Archinect - News

TenBerke selected for Philadelphia Family Court Building adaptive reuse scheme

2023-09-08T18:06:00-04:00

TenBerke has been announced as one of several team members on a major new commission that will deliver a new home for The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) from the city’s former Family Court Building at an important nexus in its expanding cultural precinct.

Located near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, the Rodin Museum, the courthouse building was originally built in 1941. The design from TenBerke will recreate the structure as a 200-room hotel with help from Beyer Blinder Belle, Studio & Projects, and Hood Design Studio. A team including Hood, Morris Adjmi Architects, and Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects will join them in delivering the AAMP’s new facilities at 1901 Wood Street. An expansion of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central branch is a component of the scheme as well.

Rendering courtesy of National/Frontier

The PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation, will manage the ...

‘The limits of what architecture can do’: Critic Alex Bozikovic looks for evidence at Renzo Piano's new Ontario Court of Justice

2023-07-28T15:20:00-04:00

Yet the courthouse reveals the limits of what architecture can do. Its spatial clarity and sedulous details don’t resolve some issues with where it is placed. This is a spectacular execution of a flawed recipe. [...] Then there is a larger question: Is a centralized courthouse a good idea in the first place?

The Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic reviews the massive new RPBW and NORR-designed Ontario Court of Justice project, calling it characteristically calm, natural, and “friendlier” than other contemporary North American courthouse designs owing to a well-articulated “European attitude to justice.”

The new Ontario Court of Justice at the center of the photograph. Image courtesy RPBW

Its site opposite Toronto’s spectacular City Hall from 1965 is the largest foil to Piano’s first Canadian design, he argues. The project was completed in March and offers a consolidation of six smaller facilities that expands access to court services, proponents maintain over the protests of attorney associations like the Society of United Professionals. Here it becomes obvious, Bozicovic reminds us, that "design can’t fix everything."

Snøhetta's design for a new French asylum court seeks to offer ‘a place of calm during a time of intense turmoil’

2023-02-17T11:52:00-05:00

Snøhetta has been chosen to design a new National Court of Asylum and Administrative Court in Montreuil, France. The proposed scheme sees the two courts arranged on one site around large green areas, offering what the team calls “a place of calm during what can be a time of intense turmoil.”

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

The court will function as a place where judges hear the cases of individuals who appeal against decisions made by the wing of the French government overseeing refugees and asylum seekers. Hearing thousands of annual cases of people from over 160 countries, the court is considered the final jurisdiction for deciding the future of asylum seekers in France, overseeing residence permit disputes, refusals, and orders to leave the country.

Image credit: Aesthetica.Studio for Snøhetta

Recognizing the positive impact of natural environments on mental and physical health, the scheme seeks to use the natural landscape as an extension of the court, including a 75...

Los Angeles to convert vacant courthouse into affordable housing

2022-10-27T13:16:00-04:00

A long-closed Los Angeles County courthouse in Sawtelle that was once a popular draw for skateboarders may soon be redeveloped for affordable housing. The County Board of Supervisors voted to buy the former West Los Angeles Courthouse at 1633 Purdue Avenue for a mixed-use, affordable housing development, City News Service reported via KFI AM 640.

As detailed by The Real Deal, a motion to buy the courthouse, which has been vacant since June 2013, was proposed, asking Los Angeles County to source funds to acquire the space from the Judicial Council. The County has reportedly, so far, paid more than $3.5 million to the Council to incentivize development.

Doubling as a popular skate venue since the 1990s, the courthouse site became a legal location for skating following its 2013 closure, in which it’s been dubbed the West LA Courthouse Skate Plaza. Los Angeles County has chosen Arlington, Virginia-based West LA Commons as the prospective developer. The current terms of the project call for the developer to pay the County $32.3 million. The County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss the project again on November 15th, when the public will have the opportunity to comment on the project.

No more broken windows: Rafael Viñoly’s faulty courthouse building is getting worse by the day

2022-02-22T18:00:00-05:00

When it opened in 2008, the loftily named Bronx Hall of Justice was billed as the crown jewel of New York’s court system — the biggest courthouse in the state, sheathed in glass and housing enough courtrooms to handle dozens of criminal and civil cases each day. All these years later, the verdict is that it’s more like a broken-down jalopy.

Numerous problems including flooding, failed fire alarms, shattered glass windows that appear out of nowhere, and floor collapses stemming from a built-over underground stream have befallen the Rafael Viñoly-designed Bronx Hall of Justice for more than a decade. The courthouse building has still not been granted its official certificate of occupancy by the city’s Department of Buildings, although an official with the agency did make it clear the building was safe and that the process will be completed as soon as five “mostly minor” code violations are addressed.

Until then, the DOB has to continue issuing 90-day temporary certificates, the most recent of which expired on New Year’s Eve. The only thing holding up this end of things is a dispute between the federal Office of Court Administration (OCA), which keeps an office in the building, and the city, on whom the OCA claims the sole responsibility for repairs falls.

“Our history with this building goes back to its opening. While i...

SOM is moving forward with its federal courthouse design in Ft. Lauderdale

2022-02-05T12:53:00-05:00

The latest high-profile architectural addition to the Fort Lauderdale skyline is moving forward this week as the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has announced its approval of SOM's design concept for a new 252,000-square-foot federal courthouse.

The development will target LEED Gold and SITES Silver certifications in a scheme that combines classical influence with state-of-the-art technology.

The ten-story building will serve as home to the federal district court district and a slate of other government agencies that include the U.S. Marshals Service. A focal point of the development is the inclusion and elevation of well-programmed public space, which is represented in the form of a new riverfront trail that will help preserve the Tarpon River adjacent mangrove.

“We wanted to create a building that opens outward to the city,” SOM’s Joseph Ruocco said. “To that end, we composed the courthouse as a symmetrical tower rising above a one-story podium, which lends the b...

Finegold Alexander Architects creates an energy efficient courthouse in Massachusetts

2020-05-26T14:20:00-04:00

The new 265,000 square-foot Lowell Justice Center courthouse in Massachusetts designed by Finegold Alexander Architects has opened to the public.

The $146 million facility houses Superior, District, Housing, Juvenile, Probate, and Family Court facilities, including 17 courtrooms that service those uses. Additionally, the glass-wrapped structure contains offices for court staff, a Court Service Center, a Law Library, a Registry of Deeds facility, offices of the District Attorney, and a Grand Jury Room.

The complex is grounded by a two-story, all glass atrium wrapped in artwork displays created by UK artist Martin Donlin that evoke bygone local industries and stylistic motifs symbolizing the ideals of justice in multiple languages.

According to the architects, major design considerations for the project include bringing Universal Design features to the sloped site, infusing courtrooms, hallways, and lobbies with an "abundance of natural light," as well as views to the outdoors.

A st...

Take a VR tour of the new L.A. Federal Courthouse, an “unusually polished work of civic architecture”

2016-10-25T20:01:00-04:00

The $350-million, 633,000-square-foot courthouse, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is an unusually polished work of civic architecture — especially by the standards of Los Angeles...This is a building that wants to look respectable and rational but not staid, one that is fairly conventional on the horizontal plane and takes a significant if measured chance on the vertical one. Still, it’s a chance that pays off.

Christopher Hawthorne gives a thumbs up in his review of SOM's design for the now-completed Los Angeles U.S. Courthouse, which appears to “float” in mid-air. Don't forget to check out a virtual tour of the building in the video below.

Previously on Archinect:

LA Federal Courthouse under construction

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to Design Federal Courthouse

J. MAYER H. completes Court of Justice Hasselt

2013-09-12T16:55:00-04:00

Jürgen Mayer H.'s latest creation is about to officially swing its doors open to the public tomorrow, September 13th: the new Court of Justice building in Hasselt, Belgium was designed by a team comprising Berlin-based J. MAYER H. Architects and local firms a2o-architecten and Lensºass architecten.

The building's exterior skin already celebrated its completion in 2011, and the interior was completed in spring of 2013.

Project Description from J. MAYER H. Architects:

The new court of justice is an open, transparent building with direct public access, combining the Court of Justice with a university library and auditoriums for the faculty of law. In keeping with the building's logistical requirements and safety provisions, the structure is divided into three separate units: courtrooms, the library for students and an office tower with a 64-meters-high panorama restaurant on top from which offers a panoramic view of the city of Hasselt and its surroundings.

Based on a mast...

McCarthy /Brooks + Scarpa/HMC Architects Unveils Team’s Vision for the New United States Courthouse, Los Angeles

2012-12-14T19:15:00-05:00

McCarthy/Brooks + Scarpa /HMC Architects have released their proposal for the Design Excellence/design-build competition for new United States courthouse in Los Angeles. The contractor lead design/build team was selected to compete thru the General Services Administration two-stage Design Excellence Program. The approximately 550,000 sq. ft. high-rise building located at 1st and Hill Street is designed to accommodate a future 175,000 sq. ft. federal office building. The proposed 320 foot tall structure will be certified LEED Platinum and will save nearly 2 million gallons of water per year. 

 Design Concept:
 Inspired by the interweaving of a grand natural arch embedded with a memory of the scales of Lady Justice who represents the allegorical personification of the moral force of our judicial systems, the proposed design symbolizes the strength, dignity and balanced fairness of the Federal Court. As the visitor approaches they will discover that the acanthus leaf pattern o...

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to Design Federal Courthouse

2012-12-12T15:21:00-05:00

Federal officials this morning announced that Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Architects has won the contract to build a $400 million Downtown courthouse. “Today, the new federal courthouse is that much closer to becoming a reality for downtown Los Angeles,” said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard in a prepared statement. The selection, she said, “means we are moving toward the groundbreaking of a critically needed facility that will resolve long-standing security and space issues.”

New Singapore Courts Complex by Serie and Multiply

2012-06-21T21:26:00-04:00

The Singapore Subordinate Courts have announced the winning design for a new courts complex after an open competition process that started in September last year. The design, by London-based Serie Architects in collaboration with local Singaporean firm Multiply Architects, includes two new towers and the renovation of the existing Octagon courts building. Serie and Multiply will work with CPG Consultants Pte Ltd to implement the design.

‘Against Symmetry’ - Brussels Courthouse Redesign by Europe Studio Architects

2011-05-20T19:16:26-04:00

The interplay between the new system and the courthouse spaces emphasizes the spaces volume and captures the spontaneity of a new architectural presence. The courtyards will be covered and will programmatically serve as contemporary exhibition spaces.