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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City hosts a number of beautiful, historical buildings, but recently one of its newest structures received high praise.
Jan. 9, the American Institute of Architects awarded its highest honor, the Institute Honor Award, to the new United States Courthouse in Salt Lake for its "excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design," according to a press release. It was designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners.
Out of 500 submissions, 23 recipients around the world will be honored at the AIA 2015 National Convention and Design Exposition in Atlanta.
The design of the new courthouse “emanates from a search for a strong, iconic, transparent, and metaphorically egalitarian form to symbolize the American judiciary system,” according to the press release.
AIA specifically recognized the 400,000-square-foot, 10-story courthouse for its landscape that spans a city block and joins with the existing federal courthouses to create a public-access amenity and “fulfilling a required federal security setback from the street.”
Ground was broken for the courthouse in January 2011.
It has 10 courtrooms, 14 judges’ chambers, the U.S. Marshals Office, the U.S. Probation Office and a records library. It also has two underground parking levels.
The building’s exterior, a design concept known as "daylighting," brings in natural light, which allows the courthouse to use less electrical lighting.
