San Antonio, Texas, USA
Designed by Lake|Flato Architects along with Alta Architects, the US San Antonio Federal Courthouse exemplifies the order and calmness of the federal court system through its use of local vernacular and natural stone.
The initial plan of Lake|Flato Architects was to erect a five-story structure and a lower bar building that enclosed an open-air courtyard but they had to reconfigure the courthouse into something much more conventional: a three-story structure with an atrium due to limited resources and the updated budget of the new federal government.
The architects sought to deliver a truly innovative building, one that would invert the typically cloistered and fortresslike bearing of the courthouse typology while consuming less energy and putting users in direct contact with the natural environment—and, in doing so, activating the landscape’s intimations of life, liberty, and happiness.
The US San Antonio Federal Courthouse has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 American Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The atrium would not be the architects’ final concession, but, analyzing the constraints at hand, they did see a way to achieve some of their aspirations.
If they couldn’t open the building to the air, they would at least daylight its interior while greeting the street with a dignified but gregarious face.
It is situated in the heart of San Antonio’s downtown central business district along the banks of the newly redeveloped San Pedro Creek Culture Park.
The individual courts create an orderly extroverted expression on the building’s façade, metaphorically placing justice on display for all to see.
The courtroom volume can be seen from the north as one approaches the building.
The architects housed the administrative functions in the southern wing and the courts and judges’ and clerks’ chambers in the northern wing, which faces Nueva Street.
On the northern elevation, the facade is broken up into a rhythm of rough-cut Lueders limestone pilasters alternating with inset glass panels.
The pilasters, of which there are eight, representing the eight courtrooms, are broken into 12 bands, representing the 12 members of a traditional jury, by horizontal redbrick courses finished with a German smear, a common local building style.
The western facade, which faces South Santa Rosa Avenue, is largely glass-shaded by a sizable gray-painted metal brise-soleil supported by large steel pipe columns.
The southern face, which currently looks onto a gated parking lot, picks up the rhythm of the north side, although the indents between stone pilasters were value-engineered out, leaving a flat surface with terracotta spandrel panels between the windows.
Project: US San Antonio Federal Courthouse
Architects: Lake|Flato Architects
Associate Architect: Alta Architects (formerly Munoz & Company)
General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC.
Client: General Services Administration (GSA)
Photographer: Robert G. Gomez
