The HOK-designed Judge Seymour Gelber and Judge William E. Gladstone Miami-Dade Children’s Courthouse in Miami combines juvenile and family courts in a non-traditional, welcoming courthouse environment.
Excerpted from Urban Land:
Architects designing government buildings have to work with often-contradictory requirements: embody authority and solidity, yet also convey the transparency and openness of democracy.
Projects including the Judge Seymour Gelber and Judge William E. Gladstone Miami-Dade Children’s Courthouse in Miami take creative approaches to resolving these contradictions.
For young people, attending court can be intimidating. To replace an obsolete, overcrowded juvenile justice center, Miami–Dade County brought in the Tampa, Florida, office of HOK and local firm Perez & Perez Architects Planners to design a 14-story building that would ease access to services and create a welcoming, healthy environment. A precast concrete screen wall on the south facade gives a playful impression with its multicolored windows, scattered in an irregular pattern. Public art throughout ranges from bear sculptures in the lobby to large-scale murals and tile installations created by area public school students.