The Santa Barbara County Courthouse began undergoing a multi-phase restoration project to create a safe, weathertight roof and a more stable structure all while saving the building’s historic qualities.
“The courthouse is very much a part of the community. It’s an important part of what we do, people think it’s an important place to be, and it’s beautiful,” county project manager Diane Galt said. “It does have life and we do work in it. Not only is the superior court there, but we have the public defender, records, and other county businesses.”
The project’s first phase (of five) began on June 7 and is costing $2.1 million in county general funds, and it will fix the most deteriorated area of the building—on the corner of Figueroa and Anacapa streets, she said.
“The balconies are deteriorating, there’s spalling concrete—meaning there’s a weakness in the wall and [there’s] a weak area that’s crumbling. The balconies will have to be rebuilt, and the decorative motifs that will be fixed, either in place or removed and taken to a studio,” Galt explained.
The biggest chunk of the five-month project will be redoing the roof, where the tiles will be removed, a protective layer will be added underneath, and the tiles will be replaced on top. Lights on the roof will be replaced by LED lights as well so maintenance employees won’t have to go onto the roof and cause more tile damage for light replacement, she added.
“We had a few intrusions of water now, so we want to get that fixed,” Galt said, noting that the building will be fully accessible during construction.
Because the courthouse is recognized as a national historic landmark, the project will follow the secretary of the interior’s standards for the treatment of properties in order to preserve its artistic qualities and Spanish colonial style, she said.
“It’s really that the contractors understand how to work with historic properties; we want to preserve all we can,” Galt said. “We’ve hired architects and contractors who have a long history of working on historic buildings in California. I feel extremely confident with the two contractors and architects.”
The contractors and architects could not be reached for comment before Sun’s deadline.
What comes next for the courthouse remains up in the air. Although the project should’ve started years ago—and Galt said she wished it could’ve happened during COVID-19 shutdowns—she said it only received funds to complete the first phase and won’t be able to continue until the county courthouse can get more funding.
Organizations outside of county operations, like the Courthouse Legacy Foundation, help with the courthouse’s preservation by applying for grant funding and raise money for art restoration projects, maintenance issues, and other tasks to help preserve the building, she said.
“We will hopefully be able to work the other phases into the county budget, but that means going back year by year to ask the Board of Supervisors for funding,” she added.
Galt’s dream for the courthouse is to get the projects finished in six years, just in time for its 100th anniversary, she said.
“I hope by that time we finish all of those phases and we celebrate a fully watertight, restored building,” Galt said. “We can use the 100 years as a goal; if the county doesn’t have the money, I hope we can raise it in other ways.”
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2022.