This is the U.S. Courthouse in Austin, Texas, designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, a husband-and-wife firm based in Atlanta. Maybe you like it—maybe you hate it.
The White House proposal to ban modernist federal buildings mentions it by name. bit.ly/2vVfZcr
The White House proposal to ban modernist federal buildings mentions it by name. bit.ly/2vVfZcr
The White House executive order would require new courthouses to be classical designs. Example of a classical courthouse. Kind of small but it's fine.
I spoke with Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam about their Austin courthouse. It would be impossible to replicate a classical Supreme Court–style project there. Impossible. The parcel is far too small. bit.ly/2vVfZcr
(I miss Austin 💗)
Lawyers and judges appreciate daylight when they work (believe it or not). So Mack and Merrill designed the courthouse as a cube framed by slotted windows. The courtrooms are double height, so they're located on alternate corners of the building. It's kind of a puzzle.
Modern security needs have totally changed how courthouses work. Today's courthouses require different systems for egress for the public, for judges and staff, and for prisoners and marshals. So Scogin and Elam designed a cube with two separate cores for circulation.
Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam toured courthouses with Andrew Austin, the U.S. Magistrate Judge in Austin, and other staffers to talk about how courthouses work when they designed the building. The process helped the architects design a courthouse tailored to the docket in Austin.
The courthouse exterior is made with Leuders limestone, a stone quarried locally in Texas that you find everywhere in Austin once you know what to look for. For this building, the architects used the smooth quarried side instead of the rough limestone face for the facade—clever.
The Trump administration's proposal to ban modernist federal buildings says that this courthouse has "little aesthetic appeal." bit.ly/2vVfZcr
Here’s a longer story on the Austin courthouse for folks who are really feeling it. architecturalrecord.com/articles/7943-…
