w/ my finger.

nice...

shiny...

Wow! They were still pouring concrete when I was living there, and I had no idea what was being built.

Look like renderings. Success!

is former GSA chief architect Ed Feiner responsible for this project? he will be sorely missed, considering classicist Thomas Gordon Smith will be taking his place...

I heart Tom Mayne.

shiny & very mediocre

AP = yes.

An unfortunate site, isolated from the city by a busy road. As a result it is very uncivic/unurban. I'd guess that either the city or whoever represented the gov'ment laid a heavy hand on this project.

shrugs

where's the perf?

architects must have the mind of 3 month olds. somehow shapes and shiny objects get most of our admiration and attention. mayne said 'change or perish' at the aia national convention whe talking about these projects, implying tha you cannot work unless you are BIMming and shaping. if shiny and shapey is as good as it gets, i would rather perish. i remember a review that kwinter was at. the entire time he had his head buried in his hands, leaning over towards his lap. at the end of the review, somone asked him to say something, he asked 'why is your project so boring?' that is what i think of when i see this work. a tremendous effort, but for what?

appleseed...i'm curious...did your heart beat faster when you saw this building? did it feel monstrous? did it feel like the law is looming over you and has the ability to remove your freedom?

mauone_ mediocre? do you realize what the budgets are for government buildings? this isn't a gehry or zaha budget, it's a us government budget.

for my money (literally), it's great for not only a gov project, but a COURTHOUSE. if 50% of our federal projects were designed even at 50% of the intelligence put into this building we would be 500% better off for it.

kudos Mayne.

Courthouses generally make my heart beat faster ;)

I grew up in Eugene, and it is nice to finally have something atypical. Even if it is a courthouse. I agree with brewster. TBH tho, I thought this is a pretty restrained piece; a 'nicer, softer' Morphosis. The people of Eugene aren't ready for a CalTrans.

looks really out of place across from house of pancakes or something, across the street on picture #2.
it seems a little too big of a courthouse for a population 150,000 of eugene.

city motto:
"we'll sue you in eugene"

from the renders i saw in a journal last year it looked like the sweeps (for want of a better word) of the facade were drawing people in from a public square, which i thought was an interestingly different approach to the usual monumantal eddifice to justice vibe that most courthouses give off, implying perhaps a greater public involvement in the process.

i'm wondering if that still happens (perhaps we cant see from those pictures) behind the glass plinth, or if that got canned somewhere along the way?

but other that that...shiny....

it's amazing how quickly it's gone in the last 6 months or so...we went there twice during construction for the UofO structures/enclosures sequence, and it's great to see it with its clothes finally on.
as for the strange placement, surrounded by roads in isolation, it was placed there because it's trying to connect the main blvd of traffic florw to the campus and to the next town over with the more secluded downtown, which is cut-through by the offramp to franklin blvd. The idea was to build this on the opposite side from downtown, and really use the river frontage in the back to connect to the rest of the city via pedestrian pathways and greenspace out back. if that's well done, I think it will be a great use of the dead space beneath an overpass!

as to the context of pancake houses, crack houses and mechanics garages, this part of eaugene needs a LOT of help for being so central; the courthouse is the instigator for a lot of change (good or bad). i.e. the IHOP that you see out the window is now being replaced by a whole foods and parking garage for the area, and most of the other light industrial tennants and crack houses should be razed for related functions.
i'm a little displeased with how bland the project turned out, compared to caltrans, etc but i'm just happy we got anything.

one major concern are these inaccesible sky gardens/reflecting ponds on the roof of the glass plinth, that are supposed to be for judges/officials to frolic outdoors, but I know that the eugene climate is not going to be nice to these non-public outdoor places, to which most of the views from the top floors are oriented.

thanks for posting the pics

Damn... I enjoyed eating at that IHOP. I think it was the only 24-hour pancake house in town.

Aside from all the other IHOPs.....

And ain't nothing in that area 'crack houses'.

I actually enjoy the 'dead space' under teh overpass. TBH I did have a hell of a time walking from the courthouse back to 5th St. via Franklin. Ever since I saw prelims back in 2001, I thought it was gonna be weak. I hope to god they never put in a light at 8th.

"is former GSA chief architect Ed Feiner responsible for this project? he will be sorely missed, considering classicist Thomas Gordon Smith will be taking his place..."

As an architect working for the US General Services Administration (GSA) I can assure you that Mr. Feiner was very much responsible for this ugly mess and waste of my tax dollars. Structures like these only glorify the one who designed it- not the people who will use it or live around it. Also, as an architect I feel sorry for the real true architects “the master builders” who are the ones that do the detailing to put these fiascoes together because it will leak not only water but most everything else. The main Eugene newspaper has asked readers to comment on it and most comments were negative. And the majority of architects here at GSA are glad to have the classicist Thomas Gordon Smith among us.

Thanks for posting the images!

does governmentmule = mr smith?

'cause mr smith may be among the few architects that thinks is appointment is a good thing.

Well, crap. I get this weird email newsletter every week from Construction News Online or something, and a couple of weeks ago they had an article on the partnership and planning that went into this building. I read it, it was fairly interesting, and then of course, I discarded the email. Can't find it online now....

In any case, it told the story of how Mayne's typical style was really reigned in by the head judge of this particular district court, who really wanted something classical. Both of them, in multiple meetings, came to understand the other's point of view, and what could have been a very contentious relationship ended up being productive and helpful, and resulted in this building, which Mayne is very proud of.

That being said, I have a hard time thinking that any building that is this attractive and has so many sustainable elements to it is either "mediocre" or a "waste of tax dollars". I am actually MORE inclined to think than anyone who works for the government who is stuck in some mind-set of promoting neo-classicism in the 21st century is more of a waste of our tax dollars than the building is. Progressive design deserves to be given a chance before it is shrugged off as "unusable to people who work or live in or around it" or "because it will leak".....especially if it hasn't opened yet.

is this the same organization responsible for allowing that mess of a Native American museum in DC?

as a repost from TC-

His head is stuck in the sand- I've seen too many doric columns stuck into leaky rotundas to equate classicism with well built or water resistant architecture... the roof geometries of palladio or even jefferson have many, many more conditions where potential water infiltration can develop... Mr. Mule shouldn't blame modern architecture or starchitects for designing buildings that leak, but the lack of GSA budgets to build correctly.

hey isn't he wasting out tax dollars for posting to archinect from the office????????

I'll second wK's thoughts about the design excellence program and the value of 'progressive' architecture. Who said that conservative idiots get to determine what is 'good' design?

So where did mr. mule go to school? ND? are these architecture programs worth having around still? the beaux arts is long dead, neo-classicism is a zombie that lurches around every few years... building preservation is where that academic effort should be focused, not on building new buildings that look old (but are new on the inside).

makes me want to puke...

I think it's pretty.

i've worked with the GSA many times before. the reason they complain so much about 'modern' architecture is because they actually have to do real work on these projects. typically crappy government projects are very safe just not in their design, but also their construction. so it is very easy to not do any real work on a project your on for 2-3 years, because you know everything is going to work. it's standard. nothing to worry about.

when you start doing atypical architecture, the GSA boys and girls actually have to make a cerebral connection between the right and left sides of their brains(or not), which they are hesitant to do. and it is like pulling teeth to try to bring them along with the design process.

feiner was great at pushing his own staff to learn this. that is why they are all relieved he is gone. 'whew! now we can get back to being lazy.'

governmentmule is typical of this.

beta, the Native American museum is Smithsonian property, and thus not subject to GSA guidance. (Though having worked there, I'd have trouble saying that the Smithsonian construction division isn't as much of a bureaucracy as the GSA.) The Smithsonian defered significantly to native american groups in the design of that museum. So basically, yeah, it was designed by committee . . . It probably doesn't help that they fired Cardinal half way through and had Polshek finish it.

thanks archtopus for the info.

heres a link to more images of this building that some fellow archinectors like so much

http://www.architectureweek.com/today.html

:o)

I like it a lot. I remember looking out from Lawrence during construction whilst waiting for the elevator.

I also like being questioned by federal agents as to why I was taking picutres.


Here is a snippet of the conversation:

"So you're an architect?

Yeah, I graduated last year and I'm back visiting friends. I remember watching construction, and I'm excited to see it finished. I like it.

Well this is a federal building, so you understand our concern?

Yeah, but I have way more pictures from field trip we took during construction. I'd think those would be more valuble

Do you generally walk around taking pictures of buildings?

Yes. It's what architects do.

Well, I think it's bizarre people go places and only take pictures of buildings. Some of them are pretty ugly too.

We take pictures of things that interest us. Besides, you guys take pictures of criminals.

I need to see some ID..."


Apparently we disagreed about how funny I can be

I'm actually kind of convinced they used FLW's Johnson Wax as a starting point for this building, in terms of massing and urban context...

THEaquino's story reminds me of an episode i had with some soviet soldiers in east germany in '90. they didn't understand why i wanted photographs of their training facility (which just happened to be in heinrich tessenow's fantastic school for rhythmic dance). thought i had pushed too far, but then they let me go as long as i promised not to take pictures. in the end i only took a few. my favorite one is slightly blurry and crooked, taken from the streetcar as i went back by on the way back to dresden.

seems old fashioned