The GSA has announced that Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill have been selected as the architects of the new Los Angeles Federal Courthouse, which will house the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The architects beat out 3 other shortlisted teams to win the $318 million project.
According to the GSA, "The new 550,000-square-foot building will be a sustainable, cost-effective, state-of-the-art court facility that includes security upgrades that are not available in the current 312 North Spring Street courthouse."
The site, located at 107 South Broadway (down the street from Morphosis’ Caltrans building, LA’s City Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall) has been dormant since 2007; although a $1.1 billion design by Perkins + Will was selected soon after, it was abandoned when Congress slashed the GSA's construction budget. The GSA considers the approval of the new redevelopment plan a "major milestone."
More info and images, after the break...
“We are moving toward the groundbreaking of a critically needed facility that will resolve long-standing security and space issues,” Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) told the Los Angeles Times. “At a time when we need to keep investing in our recovering economy, we expect the courthouse to create thousands of new jobs in the construction industry and related businesses.”
Construction is tentatively scheduled for fall 2013, with completion anticipated in 2016.
The GSA also released a request to developers to supply “potential strategies” for the adaptive reuse of the 72-year old Spring Street Courthouse. The request is consistent with the agency's new strategy to consolidate Federal agencies (and thus reduce its real estate footprint and save taxpayer money) by working with the private sector (to either reuse or exchange outdated properties for new ones). Under the plan, the proceeds from the sale of the old courthouse would help finance construction of a second federal office building adjacent to the new courthouse. The deadline for responses is February 11, 2013.
Story via the GSA, Los Angeles Times, and ENR Construction
