Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse • Brooklyn, New York

CITATION Brooklyn supreme and Family Courthouse • Brooklyn, new york

Rising 473 feet and consisting of 32 stories, the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse is located on a corner site in downtown Brooklyn, NY. The 1.1 million square feet building consolidates the New York State Supreme Court, Kings County Family Court, and over a dozen city agencies. Designed within a predetermined zoning envelope, the building accommodates 50 Supreme Courts including two ceremonial courtrooms, 24 Family Courts, 10 Family Court hearing rooms, a 750-person jury assembly room, and a 300-person detention facility. The collegial judges’ chambers are located at upper levels of the tower and include additional security provisions. In addition, the developer built approximately 180,000 square feet as speculative office space.

Commissioned as a public/private partnership, these combined functions presented many challenges to the design team. The planning of the building needed a simple and intuitive circulation system dedicated and separate from the other, while accommodating the complexities of the program and existing building configuration. From the developer’s perspective, the design team needed to deliver a Class A office building while satisfying the functional, security, and symbolic needs of such a highly visible urban courthouse.

The tight urban lot limited both vehicular and pedestrian access to the site. The design of the building took into account numerous community concerns regarding quality of life and security issues. In response, the design incorporated large public lobbies to allow internal queuing of the public. A below-grade sally port and vehicular queuing accommodates the prisoner transport vehicles. The on-site detention facility was sized to minimize the number of trips required to the facility, and a change in the direction of traffic on one side of the property maximized traffic flow. Belowgrade issues included an active subway tunnel and a high water table which limited below-grade construction.

The exterior design is architecturally consistent with its surrounding office developments, utilizing precast brick panels as the primary façade material. The elevations bring order to the building which programmatically is comprised of many different floor-to-floor heights while conveying the presence and dignity of a major courthouse in a dense urban area.

Jury CommenT

The 84 courtroom, 1.1 million square foot Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse is distinguished as one of the largest court and civic buildings in the United States. It is a programmatically and physically complicated structure that houses a remarkable array of functions that were formerly located in several over-crowded and outdated facilities throughout the Brooklyn area.

The Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse was envisioned and realized as a true public-private partnership between the City of New York and developer Forest City Ratner Companies. The building also has over 150,000 square feet of speculative office space on its top floors and served as a model for other developments of similar type and scale including public agencies, courts, and commercial enterprises.

The clear building organization provides safe and efficient movement for over 6,000 visitors per day from the lobbies at grade level to the floors occupied by the 50 Supreme and 34 Family courtrooms, allied agencies, and leasable office space. Using materials and forms in the language of the nearby high-rise buildings, the architects created a formal and dignified building to both renewing the local neighborhood and refreshing the public vision of the role of the courts as serious and respectful.

Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye summed up what has been achieved with the design: “The physical environment of a court should reflect the gravity and seriousness of the business conducted within and engender respect for the administration of justice…Now, after decades of hardship, these [Family and Supreme] courts will finally have a suitable home…This exciting new project in Brooklyn is part of New York City’s master plan for the renovation and construction of courthouses in all five boroughs.”

oWner

City of New York New York, New York

architect of record

Perkins Eastman New York, New York

structural engineer

Gilsanz Murray New York, New York

mechanical engineer

WSP Flack & Kurtz New York, New York

General Contractor

Turner Construction

photographer

Chuck Choi Architectural Photography Brooklyn, New York Completion date: 2005 Construction Cost: $ 540.0 million number of Courtrooms: 84 (74 courtrooms, 10 hearing rooms) Type of Court: Criminal, Domestic, Juvenile, Drug Building area: 1,100,000 BGSF; 770,000 NAA (180,000 BGSF is for speculative office) Finance method: General Obligation Bonds, Public Private Partnership delivery method: Design Build Type of Construction: New leed Certificate: None