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24

[[underlined]] West Court Construction Project [[/underlined]]

Mr. Wheeler had presented the following report to the members of the Executive Committee.

At their meetings of May 14, 1974 and September 24, 1974, the Board of Regents approved the proposal to proceed with construction improvements in the West Court of the Natural History Building, designed principally to provide public, staff and Associates' dining rooms, a student tour orientation center and additional areas for a new museum shop and future federally-funded office and training quarters. The project was to be completed by April 1, 1976. It was estimated that Smithsonian would have to provide $1,500,000 of its current private funds for the project, with another $1,000,000 provided by Marriott Corporation guaranteed loan, and with Marriott also providing around $500,000 additional itself for kitchen equipment and furnishing of the restaurant areas.

While schematic engineering drawings were available at that time, many of the details were not definite since we were expecting to work with Marriott's Construction Division on a "fast track" basis which allowed for reaching agreement on such elements of the plan as construction proceeded. A letter of intent to proceed with Marriott on the basis was entered into in November 1974. Subsequently, Smithsonian officials became concerned that the level of decor and furnishings to be provided by Marriott under the proposed contract would not be in keeping with the quality levels needed for a Smithsonian facility of this type. As a result, we obtained the consulting services of Becker & Becker Company, architects for our museum shops, who have a long and outstanding record for handling similar work for Williamsburg, Nantucket restoration and similar projects. The immediate result was to introduce a number of distinct improvements in the architectural plans themselves, and to point out the lack of provision for compliance with certain safety and health requirements. At the same time, review by the National Capital Planning Commission added additional requirements entailing further cost increases and review by our own engineers disclosed the lack of utility terminals adjacent to the West Court construction which had apparently been overlooked in the Marriott proposal. Thus, it appeared for a time that Smithsonian's share of the cost of the project would be increased by $800,000-$850,000 -- about half for improvements from design changes and half for improved decor and furnishings.

After extensive negotiations with Marriott as well as detailed cost analyses by both Marriott and Smithsonian, we now estimate that the planned improvements will add $400,000 to the cost of the project, raising the Smithsonian contribution of private funds from $1,500,000 to $1,900,000, or a total project cost to Smithsonian of $2,900,000, including the Marriott guaranteed loan of $1,000,000.