the City Council is looking at $120 million by the time the job ends.

Fully seven years after ground was broken for the city’s lavish Civic Center, yet another mayor of Beverly Hills will stand up this week and ask why it has taken so longto finish, and why it is costing so much.

“Here it falls into my lap, and it’s not a project that I feel good about. That’s the irony of it,” said City Councilman Allan L. Alexander, who is scheduled to be sworn in as mayor Tuesday night.

His predecessor, Max Salter, vowed last year to see the job finished before the end of his term.

But workers are still swarming over the 10-acre site, lawsuits loom, and completion is not expected until Sept. 18.

Alexander said he will ask the City Council as his first act in office to demand a complete report on the history of the project, “and in particular focusing on the financial aspects.”

From a preliminary estimate of $30 million, the Civic Center has grown in size and complexity to the point where the total cost may exceed $120 million, according to city officials’ latest estimates.

“It’s not that we were not provided with information . . . but the information turned out to be wrong,” Alexander said. And even if the figures had been right, “my feeling is that money is better spent on what goes on inside the building, not on the building itself,” he said.

The latest figure includes major extras that were not part of the original design by renowned architect Charles Moore, including an $11-million renovation for the 59-year-old City Hall.

Despite Beverly Hills’ reputation for luxury, the fear of overspending has plagued the project for years. It was held up for more than a year when a theater and cafeteria were dropped to save costs in 1985.

City officials now say they lost as much from the expensive redesign as they did by cutting the theater.

But the trouble-plagued final phase of the Civic Center, made up of the police headquarters, the Beverly Hills Public Library and the arches and gardens of three outdoor courtyards, could end up costing as much as $23 million more than the $53 million quoted for it as recently as last November.

The troubles included several months of delay in 1987 as the general contractor, the J. A. Jones Construction Co. of Charlotte, N.C., attempted to deal with asbestos in the old library and ground water that turned the police station site into a mudhole.

City officials complained even then about the lack of progress. A. W. Harrison, Jones’ project manager at the time, replied by blaming the city for “total lack of communication and attention to the problem itself.”

The mud and the asbestos were eventually overcome, at a cost estimated at the time to be nearly $4 million.

In the latest debacle, Jones walked off the job in mid-January, claiming it was owed more than $10 million. The workers stayed away until the beginning of March, when the city and the contractor agreed to put off their disagreements until after the project is finished.

Joe A. Walker, Western region project manager for Jones, said last week that he is confident of meeting the newly renegotiated deadlines, which call for the police station to be substantially completed May 8, followed by the library May 29. The company has handed over a $2-million letter of credit that Beverly Hills can cash if it fails.

“Any time you shut down a project and start it back up again, it’s more difficult than starting anew,” he said. “Getting the same people back in has been a problem, but just the privilege of getting to work on a job like this brings them back in.”

January’s walkout came as a shock to City Council members, who were assured at the end of 1989 that the work was proceeding without a hitch. City Manager Edward S. Kreins, who presided over the project from its inception, was forced to take early retirement as a result.

But it was hardly surprising to the project’s subcontractors and suppliers, many of whom began feeling the pinch in the second half of last year when the city’s construction manager began a cost-cutting campaign.

“In any project you have revisions, but in this particular situation to have such radical and drastic cuts at the last minute, I personally was sick for about a month over it,” said David Schmidt, who helped design the interiors for the library building.

Schmidt, project manager for Marshall Brown, an interior design firm of San Diego, said the furniture budget was slashed from $1.6 million to $350,000, and textured vinyl wall coverings were also dropped in favor of paint.

“I just don’t think the people of Beverly Hills are getting what they deserved, or what they should have,” said Schmidt, whose firm left the job late last year and asked that its name not be associated with the project.

But Michael Cart, the city librarian, said he has since managed to put together “adequate furnishings” for the building, which is expected to be the showpiece of the Civic Center.

Painted in soft tones of peach and sea green, the library is enlivened by cut-out arches and tiled alcoves. Countertops are covered in deep green marble from Thailand, and a corridor that gradually shrinks in height leads to a children’s area where the desks and bookshelves are at kids’-eye level.

“Given the budget we had for the project, I think we’ve got an extraordinary building,” Cart said.

The police building is also extraordinary, from the saunas in the officers’ locker rooms to the single-occupancy jail cells with their views of the Hollywood Hills.

And the courtyards recall the architecture of 17th-Century Rome, where Moore looked for inspiration to solve the problem of linking the new buildings on the east side of Rexford Drive with the old City Hall and the fire station on the west side.

The solution was three oval-shaped open spaces, but here too, reality interfered with the dream of a Civic Center for the ages.

Associates recall that Moore shed a tear when he learned that the elaborate spiral pattern he designed for the central ellipse was scratched because of concerns that it would confuse drivers on Rexford Drive.

The recent economies were also painful, including decisions to eliminate decorative tile from the outside walls, omit palm trees from the landscaping and do away with three of four pedestrian bridges that were to link the already completed parking structure with the rest of the complex.

“I view these cuts with real alarm, since the appearance of the Civic Center will be drastically and adversely affected,” Moore said in a Nov. 4, 1989, letter that was delivered to Mayor Salter’s home in an effort to make sure it got past the consultants and city staffers and into the City Council’s hands.

“It would be a great shame if Beverly Hills, having asked for--and paid for--a major work of architecture, were to be denied its realization resulting from a random set of last-minute deletions. It is essential to us all that the Civic Center not be vandalized,” he said.

The cuts were made under a directive from the City Council that authorized construction manager John Hartsock of JLH Consultants Inc. to save money by cutting elements of the project that were not vital to its function or appearance.

Although Hartsock is still being retained by the city, largely to help piece together a coherent account of the project to date, JLH has been replaced as construction manager by another firm. Hartsock declined to comment for this article.

“That review is still taking place,” said City Atty. Greg Stepanicich, who has been working with a specially hired construction-law firm to try to account for the cost overruns.

“In terms of whether a number of people or one person is responsible, we have reached no conclusion,” he said.

For now, he said, the city’s position is that the police station, library and courtyard should cost no more than $53 million, and that even $10 million of that figure is questionable.

The final word on who pays what to whom will have to wait for mediation once the project is finished, and perhaps for a final decision by the courts, he said.

The potential price tag of $120 million comes from: $20-million for the parking structure and fire headquarters, more than $11 million for renovating the City Hall, a possible $75.5 million for the police station, library and courtyard, another $10 million in architectural, engineering and construction management fees and about $4 million for communications equipment, furniture and other miscellaneous expenses.

Will there be any more surprises?

“I hope not,” Finance Director Don Oblander said. “But the way this project has gone, you never say never.”

CIVIC CENTER CHRONOLOGY Oct. 21, 1982--City Council selects Charles Moore’s design for the Beverly Hills Civic Center. “Get started right now,” exhorts Mayor Ben Stansbury, “we don’t even want to lose a day.” Estimated price as designed: $30 million.

April 12, 1983--Ground breaking. By July 7, estimated cost rises to $43.4 million to cover improved facade, extra space, parking and safety improvements.

May, 1984--Three former mayors sue to block variable-rate financing for the project. Costlier materials are specified, bringing the estimated cost up to $60 million. Architectural, engineering and construction management fees have also been added. “There’s a real question as to whether they (the City Council) can afford it at all,” says former Mayor Leonard Horwin. Fixed-rate bonds are sold instead.

Sept. 17, 1985--City Council appeals for a benefactor to pick up the cost of finishing the job, as estimates reach as high as $100 million. “What we have here is a Cadillac with all the options,” says Mayor Edward I. Brown.

Oct. 15, 1985--Performing arts center and cafeteria are dropped in hopes of saving about $14 million.

Feb. 26, 1987--Ground water is discovered on the site. Work is disrupted, and no progress is made on police headquarters from June through September.

March 4, 1987--Asbestos is found in ducts at old library. Work there does not resume until December.

Jan. 15, 1990--J. A. Jones Construction Co., the primary contractor, walks off the job to dramatize its claims for more than $10 million in unpaid bills.

March 6, 1990--Although appalled at projected cost of as much as $75.5 million to finish the police station, library and courtyard, City Council brings J. A. Jones back to finish the job. Council members say the final cost of the entire job could reach $120 million.