By the time the first stone fell from the Nueces County Courthouse, its inhabitants were fully aware that the next rainfall would bring another leaky office and a fresh cradle for the creeping mold. The Corpus Christi moisture and sea air blowing in off the Gulf of Mexico had pushed through the building’s travertine facade and eaten away at the concrete substrate underneath, rotting the 12-story tower from the outside in. But as the 1- x 2-inch stone tile sloughed from the building’s decaying skin and cracked a triple-pane window on its way down, the danger to the public became inescapable.