Gateway Building in Greenville

[Infinite1]

Just wondering... Don't they have to incoporate parking on the site aswell? And I was wondering if the parking was allowed to be below the building (considering the world we live in today)? If not, then maybe the actual footprint would be smaller and push height a little bit taller? Do y'all know or have any insight?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll look through the solicitations guidelines and see what is says.

[goodbye]

Just wondering... Don't they have to incoporate parking on the site aswell? And I was wondering if the parking was allowed to be below the building (considering the world we live in today)? If not, then maybe the actual footprint would be smaller and push height a little bit taller? Do y'all know or have any insight?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know plans often change over time, but originally the solicitation document (a year old) stated that there would definitely need to be "74 interior parking spaces" included in the design. Being located on such a site, I think that probably means sub-terrainian or otherwise above ground, but within the building itself. Hope that helps.

[vicupstate]

The 74 spaces are probably for Judges and would probably be basement level. There is no way in hell that the general public would park under a Federal Building. Public parking will be provided mostly or exclusively in the BiLo Cenetr garage across the street.

[Infinite1]

I was hoping to find the design charette documents, but no dice. Anyway, I agree with Vic, in this day and age parking below a federal building is very unlikely.

[gvillenative]

In the TBA section of the Greenville Journal it says that the Federal Courthouse is possibly going to be 12 stories.

[RestedTraveler]

Now that we know the Gateway site is where the new Federal Courthouse will be, I thought it would be fun to have a look at other Federal Courthouses (either under construction or recently constructed) and imagine how they would look on the site. Obviously, we'll have something unique that we can call our own, but it doesn't hurt to use the others as a touchstone.

I'll kick this off with the following photo of the Federal Courthouse being constructed in Miami, Florida (designed by Arquitect

[RestedTraveler]

And, of course, Brad Toy posted this photo of the Cleveland, Ohio Federal Courthouse previously:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[NYTransplant]

I'm not so sure about the Miami Courthouse, but the Cleveland Courthouse is SEXY!

[RestedTraveler]

...the Cleveland Courthouse is SEXY!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And it has nothing to do with the statue over the front entrance, right?

[NYTransplant]

And it has nothing to do with the statue over the front entrance, right? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't notice that when I replied

It's sexy with or without.

Very nice RT, I think all posts on Friday afternoons should end with:

[RestedTraveler]

I'm finding that the designs for most of the newer federal courthouse buildings around the nation are very funky.

Here are a couple more:

Kansas City, Missouri (Illustration by Gilbert Gorski):

Omaha, Nebraska (Illustration by Gilbert Gorski):

Reno, Nevada (Illustration by Gilbert Gorski):

San Francisco, California:

Jacksonville, Florida:

Tampa, Florida:

Long Island, New York:

Foley Square: New York, New York:

Gulf Port, Mississippi:

El Paso, Texas:

Las Cruces, New Mexico:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

Atlanta, Georgia:

This is just a taste of the projects that are out there.

Here's a neat article on the "Renaissance of the Federal Courthouse"...very interesting reading:

http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/renaissance.htm

I'm curious as to what the Greenville Design will be like. Regardless, the evidence shows that it should be something very unique and exciting.

I hope the Department of Homeland Security isn't wondering why I'm researching all of these building

[Spartan]

so basicly we have no way of knowing, based on other court houses, what Greenville's may look like

Hopefully it won't be like Atlanta's

[RestedTraveler]

so basicly we have no way of knowing, based on other court houses, what Greenville's may look like

Hopefully it won't be like Atlanta's 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the same conclusion I've reached. We have no way of knowing until they unveil the plans. But it's still fun to look at the others.

I'm with you there on the Atlanta building. That's a 1980s building that is being rennovated though, so take peace in that, if you can

[vicupstate]

Thanks for posting Rested Traveler. Very interesting. Atlanta's is bring, but I guess they were somewhat limited. The Jacksonville building is completed, so maybe some of the others are too. There might be pics of them somewhere.

[RestedTraveler]

Thanks for posting Rested Traveler.

[RestedTraveler]

Here are a couple more:

Mobile, Alabama:

Brooklyn, NY:

Notice that the Brooklyn Design is very similar to the Jacksonville Design.

[goodbye]

Most of those are interesting, some even nice-looking, but I'd rather see something similar to the one in Batman Begins (though not as tall of course). That dome with fine sculpture seems to make a statement regarding the building's class. B)

[GvilleSC]

Some of those buildings make me wonder about just what will be welcoming our visitors to our downtown... and to be honest it's kind of scary. I wouldn't want more than half of those sort of designs to be a model for the new federal courthouse , I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[RestedTraveler]

How much input does a city have in the design, I wonder? Does the city get a final say in what design is chosen or are we at the mercy of the General Services Administration?!?!?

The only ones out of all these so far that I like, myself, are (in this order):

Cleveland

Omaha

Kansas City

Jacksonville

Reno

Regardless of the design, it's safe to say that the building will be heavy in concrete and light in glass (for safety reasons). When I lived in Orlando, I saw that the original Orlando U.S. District Courthouse Annex Design was very glass-centric. After 9/11, the decision was made to revise the design to minimize the amount of glass and maximize the concrete walls.

[GvilleSC]

How much input does a city have in the design, I wonder?

[Spartan]

A city may not have any input on such things. My case in point is the former World Trade Center. New York has zoning law such that any building over a certain height has to be tapered back (like the Empire State Building) so that sunlight can reach the streets. The WTC sits on land owned by the Port Authority- which is a separate government entity from the City of New York. Thus the WTC did not have to conform to New York's zoning, and the building was not tapered, creating the rectangular solids that we loved so dearly.

But the Fed is different, and it may let the city have input.

[g-vegasman]

I think with the recent homeland security acts the designers will have to be very careful with what they design. Oklahoma City tragedy pretty much limited Federal Buildings being shared with non-federal offices. If this tragedy would have never happened I think we could have seen a 15-20 story tower going up with the Federal Courthouse occupying a good protion of the building and other various City and County offices occupying the remaining floors. However, I don't believe the Federal Goverment will allow that to happen. With that being said the Federal Courthouse will be a unique design for sure. I just hope it is something that we all can be proud of. Something unique and very stylish.

Maybe a smaller version of the one in Cleveland might be in order....

[vicupstate]

As far as I know, the Feds would have to go through the same approval process as a private citizen. I seem to remember that Charleston's Fed Courthouse had to be redesigned to get the necessary city approvals, at significant cost I might add. Also, since the City owns the garage that the facility will use, it has additional leverage there.

The WTC situaton sounds unique since it was developed by a separate government in effect.

[g-vegasman]

Here is an example of a federal courthouse in Mississippi that is 8 stories and is 64,000 sqaure feet. THis may be able to give us an idea of just how big ours will be when it is slated to be 240,000 sqaure feet nearly 4 times the size...

http://www.industrialcorrosion.com/US%20Fe...Courthouse.html

[jfl25]

I dont realy have a problem with most of the designs that have been posted with the exeption of Atlantas. For a city that size it was just wrong of the designer to have drawn that ugly thing .I know it was a renovation but looks like a city with that much money could have "threw their weight around a little more". I tend to be in favor of something like Kansas citys.