, 1899-02-10
SNOW o WORK.
Work on Cheyenne Public Building
Temporarily Suspended.

Just now Superintendent Murdoch
and the contractors of the public
building are doing Office work beside
a nice warm fire. The big hole, which
was becoming so rapidly filled with
concrete work previous to the storm,
is almost filled with beautiful o
Work is at a practical standstill and
the reporter finds those interested
with some time time to talk.
THE building will b, In ornament
that any town may feel proud of"
said the superintendent yesterday.
I'VE are not doing much now, but in
the spring we intend to rush things
and we won't wait until spring either,
If that weather man will give us some
half way decent weather. You can
see for yourself the perfection in the
detail of the grillage foundation and
the building throughout is made of the
best material and the designing is
beautiful"
1t Is estimated that it will take a
year of uninterrupted work to COM
plete the building and with delays that
are bound to occur, it will probably
be two years before the building will be
finished. 1t was necessary to secure
an additional appropriation to com
plete the building and the report of
the supervising architect on the sub
ject is interesting. The report is as
follows:
Treasury Department, Office of the
Supervising Architect, Washington, d.
C, January II, 1899. Sir: Your atten-
| ton is respectfully to the fact that af-
ter the excavation was done under the
contract for excavation, grading, con-
crete foundations, stone footings, brick
work and cut stone work of basement
and area walls, etc. of the public build
ing at Cheyenne, Wyo., it was discov-
| cred that the condition of the stratum
| encountered was such as to render it
inexpedient to place the foundations
designed thereon, a material being en-
| countered which, uncovered and COM
ing in contact with water, became par
| ticularly soft, a condition which the
ordinary tests applied to foundations
| before excavations would not reveal,
| After a very careful study of the prob
lem it was decided to place super
| structure works, in order to distribute
the weight owe a large area, at an ex
pense of 1928, 1S5.
The appropriation for this build
ing is much smaller in comparison TO
| its size than for any other building of
like character now being constructed
under the direction of this Office, and
it is impossible to carry out the orig
| inal design unless additional appropri-
| atoms is made to cover the cost of
| the substructure. Nevertheless, had 1t
| not been necessary to incur this ex-
| pense, which it was impossible to fore
| see at the time the original estimate
was made, the building as originally
| designed could not have been built
inside of the appropriation; but on ac-
count of the additional expense it is
out of the question to build the build
ing without material notifications,
which notifications, considering the
limited amount of money originally
available for the building affect both
it's appearance and usefulness.
'1n view of tine above I have respect
fully to recommend that congress be
asked to provide, at its present session
an additional appropriation of $25, 900
to cover the cost of the contract above
mentioned and certain work incident
al thereto.
1.-THE fact is also brought to your at
tention that this building is situated
at a distance from large and cheap
markets, which renders it necessary to
have a larger, rather than a less, ap-
preparation than is required in other
localities; also that the entire cost OF
the site was only Sill ,147,51.
Respectfully yours,
]. K. TAYLOR,
Supervising Arcitect.