New Downtown Federal Courthouse Design Doesn't Grab Judges

ORLANDO-All this city’s federal court judges want is a new courthouse building that looks like a traditional courthouse, they are telling the U.S. General Services Administration which oversees 100 million sf of office space for a mix of agencies.

GSA Commissioner Robert Peck promises to review the building’s architectural plans well ahead of the project’s scheduled ground-breaking in 2002. Completion is targeted for 2005. A team of national architects designed the structure. Drawings were approved by the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The judges say the planned four-story, 308,000 sf, $60 million building looks too boxy and too artsy. The structure’s location, 240 feet from busy Interstate 4 which runs through the center of Downtown, will make the courtrooms too noisy to hear testimony and evidence, the judges maintain.

The judges have allies for their position. Mayor Glenda Hood, state Sen. Buddy Dyer, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown and city council member Daisy Lynum agree with the judges.

The new courthouse is planned near the existing four-story, 150,000 sf George C. Young Federal Building, often called Fort Young for its fortress-like appearance.

About 100 new courthouses are being planned for the next five years throughout the various federal court districts.