By D. E. Smoot
The architect who designed Muskogee’s animal shelter challenged recent comments made by a second architect hired to design expansion and repair plans for the facility.
Mike Martin of Spaces, Design and Architecture said claims that faulty fill materials were used during the original construction of the shelter were ill-informed. Martin described comments about the animal shelter’s conditions as speculative and misleading.
In addition to disputing claims of faulty construction, Martin criticized reports from which it could be inferred that much of the costs associated with the expansion would be spent for corrective measures. City officials clarified that only a small percentage of the $142,750 price tag for construction will be spent for the repair of original construction.
Architect Roger Richter was paid $13,500 for the expansion plans designed in part to correct problems at the shelter and add additional space for the animals. He recently told city councilors the animal shelter was built upon “unsuitable fill material.”
City Manager Greg Buckley said there is an area from which base-clay material was pulled, but without spending several thousand dollars, it would be impossible to know the exact nature of the fill material.
Martin, however, presented documents this week that indicate the fill material, described as “fat clay” by Richter, actually consists of gray and tan shale. Those documents, prepared by an independent laboratory, indicate use of the shale was approved by city officials and on-site tests met required specifications.
The concrete slab upon which the animal shelter stands, Martin said, shows no signs he can see of upheaval or bowing.
City councilors were told in July the floor had bowed upward as a result of the alleged presence of clay and a high volume of water that had collected beneath the shelter.
Martin said the floor was designed to rise toward the middle so that animal wastes would gravitate toward the back of the runs into a trough sloped toward one end of the building for easier removal. That specification, Martin said, was requested by those who were to operate the animal shelter once it was completed.
“The center drains were not intended to accept any wastes from the kennels,” Martin said. “Those drains were designed to carry the excess water swept toward the center after the animal runs were hosed down. They (the drains) are not inoperable, you just have to understand the way they were intended to work.”
Martin said he designed the animal shelter in accordance with the specifications “dictated to me 14 years ago. People today are not taking that into consideration.” All work, he said, was approved by city inspectors.
Buckley said the city engineer’s research found the floor was designed to slope upward toward the center where the drains are located. To determine whether the present slope is more or less than it was when the shelter was built, Buckley said, would be pure speculation at this point.”
Ward IV Councilor Jim Ritchey said he has investigated the problems at the animal shelter since they became apparent a few months ago.
“I believe the problems we’re seeing out there today are the result of something that could not have been foreseen at the time the animal shelter was being built,” Ritchey said. “Martin and Richter both know what they’re doing, and I don’t think either one of them would cut corners on a project like this.”
Ritchey said there is an inordinate amount of water that has been pumped from beneath the animal shelter on more than one occasion during the past few weeks. That, he said, may have contributed to the problems being dealt with today. But the source of that water, Ritchey said, remains unclear.
City Manager Greg Buckley said of the $142,750 approved expenditures for the animal shelter project, about 3 percent will be directed toward repairs related to problems with the original construction. Another 5 percent will be spent on remedial measures to avoid future problems of a similar nature. The balance, Buckley said, will be spent on new construction.
Richter, who declined to talk further about the situation, told city officials earlier the new animal runs that will be built adjacent to an exterior wall will serve to buttress, or reinforce, the wall he told city councilors was two inches out of plumb. Richter blamed excess water and the presence of “fat clay” beneath the structure for the tilting of the exterior wall.
Buckley said the city has decided to address the problems with remediation instead of trying to assess fault, for which there is no recourse after 10 years of the building’s completion.
“There is no value in determining that,” Buckley said. “We are addressing it by finding ways to remove the excess water from beneath the original structure and the new structure and away from the shelter.”
