The Architecture of Justice: 6 Supreme Courthouses

From Eero Saarinen’s U.S. Embassy in London to Boston’s brutalist city hall, civic projects frequently make for iconic architecture. Courthouses, not usually elevated to such heights, may be moving from background fodder on Law & Order reruns to greater design prominence.

The AIA recently gifted an 2015 Honor Award to the United States Courthouse, Salt Lake City, Utah, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners and architects-of-record Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects. The court’s monumental cubic form is clad in anodized aluminum elements, all carefully modulated in size to provide shading or sunlight when necessary. However, courthouse architecture doesn’t come without constraints. In the Salt Lake City design, the entrance is located on the building’s southwest corner to anchor itself to pedestrian traffic and thereby respond to urban context. The fluted aluminum elements also respond to context by referencing the classical columns of a historic courthouse nearby. In terms of safety, the garden terrace is actually a secure zone that links to an adjacent judicial facility. Light, with all its symbolic connotations of truth and goodness, radiates off the building’s reflective aluminum, but this symbolism and other architectural moves are tempered by concern for urban context and security.

With that in mind, these six projects negotiate the challenges of courthouse design but reap the architectural rewards for doing so.

Frederiksberg Courthouse by 3XN

This design made sustainability a priority. A top-lit atrium admits sunlight and allows for natural ventilation while fostering the efficient circulation of employees and visitors. The building’s dramatic 45° slant is a symbolic and literal expression of architectural deference towards an smaller adjacent historic courthouse. Along similar lines, the architects selected brick as a nod to the masonry construction of surrounding buildings as well as means to project solidity.

Law Courts Complex by Sosa + González + Santiago. Photos by Roland Halbe.

Not all courthouses need to adapt to historic surroundings. This massive complex is located in San Cristobal, a neighborhood planned in the modernist style of the 1960s. A fully glazed first floor and a large cantilever over the entrance are meant to welcome visitors and open up to the city. That being said, the architects also strove for an “austere” appearance that would appropriately symbolize the idea of justice.

John M. Roll United States Courthouse by Ehrlich Architects

Climate plays a central role in updating the classical architecture in this Arizona federal courthouse. Weathering steel and and photovoltaic cells form a monumental portico, guiding visitors into a glass entrance flanked by massive sandstone-clad walls. Other exterior walls on the east and west elevations sport weathering steel trellises that will eventually support shading vines. The 60,000-square-foot facility was built to handle the increased immigration cases caused by illegal border crossings.

United Kingdom Supreme Court by Feilden+Mawson LLP

In some cases, historical architecture is unavoidable, but that’s by no means a bad thing. Located in London’s Parliament Square, these facilities house the newly-created Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. They were previously the Middlesex Guildhall, designed 1912–14 in a Gothic Revival style. The renovation also meant the conversion of rooms to fit their new functions, such as courtrooms, a library, private chambers, and a café.

Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law by Architectus

Don’t let the royal name fool you: This is by no means a historical interpretation of a courthouse. Transparency was the architect’s goal here, not only in terms of lighting and sustainability, but also the legibility and illumination of a legal system. With no fewer than 39 courtrooms, this almost 690,000-square-foot structure features extensive gardens and courtyards that create public space for downtown Brisbane.

Renfrew County Courthouse Renovation and Additionby NORR limited

Sometimes the architecture of the old contributes to the new in very unexpected ways. The original 1860s courthouse required an expansion and renovation, including a new main entrance that could adequately address security and screening requirements. While many rooms in the historic building have kept their function, others have been completely repurposed: a facade became a decorative wall of a lawyers’ lounge and some prison cells became interview rooms. While the addition is wholly contemporary, the past is frequently present, as when old jail walls appear as rugged surfaces in an otherwise modern courtroom.