Sinking Arizona center may have to be rebuilt

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

To the untrained eye, the USS Arizona Memorial Visitors Center looks as solid and stable as reinforced concrete.

The visitors center at the USS Arizona Memorial, which attracts about 1.5 million people each year, slowly is sinking. Advertiser library photo • Sept. 17, 2001

Sections of the visitors center have settled 30 inches; water seeps into the basement during extreme high tides or rainy weather; and engineers have had to jack up the building four times since it opened in 1980, said Doug Lentz, superintendent of the memorial.

Although rangers there have dealt with the situation for years, the true depth of the problem was revealed in May when architects briefed park service officials about new restrooms, Lentz said.

Now, the park service may have to scrap its $10 million renovation plans in favor of constructing a new building, which could cost $12 million or more.

"I had no idea it had settled that much," said Lentz, who has been superintendent for the past year. "You can look underneath the building and see the shims."

The visitors center, which was built for the park service by the Navy, was designed to settle 18 inches because the land beneath it is made of fill material dredged from the harbor decades earlier.

The building's architects also built in the ability to lift the building.

"At some point, you run out of room to keep jacking it up," Lentz said.

Modifications could extend the use of the building by 10 to 12 years, but that would cost more than a new one, Lentz said.

"We did a cost-value analysis, and it makes more sense to build a new visitors center than it does to try and expand the existing one," Lentz said.

The final decision will be made by park service officials in Washington, D.C., even though the money is being raised through private donations.

The memorial is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state, with about 1.5 million people visiting each year — about 4,500 people a day during the peak summer months. It was designed to accommodate only half that amount, and the restroom lines are the stuff of tourist legend.

The Arizona Memorial Museum Association has been raising money for renovations for two years. So far, it has about $3 million in donations.

But the sinking situation changes the entire plan, said Peter Viele, vice president of development for the museum association.

"We went from adding to the current center to starting over," he said. "So the cost now is $12 million, but it could go up."

The museum association is committed to raising that amount and would seek some sort of partnership with state and federal government sources should the cost become higher, he said.

But the soil problem also means that the park service is free to redesign everything, he said.

Park service and museum officials met with architects for three days last week to discuss design options.

In addition to more restrooms, the design of a new visitors center would take advantage of prevailing trade winds and provide more shade and shelter from the rain for visitors, Viele said.

The existing center would remain open while the new one is being built.

"The basic concept is moving the facility back up on the lawn area," he said. "The whole thing would be oriented so that from any point in it, you would be able to look out and see the memorial."

The park service also would make one other important change, Lentz said.

"We are going to be sinking some piles down so we are not making the same mistake twice," Lentz said. "They'll be 140 feet deep."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.