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and getting it 100-percent right.
Given the complexities of the site,
it was no surprise to him that initial
budget estimates of $15 million grew
by almost 50 percent as the project
neared completion. “I kept telling the
Council,” says Ladenburg, “that 100
years from now, no one will look back
and wish that Ladenburg hadn’t spent
an extra $10 million.”
The design team of Robert Trent
Jones II won the contract for the golf
course in a highly competitive process
involving top-notch firms. Municipal
bids are always a complex matter.
Smart government officials have
learned that fee is only one factor, and
that if contracts are allocated solely on
the basis of lowest bidder, government
agencies will end up getting what they
pay for (or not).
What ultimately swayed Ladenburg
and Pierce County officials towards
Jones was a combination of
factors: the firm’s experience with
environmentally challenging sites; its
extensive work with municipalities;
the scope of the firm’s ‘all-in’
commitment to the project; and a
certain intangible sensibility about
knowing what it would take to get the
project on the USGA’s radar screen for
serious consideration as a major site.
All of this was affirmed at the final
interview, when the Jones team gave
the County slightly more than it asked
for. Not only did they present, as
required, a plan for 27-holes. They also
went beyond the remit to showcase
an 18-hole plan, one that avoided the
inevitable compression of parallel holes
that would have been required to fit all
of the originally intended golf into the
300-acre north parcel of the property
dedicated to the course.
That sealed the deal, and the Jones
team was off and running in what
Charlton calls “the biggest sand box
any of us had ever gotten to work
on.” What followed was a frenetic
six months of detailed drawings,
site visits, revisions, refinement and
bid documents. Charlton, who has
been at Jones’ side for 34 years,
acknowledges that “municipal jobs
are generally demanding in terms
of paperwork, but that this one was
in the top two or three we’ve ever
done.” He describes sheet after sheet
of two-foot by three-foot drawings
and plans, together creating a roll
eight-inches in diameter.
Only a handful of the holes first
shown on the 18-hole alternative
master plan survived the arduous
review process. The clubhouse was
moved to the southeast, the range
moved out of a central core setting
into a low, open area to the east,
and room had to be found for a
continuous three-mile walking trail
that would weave through the golf
course without interfering with play—
or for that matter, be visible to golfers.
Holding ponds, initially intended
for the course, were dispensed with
thanks to improved wastewater
treatment technologies developed for
Original green sketches for Chambers Bay