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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2000)
courtesy A model of the courthouse that has been proposed was among others presented by fall term architecture students. Courthouse siting raises disquietude in community ■ Some citizens are questioning placement of a new federal courthouse in downtown Eugene, but others say it would help the town By Brian Goodell Oregon Daily Emerald When Eugene citizens learned earlier this year that the General Services Administration would possibly be placing a ten-story, $70 million dollar federal court house in downtown Eugene, cit izens and academics alike found cause for concern. Since the an nouncement of the new court house project, University archi tecture students and faculty have shown a vested interest in the placement and design specifica tions of the new facility. Fall term architecture students in Professor Donald Genasci’s de sign studio studied the potential impact of placing such a large building in downtown Eugene. Eric Black, a student in the class, said although there has been controversy over the proj ect, a building of this scale can do a lot of good for the down town area. “I am not as concerned with the outcome of the design as I am with the decisions being made on the siting of the building it self,” Black said. “This decision is as important as the selection of the firm itself. The community is not realizing the positive poten tial this building provides for downtown Eugene.” Last September, GSA Regional Administrator Jay Pearson said his decision to place the court house next to the Fifth Street Public Market was final. After pressure from Congressman Pe ter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Eugene citizens, the GSA chose to recon sider purchasing the current City Hall block for the new court house. Now, seven months later, the search for a site continues after the GSA placed an ad in the Reg ister Guard requesting to pur chase land for the new court house from anyone in the Eugene/Springfield area willing to sell. As a result, the GSA re ceived 22 possible sites. Lew Bowers, Community De velopment Manager for the city of Eugene, said the GSA will now narrow their list to three sites and then conduct environ mental reviews of each site, which he said will take several months to complete. “After the environmental re views are done sometime in the fall, a GSA committee will make a recommendation to Pearson and he will make the decision on the final site,” Bowers said. “I ex pect that the final decision will be made by September or Octo ber.” Although the decision for the building’s site has not been made, a committee chaired by Michael Fifield, head of the Uni versity Architecture Department, held a competition that selected the firm that would design the courthouse. Los Angeles-based architecture firm Morphosis won the competition. “They’re a very dynamic firm with some very innovative schemes,” GSA Public Affairs Di rector Bill Dubray said. “They should come up with a very ex citing design - maybe a little out of the ordinary.” Dubray said Morphosis will not begin design of the court house facility until the final site has been selected. Architecture students and pro fessors are pushing for the place ment of the new courthouse to be in downtown Eugene. Fifield said in a March 23 Eugene Week ly article that the courthouse should be placed downtown be cause civic functions are an inte gral part of the city. “The fact is, Eugene is slated to have a 270,000 square foot court house in the next few years,” Black said. “It might as well be done right.” “It would be a disaster to make this into a suburban building that has no response to the needs of downtown,” he added. “It would be wrong to site this building outside of downtown.” ASUO chief justice Jeremy Gibons to leave UO, resigns from office ■ Gibons says he is secure that his leaving will not affect government issues such as student elections By Jeremy Lang Oregon Daily Emerald After two years of service on the ASUO Constitution Court, Chief Justice Jeremy Gibons announced Tuesday that he is resigning from his duties on the court. Gibons, who presided over last year’s special election and this year’s public hearing against the summer senate, is leaving the Uni versity and is thus no longer eligi ble to serve on the court. He said he plans to attend law school, although not right away. In his resignation letter, Gibons praised the members of student government he’s worked with over the years. “I will sorely miss my position and the opportunity to work with all of you [in the ASUO], but am encouraged to leave at a time when such intelligent and moti vated student leaders as your selves populate the ASUO,” he said. Gibons added that his leaving the court will not adversely affect its business. Gibons removed himself from the court’s decisions on this year’s student election and the grievances filed against candi dates C.J. Gabbe and Peter Larson. The final grievance appeal in that case is still being deliberated by the court and is keeping the re sults from the March 1 general election from being released. The court appointed Justice Robert Raschio to the chief justice position Wednesday night. Justice Daniel Vergamini said Gibon’s knowledge of legal rules and previous ASUO cases will be missed most. “It’s like losing our institutional knowledge,” he said. Justice Ashan Awan agreed and said, “He knows so many [Univer sity] cases over the past few years just off the top of his head. ” Gibons’ departure is the first of three in the coming months for the court. Vergamini and Justice El liott Dale will graduate at the end of theyearv . ;:Vs.v SUMMER JOBS! ^ Young Judaea Overnight Camp: .One week overnight camp in Olympia, WA (gr. 3-8) .Aug. 17-24 .Base pay $300.00 o $ Young Judaea Day Camp: .Day camp in Portland, OR (gr. 1-5) .July 5-August4,2000 .Base pay is $1000 Sponsored by Hadassah If you have verifiable Jewish summer camp, youth group, Israel, or other Jewish educational experience, call: 503-244-9322 or e-mail yjpnw@aol.com ft I Spring into Someone’s Heart! 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