Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 16
16.
consider and take appropriate action on recommendations regarding architectural finishes, and related issues, for the second floor office suites 700 lavaca.
let me indicate my intention to call up item 17 next.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, my name is dave south, julie zitter with gsc architects, bill mccann from our office, also.
I'm here before you for a policy discussion and recommendation regarding the finishes for 700 lavaca.
and let me just say that on the heels of the previous discussion, I realize this may not be quite as important, but nevertheless it's our job to take care of and we'll do our best.
just a brief update on the project.
the design is approaching completion at the end of the month.
when I was before you about six months ago, Commissioner Davis you asked me about the project being bid out completely.
I assured you that it would be.
indeed, that's going to happen.
in the first part of November, then we will start construction.
so we're on schedule for that.
one of the project goals for the 700 lavaca project on the ground first and second floor, was to upgrade the public spaces and generally the public official offices.
what our approach is to -- to make a reasonably consistent finish package in all of the public areas, and specifically if you look at the handout before you on the first page, the area shown in yellow is the reception room, the quarters and the coffee bars are actually in blue.
and that would be -- that would be a -- an area within the -- within the typical Commissioner's office suite or the judge's suite, that would be the semi public area.
those are the areas that I'm proposing to you we would treat with a reasonably consistent finish within the budgetary constraints that we have.
the individual offices, by the way, which are behind the closed doors, indicated in white, would be subject to your own personal tastes.
we'll be working with each office in terms of floor --
>> I really wanted to make sure that -- well, I will get with you anyway later.
because I'm looking at the reception area.
I may need to talk to you later about that.
I will discuss it with you later.
>> will do.
>> if you will turn to page 2, this is one rendering from the corner of one of the reception rooms, what you will see in the foreground is some suggested furniture layouts to obviously every office will be a little different there.
what you see in the background is a -- is a glass wall system leading out into the corridor.
so when I said earlier that the reception areas are semi public spaces, indeed from the corridors you can actually look in and see what's going on in those spaces, so therefore the need to keep these reasonably consistent.
you also see a dry wall hard hat, you know, indicated in orange there, which -- which tends to suggest the corridor that runs down that hallway.
if you will turn to page 3, that's just another look.
these are just variations, I'm not asking you to pick colors or anything like that.
I would suggest that these would be carpeted, probably with a high grade carpet tile that's replaceable.
you see art work, furniture, so on again in the reception area.
right about the middle of that view would be the view down the corridor.
then if you turn to the page, that's actually a have you looking down the corridor suggesting the -- the high grade carpet.
you would have a wood frame door with glass.
we would propose that that be probably a translucent glass unless you prefer clear.
there's a coffee bar.
indicated on the right.
we would have a high-grade vinyl tile.
and cabinets.
plumbing in there for making coffee, so on.
again this is public within your space, we want to control it so noise in your hallway doesn't permeate into your space, therefore the need for the carpet and acoustical tile.
this is all within budget.
the difference is between the corridor and reception area, your and your staff personal offices in terms of paint finishes, floors, we will be working with you on that, we can do lots of different things within the constraints of the budget.
am happy to do that.
>> there's no carpet anywhere on the inside of the office space of each individual Commissioner, there is?
>> yes, sir.
within each Commissioner's office suite, if you go back to the first --
>> because I don't want carpet.
that's what I'm suggesting.
>> I'm sorry.
>> I do not want carpet in my space.
>> me either.
we are unified.
>> I'm just letting you know that.
I guess what I need to find out from you, dave, thank you for these renderings.
what I need to find out, though, is we've got furniture and flooring basically on a lot of this.
but looking at the floor of course I do not want carpet.
then looking at the furniture, choosing some new furniture.
my office will not be having new furniture except maybe in the reception area.
that's because the used furniture that we have won't fit in that area.
so we have to get new furniture for that.
so we are using used furniture in the rest of my office space per se.
now, again, with that other thing, as far as the carpet is concerned, it's just I do not want that, I stated that.
however, I would also like to suggest this.
is there a budget item that can identify as far as the amount of money that we have left to deal with furniture and also flooring, what is that budget?
>> I don't have a specific break down on that, there is a separate bucket for furniture and a separate bucket for the finishes that we're talking about today.
>> if there's a chance if you could get that to me I would appreciate that.
>> we are shooting for a roof square footage amount, though, right?
>> yes.
>> that number roughly speaking is 89 to $90.
>> okay.
I don't have it in the aggregate, but that is the square foot break down.
>> all right.
again if I can go back to your comment about carpet, I appreciate that.
we've also heard a concern that you are concerned about the acoustical privacy.
if we go with a hard floor surface I can tell you that's going to be greatly diminished because of the noise bounce in the reception room and corridor.
these are carpet tiles.
we would love to have a chance to show you.
these are replaceable.
for example if -- as I do from time to time spill something on the carpet, you can actually take these carpet tiles out and replace them.
that's one of the great advantages of those is the high grade carpet, very sound absorptive as well.
>> well great life cycle property to it.
it's cost effective when it goes down, easier to maintain throughout the life of it.
it also is improving indoor air quality because it attracting the allergens and gets vacuumed regularly.
we work with the maintenance crew to make sure that it gets maintained properly.
>> it has problems though.
I don't want to inherent those problems. I don't want carpet, period.
>> you are recommending carpet in just the hallways in the common area.
each individual office could be concrete if that's what's desired.
>> right, in Commissioner Davis wanted a polished concrete floor or vinyl tile or whatever.
>> yep.
>> I think what y'all are asking, though, is for us to -- to sign on to the suggestion that we have a standard at least for these common areas, the hallway, I mean the reception, the hallway and the break room and, you know, if I had my druthers it would be all concrete, totally green, I would get somebody to come in and do graffiti art on the outside wall and stuff like that.
but I'm recognition the fact that these offices are supposed to be designed through 2035.
and so the next Commissioner precinct 2 may have other wishes.
so you are asking for us to approve the idea of the standardization for the carpet in the reception in the hallway and hard surface vinyl in the break room.
>> that is my recommendation.
>> I move that we do that.
>> second.
>> discussion on the motion?
>> with the -- with the intent that Commissioner Davis is going to modify it the way he talked about it earlier.
I hear what you are saying.
but I don't want it to get in anybody's mind that this is -- this is just a layout.
>> that's not the motion.
>> my intention in the motion was for us to agree that at least those portions of our offices would be the same.
>> well, I can't agree with that.
that's my point.
>> this motion is for the reception area and the little coffee room basically to be the same and be carpeted.
in the hallway.
and the hallways.
the individual offices the -- the basically whatever the respective official wants.
>> that is correct.
>> any more discussion?
all in favor?
show communications Huber, he could hard, yours truly voting in favor.
Commissioner Davis.
>> voting no.
>> thank you very much.
thank you for your patience.
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