Check out the new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, but be prepared to de-belt

I was among over 400 people who attended a public open house Friday, Dec. 14, for the new U.S. federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The line to get in snaked through the entry corridor and out the front door at one point, and I waited for about a half hour as visitors were checked through the screening process that is required at all federal courthouses.

 I had remembered to leave my cellphone in the car, but I still had to empty my pockets, take off my watch and my belt and put them, along with my pen and notebook, in a tray before walking through the screener. On the other side I gathered up my belongings and put on my belt in the middle of the crowd.

Awkward.

Aside from that strange moment and the grumpy old man in line ahead of me who didn’t like waiting and made sure everyone knew it, the open house was incredible.

“Wow” sums up the $115 million, 280,000-square-foot building, for which my employer, KJWW Engineering Consultants, provided the mechanical, electrical and plumbing design, along with construction administration and low voltage pathway lighting. Architects for the building were William Rawn Associates, Boston, and OPN Architects Inc., Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

I’m new to the engineering consulting business, and I am not an engineer, nor do I consult. I work in the marketing department. A big part of my job is to understand what our engineers do, get to know the projects they work on and write various communications on these projects for use internally and externally. Needless to say I have much to learn.

To learn about the courthouse, I began by interviewing Lincoln Pearce, KJWW’s lead engineer on the project. Lincoln worked for 10 years on the courthouse, which was put into high gear after the flood of 2008 inundated the riverfront building in which the courthouse was a tenant. Lincoln explained to me the engineers’ many challenges, many of which were framed by the U.S. General Services Administration’s anti-terrorism design and sustainability standards as well as the architect’s requirements. The engineers were successful. The building is safe, is on track to achieve LEED Gold certification, and none of the systems compromise the architects’ design.

Actually being in the building on Friday allowed me to see the layout, which helped me better understand what the engineers faced. Being there I also realized that I will never look at a building the same way again — I now think about things like air handling units, dedicated outside air systems, point-of-use hot water, economizers and daylight dimming. These are the things people don’t notice — and engineers like it that way. If people did notice, it would mean something isn’t working right.

I talked with the building’s courtroom technology specialist, with people who work in the offices of U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley and with the clerk of the court, all of whom gave glowing reports on the how the building “works.”

“All the comments I’ve been getting are positive,” said Robert Phelps, Clerk of Court and the man responsible for Friday’s open house. “We are thrilled.”

Phelps added that the building’s tenants “can’t stop commenting on how beautiful the building is and how great everything works… This is one of the best (GSA) projects anyone has seen.”

If you find yourself in Cedar Rapids sometime, I recommend checking out the courthouse — a beautiful, striking structure right downtown at 111 7th Ave. SE. It’s open to the public every day.

Just remember to leave your cellphone in the car, and be prepared to take off your belt.

Lottery hope springs eternal

My father-in-law has a three-ring binder with the title "Jack's Important Information" printed boldly on its front. My wife created the binder for him several years ago.

 In it she printed important phone numbers for him, in big bold type that he can easily read. He's 87 years old, has Parkinson's disease and his eyesight is not very good. Still, he can read if the type is large enough, and the binder is a comfort to him, particularly when his wife, my mother-in-law, is away from the condominium to run errands. He knows that should he need to reach anyone while she is away -- if he can not get ahold of his wife, that is -- that he'll find the phone numbers for his son and his two daughters (one being my wife) inside that binder.

 He also has added other important information to the binder. God knows what's in there, as what is important to Pop, as we call him, is always varied and often peculiar. One thing my wife says is in the binder, however, are his latest calculations for predicting winning lottery numbers.

 His lottery calculations are legendary. He's been doing it forever, and he's convinced there is a mathematical formula which governs all winning numbers and which would make the person who discovers it very rich indeed.

 I recall looking at some of his equations in the past -- rows and columns of numbers laid out in grids in seemingly random order. But to him it all made sense, or at least hinted at making sense. He was always optimistic about being close to cracking the code, if you asked him. 

 I'd like to know how many hundreds of pieces of paper he's scribbled his calculations on over the years. He's certainly slowed down in recent years, writing becoming increasingly difficult for him mainly due to his Parkinson's. Still, however, I'm sure on good days he's writing down some new formula only he can follow, and then handing the "winning" numbers to his wife to go play.

 I believe this is what you call "hope" in its truest and purest form, and those who are lucky enough to possess it hold onto it throughout their lives, regardless of past let-downs or even consistent failure.

  I am sure Pop has won occasional small lottery pay-outs over the years. But never has he won the big payoffs, the kind which allows you to buy a car, take an expensive vacation or quit your job. In spite of his losing ways, or perhaps more accurately because of his losing ways, Pop has never quit calculating, scheming and crunching the algorithms, such as they are.
 If by chance, and I mean by chance, he did win the big game some day, I wonder what he'd do to pass the time, what with no more need to solve the lottery riddle.

 For by now it's all just as much a pastime for him as it is a dream he's chasing. Actually it's probably mostly a pastime. I imagine he knows deep down the odds of winning continue to be against him, regardless of his years and years of study.

 Whatever it is that drives him to keep searching, it's helping to keep his mind active, and the good-natured ribbing we give him about it still produces a twinkle in his eye and an optimistic reply that he's almost got it figured out.

 At 87 years old, I imagine he's just about got it, indeed.

When Remy met Chance

Here's a little video of our Chihuahua, Remy, playing with Chance, my brother's Jack Russell Terrier, shortly after they met for the first time.