European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 3, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To artist s drawing of a courtyard View of the new office  Elbow room for the by Steven Rattner new York times i he steel supports for a new. Senate office building Are rising on a vacant Capitol Hill lot and so Are the costs the delays and the tempers of nearly everyone involved. According to present estimates the nine Story building will not be finished until mid-1981, two years behind schedule and ultimately will Cost at least $122 million As against original projections of $47.9 million in 1976. And the delays and the costs May keep rising. With the new building the Senate will nearly double its office space but the building s opponents say that it would be better to Cut the fast growing staff. The building also will maintain the tradition of congressional elegance unending Marble plentiful Wood panelling double height senatorial offices and a rooftop restaurant for senators Only. However some people consider S.C. displays of Opu Lence undesirable. My Strong feeling is that we be got to draw the line somewhere on this constant constant expansion said sen. John h. Chafee , the organizer of the opposition. I m a firm believer in Chafee s Law that stuff expands to fill the space  Chafee has been joined by sen. William Proxmire d. Wis., who in March bestowed on the project his Golden not 2 daily Magazine bomb of these pays the Cote \ sen. Chafee explains his opposition to the new Senate office building background. Sunday september 3, 1978 fleece award for what he saw As misuse of taxpayers Money. Proponents once numerous Are now difficult to find. Sen. Ernest f. Rollings d.-s.c., cited by sever Al congressional sources As an advocate refused through a spokesman to comment. Aides to several other senators while declining to make the legislators available talked about the need to reduce the Cost of the Structure designed by John Carl  supplemental legislative appropriations Bill scheduled for Senate consideration Early in August contained $37.5 million to meet some of the Cost overruns. However senators removed that in committee ostensibly to await a report now in preparation by the general accounting office. Planning for the building which will be known As the Philip a. Hart Senate office building after the late Sena Tor from Michigan began almost a decade ago when the government acquired the land behind the Dirksen Senate office building. But Over the half decade of design the concept changed markedly. Instead of simply transforming the Dirksen building s u shape into a rectangle As was originally envisioned an entirely different building was designed. The changes called for the rooftop restaurant and pro vision was made for a Tennis court on top of a connecting Wing. One Hundred private bathrooms two for each senator s office were incorporated. The thickness of the Marble was doubled. The 3,000-Square-foot multimedia room was improved. And the costs Rose. At present the building would Cost $101 a Square foot and Chafee has calculated that that figure could Rise to $185 a Square foot for a total of $215 million. By comparison office space in the new Citibank build ing in new York Cost less than $60 per Square foot according to the Bank. However the comparability of the figures is a hotly debated Issue Here. The opponents of the new building would like to rip Down the nine Story steel Structure keep the three Story underground parking garage and create a Philip a. Hart Public Park. That would mean a Cost of $50 million or $100,000 per parking space. The garage would be one of the most expensive Ever built. Another possibility would be to remove some of the frills. Eliminating Interior Marble would save $2.9 Mil lion. Eliminating the Center Wing which contains the ath Letic facilities and the Media Center would save $2.1 million. Cancelling the automatic mail delivery system would save $1.8 million. The problems faced by the Hart building follow an illustrious tradition. The Dirksen building which ran $15 million Over budget and was completed nearly two years late was built with garage ramps too Steep for cars mail chutes that led to the cafeteria Kitchen and Bronze clock hands too heavy for the clocks to move. The stars and stripes Page 9