Federal Courthouse in Missouri Nearly Complete

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — After a rough start with the project’s initial planners, the new U.S. Courthouse under construction here has reach substantial completion and crews are working to finish the facility’s interior in time for its scheduled dedication in early 2007.


The new $47 million, 154,000-square-foot courthouse will contain three courtrooms and offices for several related agencies. About 100 people will work at the facility every day.


The substantial-completion point marks the beginning of the final stretch of an often strenuous process that was halted in 2001 when the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for overseeing federal courthouse construction and operations, dismissed the project’s initial architectural firm.


The firm was dismissed after the GSA, which had already spent $500,000, determined that an atrium design without air-conditioning that had the option to be open-air would not satisfy the agency’s needs.


“They designed the building and the community didn’t really like it,” says Curtis Worth Fentress, lead designer at Fentress Bradburn Architects, which was brought in as a replacement. “The architect was dismissed and they started over and went to a design/build process.”


During the procurement process the second time around, the GSA held a design competition that Fentress Bradburn was selected after beating out two other firms. Fentress says his firm came out on top of the competition because it incorporated more classical elements in the building’s design to mesh with surrounding buildings.


“It kind of fit the way we work — to make things work within the neighborhood,” Fentress says. “We designed a building that had more of a historic flavor to it and also a building that was really more compatible with the historic buildings in community.”


The courthouse features an Indiana limestone base with deep red brick cladding, and brick and stone accents. It has lightly colored windows and trim, cornices and sub-cornices, and vertical windows. All of the elements mesh well with the city’s most prominent building, the Court of Common Pleas, and with City Hall, which shares a public lawn with the federal courthouse.


“We designed it from an urban design standpoint to have a shared green space with City Hall,” Fentress says.


The building’s atrium features arched windows on three sides, while large punched windows that allow natural light into the three courtrooms and other work spaces.


“The building is a little more classical in feel and nature,” Fentress says. “It’s probably more fitting for Cape Girardeau, which is sometimes described as a town like New Orleans. It has a lot of the same features of the buildings that you see in New Orleans.”


Iron rails, brick houses and brick buildings near the waterfront are common architectural themes in the area, according to Fentress.


The facility was also designed to expand if needed.


“It’s planned so that you can add a fourth courtroom in the future,” Fentress says. “In addition to adding the courtroom, you can add some judge’s office and some additional space.”


Operationally, the courthouse is unique because it has no resident judges. All judges that preside over cases in Cape Girardeau commute from St. Louis. However, that is expected to change when the new courthouse opens its doors.


“They had judges that rotated from St. Louis district,” Fentress says. “In this building, some of the judges are moving and becoming residents of Cape Girardeau so they are not on the road back and forth.”