by Courthouse Blogger - Brian Baldwin on March 16, 2010
While the New Duval County Courthouse is being built, it is hard to imagine its size. Constructed on three large city blocks and far away from larger buildings, one can only guess that it is big but not THAT big of a building. Guess again! Years ago when the Barnett Tower Building was built, it was touted as the tallest building in Florida. Sadly, Barnett Bank is gone but Bank of America now owns its building.
The Bank of America building is an amazing 600,000 square feet of office space or 300 (2000 sq. ft.) houses. The purpose of the New Duval County Courthouse was to consolidate all the different leased court commercial property into one city-owned location. In order to meet its goal, the building had to be enormous. To make the task of design just that more interesting, the building had to have growth potential (room for more people and courtrooms) to last another 50 years past its completion date in 2012.
Now for the number. The New Duval County Courthouse completed size is going to be 800,000 square feet. This could hold 400 (2000 sq. ft.) houses and makes it larger, though it is only 7 stories tall, than the Bank of America building.
by Courthouse Blogger - Brian Baldwin on March 5, 2010
Our man, Brian Baldwin, reports an ‘Angela Sighting.’
“She just drove up in a big Cadillac Escalade or similar Giant SUV. The windows were smoked so you couldn’t see inside. Suddenly, the window rolled down and THERE SHE WAS!” exclaimed Brian. He said she appeared to be evaluating her new digs at 311 West Monroe. “Just as quickly as she appeared – SHE WAS GONE! I guess she was satisfied with what she saw. She gave me a glance and slight grin and away she flew – faster than Santa.”
“The word on the street is that State Attorney Angela Corey will not be getting wet walking into the New Duval County Courthouse from the State Attorney’s Office next door,” he added.
Chief Judge Donald Moran had publicly opposed the idea of a walkway and the discussions were widely reported by The Florida Times-Union. Corey argued on the side of security for her staff and, adding to her win loss ratio, she won.
Complete drawings and renderings for the project are on the city website and available for download and viewing with Adobe Acrobat Viewer. Work on the walkway will not begin until 2011 but structural changes to the New Courthouse must be made immediately.
The document contains wording explaining that the funding for this walkway was in the original new courthouse budget.
To view these documents, click here: Pedestrian Bridge
