Buildings
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects Designing New Austin Courthouse
(archrecord.construction.com - 05/03/2006)
By Ingrid
Spencer
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| Image courtesy Mack
Scogin Merrill Elam Architects |
"Unusually extroverted" was
what magistrates asked Atlanta-based architecture firm Mack
Scogin Merrill Elam to deliver for the design of a $63 million
federal courthouse in Austin, Texas. The recently unveiled
plans reveal a building that will seek to achieve LEED Silver
certification and will comprise seven stories and 211,690
square feet. It will have a special proceedings courtroom,
four district courtrooms, three magistrate courtrooms, jury
assembly facilities and facilities for other court departments.
Located on a prominent block of downtown
Austin now dominated by the skeleton of a building abandoned
in mid-construction in 2001, the 135-foot-tall courthouse
will respond to all four sides of its site. Its pedestrian
mall to the east will feed into an existing park and take
advantage of views of the state capitol, Town Lake, and the
surrounding hill country. “The real driving force of
the design was the judges’ desire for this to be a very
open building,” says architect Merrill Elam. “Every
courtroom, every jury deliberation room, every office needed
to have a window and views.”
Set back 50 feet from the street as
required for security reasons, the current iteration of the
design calls for vertical ribbons of translucent glass on
all sides of the geometric building, with two-story lobby
windows shaded by deep recesses on the northeast corner. Construction
is slated to begin in 2008 contingent on federal funding.
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