Restoring the tiled turquoise dome of Pima County’s Old Courthouse, a Tucson architectural icon built in 1928, is a focal point of a $20 to $25 million proposal county officials are preparing to submit to the county bond advisory committee. The Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse, designed by prominent Tucson architect Roy Place, was built in 1928 for about $350,000.
Other proposed improvements to the Old Courthouse include converting the former offices on the first floor into space for both a Jan. 8 memorial and a planned art museum, returning one of the courtrooms to its original state, and relocating the offices of the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator to the second floor.
"The dome requires resealing to prevent water leaks and damage," Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry wrote in a recently released memo.
Huckelberry said one of the most easily recognizable fixtures in downtown has begun to leak, requiring the county to hire a professional roofer to painstakingly remove each tile on the dome, then photograph and number it before making repairs to the underlying substructure. He hopes the repairs could also restore public access to the dome, allowing county residents and tourists to tour beneath one of downtown's oldest structures. It has been several decades, he estimates, since the last major renovation of the courthouse.
Pima County's Proposed $650 Million Total Bond Program that will be voted on as early as next year, recently received national attention in Bloomberg News click here for full story .