Nolan County's seat is Sweetwater, the "Wind Energy Capital of North America."
The granite panels covering the exterior of the 1977 courthouse were removed in 2012 after one of them fell off of the building. Over the years, rainwater had caused the steel brackets holding the stone panels in place to rust. It was only a matter of time before they all failed. In the fall of 2012, county voters approved a four million dollar bond issue to replace the granite building skin with a new, limestone façade. Included in the design was the removal of the angled base of the building. Turner Construction began work on the new skin on May 6, 2013. I visited the courthouse on Saturday, June 1 and took some photographs of the "naked" building. I will return to photograph the completed project later this year.
The courthouse remains in use and open to the public during the construction project
The CMU blocks at the bottom of the wall were exposed after the sloped base was removed
RSS Feed