254 Texas Courthouses
  • Home
  • Chronological Order (of my visits)
  • County List (alphabetical)
  • County Seat List (alphabetical)
  • Texas Courthouse Blog
  • James Riely Gordon, Architect
  • Eugene T. Heiner, Architect
  • Henry T. Phelps, Architect
  • Alfred Giles, Architect
  • Corneil G. Curtis, Architect
  • Wesley Clark Dodson, Architect
  • Lang & Witchell Architects
  • Voelcker & Dixon, Architects
  • Wyatt C. Hedrick, Architect
  • David S. Castle, Architect
  • Page Brothers, Architects
  • James Edward Flanders, Architect
  • Pierce, Norris, Pace & Associates, Architects & Engineers

Hidalgo County Courthouse in the News

12/29/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Hidalgo County courthouse is stretched to its physical limits, and yet it's still nowhere near large enough to serve this rapidly growing South Texas county, whose 2010 population was 774,769.
In an August 13, 2013 story, The Monitor, a McAllen newspaper, explained that "The current facility was built in 1954 to house three courts and a much smaller county. Hidalgo County’s population has nearly quintupled and 19 more courts have been added since the nearly 60-year-old building was constructed, and few disagree the county needs a new facility."
Earlier this year, a May 8 story in The Monitor described a short-term solution Hidalgo County has taken to alleviate the space shortage:  modular buildings.  Familiar to public school staff and students, these "temporary" manufactured buildings are intended to kick the can down the road, until a new county courthouse is available.  "County officials plan to open the modular buildings parked on the courthouse’s north end by mid-June, providing a temporary home for two new courtrooms and an expansion for other judicial offices."  The current 1954 era courthouse contains about 193,000 square feet of area.  The modular buildings, containing a pair of new courtrooms, add about 13,000 square feet to the courthouse, for a total of 206,000 square feet.  A recent master plan for the courthouse determined the county currently needs about 418,000 square feet of area to serve its present needs.  And that size will surely grow as Hidalgo County grows.  
The August 13 story discusses the preliminary planning taking place to create a new Hidalgo County courthouse:  "A plan to build a new county courthouse here inched forward Tuesday as the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court and the Edinburg City Council held a joint session to discuss funding the estimated $113 million project and to meet with representatives from an architecture firm contracted to draw preliminary plans for a high-rise courthouse."  McAllen based ERO Architects has been hired by the county to prepare a schematic design for a new courthouse that would be located in Edinburg, the county seat.   Of course, The Monitor notes that "The City of Edinburg is willing to contribute financially to prevent another city from doing to Edinburg what Edinburg did to the City of Hidalgo — stealing away the county seat by building a new courthouse."  Apparently, other cities in the county are interested in "hosting" the county seat.  The Monitor story highlights the issues related to public/private funding sources for the new courthouse that are just as difficult to solve as the design issues for the new building.  Similar discussions are taking placing in Travis County.

Regardless, the earliest a new Hidalgo County courthouse could be completed is 2018, according to The Monitor.  This gives me more than enough time to re-visit the Edinburg courthouse and photograph the modular buildings for an update to this website.




0 Comments

News from Fondren

12/18/2013

0 Comments

 
The Fall 2013 issue of Friends of Fondren,  a publication of Fondren Library at Rice University, includes a two-page spread titled "Texas Courthouses - Visit Them Online."  Many thanks to the Friends of Fondren, an organization I've been a member of for several years, for making this article possible.  With the library's permission, I am posting the two pages for your information.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

COUNTY Magazine November/December 2013

12/16/2013

0 Comments

 
The Texas Association of Counties publishes a magazine, "County."  In the current issue, there's a very positive article about 254TexasCourthouses.net, written by Contributing Writer Joel Nihlean.  Since it isn't available online at this time, I've included a copy below.  Readership of this website is up and publicity like this is one of the reasons.
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Leonard G. Lane, Jr., AIA
    [email protected]
    I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as soon as I could.  I'm an architect.  And, a photographer on the side.
    I live in Houston, with my wife, Donna.  After our daughter, Hilary, passed the Texas Bar exam she took the oath as an attorney in the historic Harris County courthouse on Friday, November 15, 2013.

    Archives

    May 2016
    April 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    October 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly