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PROJECT U.S. Courthouse, Alpine
CLIENT Amelang Partners/Alpinen
ARCHITECT PageSoutherlandPage
DESIGN TEAM Matthew F. Kreisle, II , AIA ; Lawrence W. Speck, FAIA ; Daniel H. Brooks, AIA ; Brian D. Roeder, AIA ; Cheryl White; Joan Albert
CONTRACTOR W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company
CONSULTANTS Walter P Moore (structural); PageSoutherlandPage (mechanical and electrical); Rialto Studio (landscape architecture); Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies (security)
PHOTOGRAPHER Chris Cooper Photography

The U.S. Courthouse in Alpine was universally admired by this year’s Design Awards jury for its simplicity of form and masterful response to the setting. The courthouse was a product of the U.S. General Service Administration’s Design Excellence Program with PageSoutherlandPage’s Austin office as the architect selected for the project.

The design team felt a strong obligation to respond to the climatic extremes of the region and sought inspiration in the rugged beauty of the locale. Initial desires to use local stone collected from adjacent property proved impractical and after thorough investigation of alternatives, Pecos Red sandstone was ultimately selected as the predominant exterior material. Quarried from nearby pits, the material was an appropriate selection, having been used for generations in important civic structures in the region.

Lawrence W. Speck, FAIA, the principal in charge of the project, felt the extremely specialized organizational and heightened security requirements of this building type contributed to a better solution, where key design elements answer both the desire for a regional response and critical security issues requisite to a federal courthouse.

The plan, simple in concept, is composed of wings dedicated to the public areas, legal offices, and the U.S. Marshals Service. These wings wrap a courtyard, allowing expansive areas of glass (well shaded by porches). The resulting light enters interior spaces. This gesture provides security protection for the glass that otherwise would be required to be blastresistant, all the while providing a time-honored archetypal design element. The low wall marking the public entrance borders a court containing a simply detailed shade structure that helps ease the imposing mass of the building into the landscape, again employing a familiar design gesture while answering another critical security requirement (ram–resistance). The dominant drum element anchors the entire structure, bringing to mind the nearby historic forts of Cibilo Creek Ranch, while providing the necessary grand public entrance. Elegant and restrained interior fi nishes complement the equally understated exterior massing and material vocabulary.

The success of the U.S. Courthouse in Alpine is the result of a dedicated team committed to producing a structure sensitive to its site and its region, which should stand as a beacon of justice for generations to come. Paraphrasing Design Award juror Judith Dupré: This courthouse implies that there is a higher law, that the law of nature may be presiding over the law of mere human beings.

--The writer is a principal of Rhotenberry Wellen Architects in Midland.