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Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse

Tuscaloosa, Ala. / HBRA Architects

6 MIN READ

By Edward Keegan

May 18, 2012

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Timothy Hursley

The entrance to the Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse i… Read More The entrance to the Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse is marked by massive Doric columns—influenced by the Greek Temple of Zeus at Nemea—made from Indiana Limestone.

Timothy Hursley

The acroteria that mark the angles of each pediment use classica… Read More The acroteria that mark the angles of each pediment use classical detailing but were designed to work in concert with the building’s brushed-aluminum roof.

Courtesy HBRA Architects

Courtesy HBRA Architects

Timothy Hursley

Inside, the first-floor lobby is lined with Doric pilasters.

Timothy Hursley

The second-floor atrium space is a generous 33 feet wide and i… Read More The second-floor atrium space is a generous 33 feet wide and is lined by 16 oil-painted panels by artist Caleb O’Connor, which depict major events in the region’s history.

Courtesy HBRA Architects

Timothy Hursley

Natural light from the clerestory windows highlights the classic… Read More Natural light from the clerestory windows highlights the classical detailing, much of which was hand-painted. The space is open to the public, and it looks down onto the first-floor lobby corridor.

Timothy Hursley

The Ionic columns in the second-floor atrium were modeled after … Read More The Ionic columns in the second-floor atrium were modeled after those found at the Erechtheion in Athens.

Timothy Hursley

While the building houses tenant spaces for several federal agen… Read More While the building houses tenant spaces for several federal agencies, the second floor’s eastern wing is largely filled with courtrooms.

Timothy Hursley

Judges' chambers

Tuscaloosa was once the capital of Alabama, but now its regional importance comes from the state’s flagship university and its powerhouse football team. And while the design tenor of the Crimson Tide’s campus has strayed far from its 1828 beginnings—the University of Alabama was modeled on Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia—Chicago-based HBRA Architects have revived classical precedents for another locally significant civic structure, the new Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse.

The 127,000-square-foot building is part of the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) Design Excellence program, and U.S. District Court Judge Scott Coogler—who served as the de facto client heading a group of the structure’s tenants—was clear about the goals for the $47.8 million project. The building had to look like a courthouse particular to its southern locale—which meant that columns, steps, and masonry were de rigueur. “This is not my first courthouse,” Coogler says. “People need to have the sense they’re coming to a place of justice, not an office building.”

That seems like a simple prescription, but the program proved more complex. The building has multiple tenants, including the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy court (both of which required courtrooms and support spaces), U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby’s, R-Ala., offices, the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the GSA, congressional offices, the Social Security Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“There were certain expectations that the building would have a clear and unequivocal relationship to classical architecture,” says Aric Lasher, AIA, director of design at HBRA. The specific model for the detailing of the building’s portico, is the Greek Temple of Zeus at Nemea. “Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Peter Behrens, and Mies van der Rohe all admired it,” Lasher says—naming three architects who practiced in highly varied modes of aesthetic production during the 19th and 20th centuries. That temple includes the three primary orders, two of which are used by HBRA for the Tuscaloosa courthouse. The Doric is deployed in the center-bay entrance portico while the Ionic is used in pilaster form in the wings. The columns on the interior are modeled after an Ionic order used at the Erechtheion in Athens.

While Greek forms are typical of many federal buildings from the early years of our Republic, there are some practical reasons for choosing Greek over Roman precedents in this particular building. “The rigid modularity of Greek Classicism lends itself to modern space planning,” Lasher says. “And GSA allocations are very precise.” To accommodate these considerations, the building is based on a 60-centimeter grid—the metric equivalent of a 2-foot module.

The building is organized around a central, two-and-a-half-story-tall atrium that bisects the building into east and west wings. The allocation of uses is clear: On the first floor, the Social Security Administration is on the right, jury assembly is on the left; upstairs, the FBI and Sen. Shelby’s offices are on the right, and the courts and judges’ chambers are on the left. Public stairs on either side of the entrance quickly access the chambers of the U.S. Judge and the senator, while centrally located elevators and a double-run stair lead to the second-floor courtrooms and other offices. The 165-foot-long atrium is relatively narrow on the first floor—only about 11 feet in width—but expands to 33 feet on the piano nobile. It’s the second floor where the building’s Classicism really sings—with Ionic columns flanking spaces in each of the cardinal directions and 16 panels of public art that tell local history in an accessible, realistic style.

“The courtroom is ‘standard’; the space is what’s allocated by law,” Coogler says, “but the quality shines through. It’s appropriately nice—not over the top.” While the interior courtroom spaces are finished in dark, but warm, wood paneling, materials are used in a methodically economical way. “The wainscot in my chambers is painted,” Coogler says. The same sort of sensible decision making informs the entirety of the building, inside and out.

If there’s one weakness to the design, it’s the domination of the second-floor public spaces over those on the first floor. The central space on the ground floor is relatively long and narrow—not much more than a decently detailed corridor that’s open to the wider space above. While there are three wide, gracious stairs that allow access to the double-height space above, many of the building’s users visit the Social Security Administration offices on the ground level and have little need to walk upstairs and see the building’s signature space.

It’s the only false note in a public building that aspires to—and attains—a grand civic gesture for Tuscaloosa. “I’ve heard architects say you have to change with the times,” Coogler says. “This building is built with different technology than in the 1920s, but it’s the style of a federal courthouse. It’s not a rocket ship—that would be an office building.”

Project Credits

Project Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Client U.S. General Services Administration, Region 4
Architect HBRA Architects, Chicago—Thomas H. Beeby, FAIA (lead designer); Kirsten Beeby (interior designer); Craig Brandt, AIA (project architect); Aric Lasher, AIA (project designer); Dennis Rupert, FAIA (project manager); William Mahalko, Jerry Wright (associates); Neil Sondgeroth, Jochen Silvetti-Schmitt (architectural professional team)
Exterior Ornamentalist Kent Bloomer Studio
Interior Murals Caleb O’Connor
Courts Consultant RicciGreene Associates
Mechanical Engineer MW/Davis Dumas & Associates
Structural Engineer MBA Engineers
Electrical Engineer Ray Engineering Consultants
Civil Engineer LBYD
Geotechnical Engineer TTL
Construction Manager O’Connor Construction Management (Agent); KBR Building Group and Harrison Construction joint venture (At Risk)
Landscape Architect Nimrod Long and Associates
Lighting Designer Claude R. Engle, Lighting Consultant
Acoustic Consultant JaffeHolde
Elevator Consultant Lerch Bates
Size 127,000 square feet
Cost $47.8 Million

Materials and Sources

Acoustical System G&S Acoustics gsacoustics.com
Adhesives, Coatings, and Sealants The Dow Chemical Co. dow.com
Carpet Interface interfaceglobal.com
Ceilings Armstrong armstrong.com
Fabrics KnollTextiles knolltextiles.com
Flooring Alabama Marble Co. alabamamarblequarry.com; Terrazzo & Marble Supply Cos. tmsupply.com; American Olean americanolean.com
Glass Viracon viracon.com; Bendheim bendheim.com
Gypsum National Gypsum Co. nationalgypsum.com
HVAC Trane trane.com
Insulation Atlas Roofing Corp. atlasroofing.com; Hunter Panels hpanels.com
Lighting Edison Price Lighting epl.com; Historical Arts & Casting historicalarts.com; Lutron Electronics Co. lutron.com
Masonry and Stone Evans Limestone Co. evanslimestone.com
Millwork Mortensen Woodwork mortensenwoodwork.com
Paints and Finishes Benjamin Moore & Co. benjaminmoore.com
Roofing Merchant & Evans ziprib.com
Seating Knoll knoll.com; Kivetts kivetts.com
Windows and Doors Wausau Window and Wall Systems wausauwindow.com; Dawson Doors dawsondoors.com; Maiman Co., an Assa Abloy Group Co. maiman.com; Hope’s Windows hopeswindows.com