Builings
Holl to Design Denver's New Courthouse
(archrecord.construction.com - 01/17/06)
By Cynthia
Kemper
Steven Holl Architects, in collaboration
with Denver-based firm klipp Architecture, has been selected
as design lead for a new district courthouse in Denver. The
project will be the centerpiece of the city’s downtown
Justice Center, which will also include a new post office,
a new detention center, and a renovated county jail.
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Holl was chosen for the $99 million,
335,000 square-foot courthouse from a shortlist of firms that
included Robert A.M. Stern, Foster and Partners, and Richard
Meier & Partners. James Mejia, project manager for the
justice center notes, “We selected a designer, not a
design. Our decision weighed heavily on past body of work
and understanding of the context.” Designs are expected
by April. Steven Holl Architects says it wants the project
to emphasize Denver's proximity to the Rocky Mountains, and
to build on the city’s architectural heritage dating
back to the City Beautiful movement nearly a century ago.
The adjacent 430,000-square-foot, $114 million detention facility
will be designed by Washington D.C.-based Hartman-Cox Architects.
The courthouse project is expected to
break ground in the spring of 2007. The Justice Center will
be located in the corner of Denver's Civic Center, a complex
of government and cultural institutions that surround a large
public park on the western edge of.
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