After enduring more than a century of San Antonio's constant prairie winds and fickle temperatures, the historic Bexar County Courthouse is receiving a long overdue facelift.

The $24.3 million renovation project, which includes restoration of the courthouse's Pecos red sandstone and terra cotta exteriors as well as renovation of the interior courtrooms, offices and corridors, is being spearheaded by Nelson W. Wolff, a former San Antonio mayor and current county judge.

As mayor in the early 1990s, Wolff began to seek financing to revitalize what was rapidly becoming a rundown section of downtown San Antonio, a few blocks from two of the city's most popular attractions: the RiverWalk and the Alamo.

"We started with the Historic Civic Center Plan and meetings with the officials from the nearby San Fernando Cathedral in 1991," Wolff said from his office in the courthouse. "There were several things that I wanted to do to preserve this area; so by getting a civic group and the church involved, that helped to bring other citizens on board for a broader scope of projects.

"As far as the courthouse itself is concerned, close to one million people pass through its corridors each year, making it the most public of all buildings in San Antonio. I thought the least I could do was try to find a way to preserve it for future generations."

The San Antonio office of 3D/International Inc. is serving as construction manager for the project as well as the architect of record. Construction officially began in late 2001 as a single-bid project, but was soon split into several smaller packages.

"The Bexar County Commissioners Court decided it wanted to have more opportunities for local community-based, small minority and women-owned businesses to participate in the renovation of its courthouse," said Betty Bueché, 3D/I vice president. "Consequently, they asked 3D/I to break the restoration project into smaller bid packages and then assist them with recruiting those kinds of firms."

The nature of the exterior work itself often limited the kinds of contractors available to bid.

Approximately 200,000 stones make up the exterior of the courthouse. The stones range from decorative pieces just 8 in. square to huge blocks adorning the front of the building featuring a hand-carved "Eagle of Justice" with a wingspan measuring over 15 ft. Additionally, there are over 500 windows in the facility with a variety of ledges and overhangs.

"There are only a finite number of workers who can do the type of stonework we are doing," said 3D/I project manager Pat Vance. "Because of the type of exterior we're working with, and the age of the stone, we had to develop a sort of a doctor's prescription for each stone, each joint and each piece of this building."

The company assessed conditions of the exterior as early as 1999 before the first stone was touched.

"Typically, construction involves the design-bid-build mentality," Vance explained. "In the restoration part of construction, there is an assessment and then we have conversations about various approaches to the project. These assessments can take some time especially with a building of this size and level of detail.

"On this particular project, 3D/I did a very detailed assessment of the building - so detailed, in fact, that we were almost ridiculed because the large volume of plans we created and the fact that those plans were so intricate. But it has worked out to the favor of the project because the level of detail is there to allow the masons to consult the various digital images whenever the need arises."

Romancing The Stone

The 268,000-sq.-ft. courthouse was built on Dolorosa Street in 1892, modified in 1926 and renovated several times until an addition to the southwest corner was constructed in 1972. But while the facility's interior was upgraded through the years, its exterior was fading away.

Subject to nearly 110 years of a condition called wind scour in which the surface breaks down so significantly and water penetration becomes so deep, the sedimented sandstone layers began to delaminate or "explode" from the inside and periodically rained bits and pieces down to the sidewalk below. As a result, many of the stones needed a total overhaul while others required only minor repairs.

Using computer-generated models and state-of-the-art equipment, Elmendorf-based masonry subcontractor Curtis Hunt Restorations Inc. took a 21st century approach to restoration of the 19th century building's exterior.

"One of the first things we did was perform mock-ups with several different types of stain to match the existing stones," said Michael Hunt, a fifth-generation mason with the family-owned company.
"Those stains then had to be OK'd by Bexar County and the Texas Historical Commission as well as 3D/I architecture.

"We wound up with nine different color samples for patching. Each of our masons had a color palette to match with the individual stones because not every stone is the same color or grain structure. That way, we could blend into the existing stone as closely as possible."

For hairline cracks in the stone, masons use wipe-in fillers developed by Minneapolis-based 3M Corp. "They consist of micro-balloons, which are like little ball bearings," Hunt said. "We wet the stone and then apply these micro-balloons with our thumbs. As it is applied and the stone dries, you can actually see the cracks fill. Once it draws into the crack, it expands and fills the crack to act as a water barrier.

"Typically, when you use ordinary masonry products in cracks such as a joint, eventually that material will shrink and you end up getting a crack on the other side. The micro-balloon swells and prevents further water penetration and further deterioration."

Special equipment and meticulous attention to detail is required in the restoration of the decorative stones.

"They are retooling carved pieces and, in some cases, recreating and realigning sculptures on the exterior," Bueché said. "These workers are craftsmen as well as masons."

The foundation is granite-based with each support weighing as much as 15,000 lbs. while the historical construction is triple-wythe brick masonry with a red sandstone veneer or structural red sandstone. Some of the original walls are up to 42. in. thick.

Special Scaffolding

Because of the age and historic value of the courthouse exterior, San Antonio-based Builders Equipment and Tool Co. Inc. specially designed a scaffold system in which steel I-beams were utilized to stretch across the courthouse's roof.

A massive truss composed of six 140-ft.-long trusses bolted and braced together and weighing in excess of 33,000 lbs. was supported by two shoring towers built on the west and east sides of the courthouse. Once laid to rest on the shoring towers, the truss spanned across the existing roof on the north side of the building while the I-beams placed across the truss completed the backbone of the suspended scaffold system.

The design allowed scaffold to be erected on the truss to the height of the shoring towers as well as suspend scaffold 42 ft. down from the I-beams without risking damage to the roof.

The exact placement of the support towers took six months of planning and collaboration between BETCO and Houston-based Ford Engineering.

Copper For Drainage

Helping to deter future deterioration is an up-to-date drainage system for the courthouse through the use of a specially designed copper flashing technique.

"When the building was constructed, there was a design flaw in that there were a lot of exterior ledges that were flat and the water did not drain well from those areas," Vance said. "The type of stone on the exterior is very porous and the freeze-thaw process of that water was helping to destroy the stone.

"Of course, the restoration architecture technologies that are being employed today are much different than some of the technologies we had 10-12 years ago. Back then, we used mechanical fasteners to restore items. Now we have found that those mechanical fasteners will fail and cause even greater damage to the fabric of the building itself."

Vance combined with Terry Willis of Austin-based sheet metal subcontractor A.D. Willis Co. Inc. to devise a method whereby the copper flashing is custom-formed, compressed and then connected to the features of the building. The edges are crimped, installed with lead shims and then caulked into place, eliminating any fasteners and providing a waterproof protection.
Eventually, the copper flashing will develop a patina covering and blend into the red sandstone for a seamless exterior finish.

And while Vance knows the measures his company has taken on the courthouse exterior restoration will not last forever, there are several guidelines built into the project for future maintenance.

"Some restoration was done on the courthouse in 1988, but this current effort has been more comprehensive," he said. "The restoration technology is so much more advanced today as we learn more and more about how to repair stones and keep these buildings in such a quality way that they will last at least another hundred years.

"3D/I has software programs to download information about this restoration project and develop an ongoing maintenance program. Restoration for buildings of these kinds is an ongoing process, but it is like the old saying about paying a little now or paying a whole lot later. We hope this kind of program will prevent future generations from having to spend $20 million or $30 million to restore the building again."