Sticker shock shot through the City Council last week when Mayor Paul Schell's staff stuck a $224 million price on the combined construction and renovation of the three-block Civic Center.

Paying for the complex -- building a City Hall and Justice Center, renovating Key Tower and the Arctic Building, buying a parking garage, landscaping the public plaza -- could suck up to $14 million out of the annual city budget.

And that led City Councilman Nick Licata to demand the buildings be pared in size. The desire to reverse Seattle's sorry public architectural heritage, Licata said, must be balanced against fiscal reality.

"Seattle got to be a great city even though we had a mediocre City Hall," he said in an interview. "Did it really cripple our future?"

Keeping up the debt payments could become an "albatross" for the city if tax revenues start dipping, Licata added.

But budget analysts have convinced most of Licata's colleagues that keeping the current crop of aging buildings wouldn't let the city off the financial hook: They would cost

$3 million more each year to heat and operate than new ones would.

"Yeah, it's going to be expensive, but what are our choices?" Councilwoman Martha Choe said.

Council members haven't ruled out trimming space from the City Hall's reception areas and public-service counters. The proposed $12 million outdoor plaza could also be pruned back.

But Choe said it would be a mistake to cut corners so the new buildings turn into future civic embarrassments.

When Choe tells strangers she works in "the ugly blue building," they instantly know she means Seattle's Municipal Building at Fourth and Cherry.

"There aren't many opportunities in a city's life," Choe said, "(when) you're given the opportunity to think about a new center for a city."

Downtown Seattle's 1980s skyscraper boom left its own bold imprint, and most of the towers were designed by large Northwest firms.

The Seattle Art Museum reversed the local bias when it pulled post

modern star Robert Venturi to town, but the museum's construction and interior flaws were later cited as reasons for sticking close to home.

"You don't necessarily get anything better than you can get at home," said architect Dennis Forsyth, whose Seattle-based NBBJ firm is designing both the federal and city courthouses.

Only during the 1990s has the University of Washington gotten into the habit of hiring East Coast talents such as Charles Gwathmey, Cesar Pelli, Edward Larrabee Barnes and Peter Bohlin.

Now downtown Seattle is in the world's gaze. Among the notable international firms rejected for the library's short list last month were those of Richard Meier (Getty Museum), Michael Graves (Denver Library) and Moshe Safdie (Vancouver, B.C., Library).

Some of the library rejects dusted themselves off to try for the upcoming City Hall.

Yet the 10-member City Hall architect advisory committee could find itself torn. Schell has long spoken of preferring a local architect. Councilman Peter Steinbrueck, on the other hand, insisted everybody be considered.

Steinbrueck won at least the first round. Submissions came from 25 firms, many well-known internationally.

Vivian Phillips, Schell's press secretary and a committee member, said the mayor will base his final decision on talent, not origins.

"You can even be from somewhere else," Phillips said, "and yet have a greater appreciation for what we represent in the Northwest than someone who lives here."

Instead of grilling five finalists for the Central Library job, the library's selection committee will talk this week to just three.

That's because two finalists abruptly pulled out last week: Cesar Pelli & Associates of New Haven, Conn., and Foster and Partners of London.

Pelli said Seattle's selection process was more than he bargained for.

"We just kept understanding more things about it," Pelli said in an interview from New Haven. "We love Seattle and we'd love to be able to do a building there, so it was very difficult for us to decide."

Pelli said he knew Seattle planned a three-day selection program but didn't realize that meant all finalists would have to stay the entire time. For Pelli, that added up to a full week away from his other clients, with no assurance of getting the job.

Pelli also found out after submitting the application that he and the others would have to do a "pop quiz" -- a design assignment -- to be given today and turned in Wednesday.

Sir Norman Foster, who last month won architecture's coveted Pritzger Prize, was more vague about his reason for withdrawing from the Seattle competition, saying through a spokeswoman it was because of "current workload and commitments on other projects worldwide."

City librarian Deborah Jacobs said the pullout reflected no flaw in the selection process, just a thriving global economy that enables popular architects to pick and choose. She said the three remaining finalists are exceptionally strong

They'll present their works at a public forum beginning at 10 a.m. today at Benaroya Hall, followed by a 7 p.m. public reception at the Dome Room, 700 Third Ave. The Library Board is to make its choice May 18.

The finalists are:

Whoever gets chosen for the job will help create the "realness" of downtown Seattle's cityscape as it changes in the next three years.

P-I reporter Steven Goldsmith can be reached at 206-448-8029 or stevengoldsmith@seattle-pi.com