Reagan Building Delayed for a Year

The opening of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse has been delayed a year, primarily due to problems in acquiring marble from Italy for the building’s exterior.

But last month, marble panels started going up on the building, said spokeswoman Mary Filippini of the General Services Administration.

Marble will give the federal courthouse a dignified look, she said, and assure its durability.

“Government buildings last centuries,” Filippini said of the need to wait for the marble. “We don’t build buildings with 30-year lives.”

The government had hoped to open the courthouse next month. But concerns over the quality of the travertine marble being quarried in Tivoli, Italy, and winter storms held up delivery of the stone to Santa Ana.

Filippini said the snafus have been worked out, and two new stone quarries are being used.

The building is expected to be occupied by November 1998, said Filippini, whose agency oversees the project.

Travertine is a light-colored marble that has adorned buildings for centuries--from Roman palaces to Orange County shopping malls. Approximately $5 million worth of the light-colored stone will be placed on the federal building.

“It’s beautiful,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. said of the marble. “It shines.”