By JAMES FINK
Business First

Just outside Hon. Richard Arcara's private office and inner sanctum hang four framed photos that bring big smiles to the federal judge's face.

The photos are aerial views of a parking lot along the northern side of Niagara Square. Each one is labeled with the words "Arcara-Skretny Federal Courthouse" and a date, from 2004 to 2025.

The photo montage was given to the jurist as a tongue-in-cheek Christmas present a few years back. Fortunately, the photos do not represent reality.

Following significant efforts by both Arcara, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, and District Judge Hon. William Skretny, the courthouse will not share the fate of big- ticket projects - such as the Peace Bridge expansion - that have stalled or failed. It may have taken 15 years and a Homer-like odyssey, but construction on the $137 million courthouse is moving ahead on time and on schedule.

The 10-story building, which will peak at 238 feet, is slated to be constructed by next summer. It is the largest construction project currently underway in the region and, by all accounts, a transformational one.

"This is a major step forward not only for Buffalo, but for all of the region," said Michael Schmand, Buffalo Place Inc. executive director. "The emotional lift we will be getting from the courthouse will be immense."

The courthouse is the capstone in a recent wave of developments that have taken place along Delaware Avenue, beginning at Niagara Square and heading north to Tupper Street. The list includes two projects from Uniland Development Co. - the Avant and 285 Delaware buildings - that represent more than $100 million in new construction, as well as the corporate headquarters for New Era Cap Co. and the transformation of the former Asbury Delaware United Methodist Church into Babeville, singer Ani DiFranco's performance venue and home for her Righteous Babe Records.

"Put all of these together and suddenly, you have a completely different pool of people visiting and working along Delaware Avenue," Schmand said.

The courthouse construction began in the fall of 2007 with a ceremony full of pomp and circumstance. While the speeches have faded away, passersby now hear the sounds of progress, including welders connecting the steel frame and crews fastening concrete panels to the structure's skeleton.

Renee Miscione, spokeswoman for the federal General Services Administration, said she expects a ceremony to mark the wrap up of construction to be held this month. Precast panels should be installed by the end of May. Glass work and interior finishing are also underway.

At the end of March, the project was 32 percent complete. "Everything is progressing exactly as it should," Miscione said.

Both Arcara and Skretny, who have shepherded the project since it began in 1994, are watching the courthouse progress with the something akin to parental pride.

"People are really starting to talk about it," Arcara said. "They are starting to see it for what it is: an important building in downtown Buffalo, and not just some big box."

The courthouse is designed to replace the Michael J. Dillon U.S. Courthouse, which was constructed in 1936 and is considered obsolete by federal standards. The project was marked by proverbial potholes and land mines, any one of which could have derailed it. But Skretny and Arcara displayed a determined, pitbull-like stance to keep the courthouse moving forward.

The Dillon Courthouse will not be abandoned when the new building is completed. The Court Street building, itself an architectural landmark, will house several federal legal entities, including the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The pair used up years of amassed clout and political chips to bring the courthouse project to reality.

And that was just the beginning.

Once the project was greenlighted, they worked closely with the GSA to land everything from the architect to the construction manager and general contractor. For the architectural component alone, a pool of 37 firms, national and local, were vetted. In the end, Kohn Pederson Fox of New York City was chosen, with Grand Island's Cannon Design selected as construction manager. The two firms have worked together on a number of projects, including the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Mascaro Construction Co. of Pittsburgh was named the general contractor.

"When it came to the architectural aspect, we were looking for someone who was forward-thinking and wanted to move Buffalo's architectural history forward," Skretny said. "It is the launching pad for Delaware Avenue, and that's really what it is intended to do."

The shimmering glass-sheathed, 265,000-square-foot building complements the architecturally significant Buffalo City Hall and Statler Towers.

"It was no easy task, putting a contemporary building in the middle of historic district," Skretny said. "I would not call this building a Taj Mahal, but I would call it a dignified court structure."

"We would have never signed off on something that would have taken away from the majesty of Buffalo City Hall," Arcara added. "The true cornerstone building in the City of Buffalo is Buffalo City Hall."

The courthouse continues to dominate Skretny and Arcara's schedule. The pair, review the project's progress in biweekly meetings. They have made site visits to other federal courthouse construction projects to learn about all the minute nuances that go into a building, and traveled to St. Georges, Quebec, to review model courtrooms.

Through these travels, they learned, for example, that seats in the spectator section needed minor adjustments - a shift of two inches - to make them more comfortable. The alignment of the witness stand was also adjusted by a few degrees - just enough to make a difference for prosecutors and defense attorneys. The bi-weekly meetings will soon shift to weekly meetings.

"We're not building something that only has to last 10 or 20 years," Arcara said. "We are building something that needs to last 100 years. But it also has to be user-friendly."

Still, both Arcara and Skretny said they anxiously await the moment when the construction crews are gone, the punch list is complete and legal work is underway in the courthouse. That date is about 16 months away - a relatively short period of time, given their 15-year quest to see the courthouse built.

"But you know what? What lies ahead is probably just as challenging as the first part of what we did," Arcara said.