Oregon features what developers call 'first courthouse of the 21st

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, Aug 15, 2006 by Dan Carter

(This article was originally published in Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland, Ore., another Dolan Media publication).

An expansive, soaring, glass-and-steel structure on the banks of the Wilamette River in downtown Eugene, Ore., makes Alan Halleck, a project manager for J.E. Dunn Construction Northwest, gush.

This has been a great, once-in-a-lifetime, career project for me, Halleck said. It has been a joy to work on, from pre-construction to its nearly completed state now.

The project is the Wayne L. Morse U.S. Courthouse, built by the federal General Services Administration. The building is part of its Design Excellence program, begun in 1994, which encourages quality designs for government buildings.

We want the designs to flow from the architects to the government and not vice versa, said Peter Gray of the General Services Administration.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan soon will move into the building.

We like to call it the first courthouse of the 21st century, he said. There will be no question what this building is. It is a public building, and it is meant to celebrate the public buildings that have long been a part of our culture.

The $70 million, 260,000-square-foot, gleaming structure was designed by architect Thom Mayne - winner of the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the industry's top award - and his California design firm, Morphosis. DLR Group of Portland, Ore., was the architect of record.

The building's first three floors are typical cast-in-place concrete sections, and the upper part is all swooping curves of brushed stainless steel and glass.

The interior of the new courthouse features six courtrooms - two each for bankruptcy, district and magistrate courts - that challenge previous courtroom designs on all fronts. All have natural light supplemented with a long, fluorescent panel bisecting the ceiling. The curved walls are cherry and walnut panels that stair step. Even the location of the jury box is different, and the judges' chambers are above the courtrooms rather than next to them.

This is the first deep look at courtroom design in years, Hogan said.

Although not a part of the initial planning, green and sustainable elements - like natural lighting, displacement ventilation and radiant cooling and heating - feature prominently in the Morse courthouse's design, and the building is close to attaining a silver rating through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

The gleaming new structure is being seen in Eugene as a major part of the city's downtown core, helping connect it with the Willamette River. Blocks around the courthouse are being called the Courthouse District, and infrastructure is being put into place to make the district ripe for future development.

We've been working closely with city officials to make sure that what we are doing dovetails into their grander image for the community, said Richard Broderick, the General Services Administration's project manger for the courthouse.

The opportunity to work closely with a number of other professionals and their organizations is the primary reason Halleck, J.E. Dunn's project manager, has been - and continues to be - so enthusiastic about the project.

We went through 15 months of pre-construction meetings doing $11 million of value engineering, developing a schedule and working out problems, he said. The long process meant that a partnership was developed between all the parties at the table. Every person, company and organization has been truly committed to the successful outcome of this amazing project.