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Galveston road trip and contemporary Texas courthouses.

11/13/2011

2 Comments

 
Donna and I spent this beautiful day in Galveston.  In particular, I spent some time photographing the 2006 Galveston County Courts Building and other sights in this truly historic Texas city.  The new county courts building seen below was completed in 2006 and designed by Bay Architects.  The property also houses the Galveston Sheriff's Offices and the Galveston County Jail.  The new county justice center is some distance from the 1966 Galveston County Courthouse.  Here's the new Justice Center:
Picture
Picture
Galveston County Courts Building. November 13, 2011.
I'll give this new building a "thumbs up."  It looks that a civic building, which is more than can be said for many most attempts to design contemporary county courthouses in the 20th century.  It's not a building that was intended to be located in the center of town, in a traditional courthouse square, but rather, a one-sided design intended to be viewed from the nearby I-45 as citizens enter Galveston from the mainland.  I was reminded of another new courthouse, the new Zapata County Courthouse that I visited a couple of weeks ago.  It was completed in 2005, from a design by Architect Morgan Spear Associates.  Here it is:
Picture
Zapata County Courthouse, Zapata, Texas. October 27, 2011.
The Zapata County Courthouse, on a hill overlooking the Rio Grande valley, is a bi-axially symmetrical building, in keeping with the traditional courthouse square layout, although here the building axis do NOT extend beyond the actual property.  And, the style, while recalling historic forms and uses of materials, is decidedly contemporary.  Architects still have a long way to go to match the urbanism and creativity of many 19th century Texas courthouses.  But, for the time, we've moved on from the truly awful 1970's designs I highlighted in a previous post.
And then there's this image of 21st century Galveston: 
Picture
Carnival cruise ship "Magic" looms over the port of Galveston, Texas. November 13, 2011.
2 Comments
Guy
11/13/2011 09:51:35 pm

You are generous to (us) modern architects...

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joni
11/13/2011 10:58:13 pm

Glad you didn't show a picture of the old courthouse (still used for some functions)!

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    Author

    Leonard G. Lane, Jr., AIA
    leonardlane@gmail.com
    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.

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