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The Columbus Dispatch wrote
Third courthouse might have charm
County officials want a distinctive complex
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 10:09 AM
By Debbie Gebolys
A new Franklin County courthouse should look like a courthouse, planners and officials say. In Columbus, the puzzle of buildings surrounding Mound and High streets has none of that street presence. The buildings look more like office towers than the county’s administrative center.
But Franklin County will join its Ohio brethren with a $111 million courthouse complex. Construction might not be complete until 2010, but when it is, the county will have its own courthouse square at Mound and High, and a courthouse that will be easily identifiable.
Perhaps most identifiable will be a new courthouse square, on three of the four corners Main and High streets. Equal stretches of landscaped open spaces are to face one another on the northwest, southwest and southeast corners.
Comments
- Rmoiii: Where are the photo's of the current construction going on in the short nor
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
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Third Courthouse Might Have Charm
By: Walker
Related Posts:
Cincinnati went wild with skywalks in the early 80′s I think, for all the positives they were reputed to have at the time. They sapped the life from the street, and fairly shortly turned into pretty unsavory places.
They postively killed old-line retail, while spawning a whole tier of cheap sandwich shops, pager stores and the like on the second floor level.
The city dragged its feet way too long tearing those down.
Regarding the Hampton Inn, I would have no problems whatsoever; in fact, I believe there’s already a skywalk connecting the Lofts Hotel with the Convention Center.
I don’t think underground tunnels would be practical for the Short North, and of course underground retail would be much more expensive to build (think major metro subway systems). In addition, second-floor skywalks make less sense when all you have on the second floor is residential and almost no buildings rise higher than three stories, which is the case through much of the Short North. Aesthetically, too, I just think they look more appropriate connecting towers than low-rises. I would support linking basically all the Capitol Square towers through skywalks; many of them are already connected. Connecting Paul Robinette’s candle shop with the Coffee Table obviously doesn’t mesh quite as well. Some Lego sets just don’t mix.
I don’t know about crime statistics for skywalks, but I imagine they’re much safer than the streets. I could be wrong but I’d want to see hard data to the contrary.
I think youre emphasis is on keeping dry, while my emphasis is on making the streets vibrant and full of activity.
Skywalks – Practical…yes. Good for building a vibrant city…no.
Strip malls – Pracitcal…yes (many stores clustered in one spot sharing parking). Good for building a vibrant city…no.
No but they sure can be total dicks when they are around.
depends if you are they one calling or the reason that they were called. I’ve been in both situations.
No but they sure can be total dicks when they are around.
depends if you are they one calling or the reason that they were called. I’ve been in both situations.
Same here and I stand by my original statement.
It looks like this project is getting ready to kick off. They’ve officially closed the group of four deteriorated surface parking lots. :D
I can’t wait to see the renderings!
What are they going to do with the courthouse that is on the west side of high now?
I don’t think they’re going to do anything with it. This is an expasion project because they’re out of room. It should still be in use for the franklin county courts.
Here ya go! 8)
I’m picturing angry defendents throwing stones
the design has some appeal to me…reminds me a bit of the new Seattle library which received a lot of kudos.
BUT, are those people out front standing in a flat surface parking lot?
I guess when I read ‘charm’ I was thinking something more older/historic looking? More like the Health building over on Parsons and Town I think?
This looks neat I guess…as long as the entire back of it is a solid wall that can be covered with gigantic Orange Barrel Media advertisements. :)
I think that’s the site of the current courthouse. They probably eliminated it from the rendering so it wouldn’t get in the way.
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Blind/blindschool.html
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
By Barbara Carmen and Bruce Cadwallader
If you want to see justice at work, you won’t need to flip on Court TV come 2010. You can just stand on a sidewalk at Mound or High Street and gawk.
Commissioners told designers they want their new Franklin County courthouse to stand as a symbol of the transparency of the American justice system. Architects took them literally.
Preliminary designs, to be publicly unveiled this morning, show a sharp-angled, contemporary building with seven stories of glass walls.
Grand corridors would span each floor of the building, offering a view from the street of attorneys, clients and witnesses outside courtrooms.
The courthouse also is to have land to the west for expansion, providing green space Downtown in the meantime.
READ MORE
More Concept Art Photos:
I am completely disappointed with this design. This is not at all what I was expecting. I was under the impression that they were going to try to faithfully reproduce a more traditional, landmark, city building, but with more pedestrian appeal. Instead, we get something that looks far better suited to sit on a cornfield off of I-270 up in Dublin.
It is hard for me to imagine how a building like this is going to contribute to the downtown fabric. It is set way back off of the sidewalk and has absolutely no pedestrian appeal. It doesn’t appear to have any ground floor retail. When this building shuts down every day at 5:00, the area around it will likely be dead space.
The building seems to stand completely on its own and says nothing about the dense urban environment that it is supposed to be a part of. Seriously, what are the features of this design that target a downtown setting? The only one that I can see is that the obligatory surface parking lot has been replaced by grass.
We look at cities all over the world and we see what works, yet we refuse to build it for ourselves. Instead, we build stuff like this. Yet another wasted opportunity in Columbus.
Sorry to sound so negative, but I had really high hopes for this building!!
I was also hoping for more height, and more street presence. You’re right that it does look a little office park-ish.
Wasn’t there supposed to be a mixed-use peice to this building as well. IIRC Pizzutti wanted to include condos in it and street-level retail.
This is what we used to have.
If that doesn’t make you sad, here’s more.
http://columbusoh.about.com/library/blgone.htm