Why Monroe Street Should Not be Rebuilt

[Dog Walker]

KLJ,  If you are being serious:  The building is a derivative of a derivative.  It's not even good neo-classical.  The look was old by the 1920's.

For the price of one you get two; two Greek temples mashed together and blown up all out of proportion.  The windows that are almost flat with the facade give it a dead eyed look and they are going to leak like crazy.  No wonder Ted Pappas likes it, all of his buildings leak too and compared to this, his are masterpieces of restraint.

"Explosion is a column factory" is a kind description.

Let's hope the inside is better designed and more functional than the outside.  I'm not betting any money on it, however.

[brainstormer]

It might be ugly as hell, but at least it will have new furniture. 

[Anti redneck]

Personally I don't think the courthouse looks bad. I would not have tried to make it look like the royal palace, though. It's just a courthouse. I don't know of any tourists that want to see the different courthouses all over the world. If anything, I'd rather see it made into a convention center and keep the old courthouse open.

[I-10east]

All of the new courthouse haters think that it's asinine and unreasonable for someone else (like Kenny, anti-redneck, and me among others) to think that it doesn't look so bad; Remember guys, we have to drill the propaganda in our heads, WE MUST HATE IT!!! SMH. 

[Anti redneck]

^ I don't think it looks ugly by any means. In a few years, after it's finally open (keeping fingers it opens this year), who's going to care what it looks like?

Also, I'm not a courthouse hater. It was ridiculous of the hoops that had to gone through just to get it open, though. Those who curse the courthouse I think need to just get over it. In the end, it doesn't matter how it cost; all this hate toward stuff like this just keep the city from moving forward. Time to start thinking like a city and that means to stop bitching about the courthouse.

[Keith-N-Jax]

I-10East you just about like everything the city does despite how stupid it may be, but hey that's just an opinion like the people who dislike the new grand courthouse.

[JeffreyS]

I'm a hater, it's an ugly ass sprawlville campus in the middle of downtown. Six freaking blocks of low rise and parking garages interrupting any future pedestrian activity and connectivity.  We could have built a clone of the Federal courthouse with continuing construction for a quarter of the cost, quarter of the time and a better outcome.  I hate the new courthouse and all of the asinine efforts of the people who brought it into being.  We need to make the best of it now but to put even a small bit of praise it's way is ridiculous.

[I-10east]

We need to make the best of it now but to put even a small bit of praise it's way is ridiculous.

Is "it doesn't look so bad" a 'ridiculous' amount of Courthouse praise? I don't think so.

[I-10east]

I-10East you just about like everything the city does despite how stupid it may be, but hey that's just an opinion like the people who dislike the new grand courthouse.

I like the way you flipped that around, it's the people that aren't 'extremely angered' at the Courthouse that are outnumbered here. We all know your (and many others) Courthouse opinions that you are gonna repeat 42 times in the near future; Hell, I'm used to that, but to act like everybody gotta hate the courthouse is crazy. I guess the people that are okay with the courthouse know how to 'move on' and not increase the blood pressure which IS good for the overall health ya know.

[I-10east]

^ I don't think it looks ugly by any means. In a few years, after it's finally open (keeping fingers it opens this year), who's going to care what it looks like?

Also, I'm not a courthouse hater. It was ridiculous of the hoops that had to gone through just to get it open, though. Those who curse the courthouse I think need to just get over it. In the end, it doesn't matter how it cost; all this hate toward stuff like this just keep the city from moving forward. Time to start thinking like a city and that means to stop bitching about the courthouse.

I already know, your preaching to the choir. We don't hate the courthouse, but somehow mainstream MJ says that we are supposed to hate it mainly because it isn't twenty stories tall; If it was built to mainstream MJ standards, the 'outrage by going overbudget' incessant talk would be on the backburner.

[JFman00]

I'm offended by it because it's like someone took a suburban office park, told an architect "make it look courthousey" and then wrote a check for a couple hundred million dollars. Brutalism may be ugly but at least it still has a distinct identity.

Not sure if this has been posted in here, but the courthouse earns special mention by The Atlantic's city blog as "something an 18th century architect might have dreamed up to be 'futuristic'"
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/04/hit-and-miss-architecture-new-courthouses/1861/

[JeffreyS]

We are not complaining about everything there have been two courthouses built downtown recently one terrible one really nice and less than half the price.



350Mil

100 mil

[Tacachale]

For the record I don't hate the courthouse because it's not 20 stories tall. I hate it because we threw out a good design and replaced it with an awful one and allowed the cost to explode. I cannot believe we built it.

On the upside we can still make the facility as functional as possible, and if we take care of it it could last us several decades, so we won't have to worry about a new one in many of our lifetimes.

[Dog Walker]

Yes, It's the missed opportunity to do something original and good and smart that really chaps more than the look of what has been built.