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VOELZ CHANDLER: Verdict still out on new justice center

Published September 8, 2007 at midnight

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When life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade.

Trite but true, but usually you need to add a little zest to the package, especially if you are trying to recoup from a major loss. During a recent presentation on the final designs on the two major components of the Denver Justice Center, that's all I could think of.

After three years of planning, after a long campaign for voter buy-in financially, after the sudden departure of the star courthouse architect, the unveiling of the final design seemed anticlimactic.

Perhaps it was the sense that this had become just another city project. It began in late 2005 with a high-profile night of architectural presentations at the Colorado Convention Center, then ended Aug. 30 in a stuffy room at the Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building.

Or maybe it was the fact that there was no full-fledged model on view to give a better idea of how the courthouse and jail will relate to each other across the plaza that links and separates them.

Anyone driving down that stretch of West Colfax Avenue can see how huge this site is, now that it has been cleared. As the city continues to talk about finding ways to stretch Civic Center west to Speer Boulevard, what fills these two prime city blocks becomes even more important.

But as presented 10 days ago, the new designs do not offer that promise. Maybe in a couple of months, when the city organizes a full-blown public presentation, the prognosis will seem brighter.

For now, here's what we know:

• The plaza: This connective tissue between courthouse and jail is shaping up to be a much more urban space than it appeared last fall, as is the landscaping within and around the two-block complex.

StudioINSITE has added more trees (12 varieties) to balance the hard surfaces. And designers propose a narrow width and colored pavement to indicate that Elati Street through the complex is more a drop-off for those with business in the justice center than a quickie cut-through between West Colfax and West 14th avenues.

• The courthouse: The glass folded-plate front facade and walls of the jury assembly room have become more complex. Now, architect Brian Klipp describes surfaces incorporating five types of fritted (etched, or frosted) glass layered with clear glass.

The vertical tilts of the glass have become more pronounced - not just the strip of glass that seems to peel off at the top of the building to denote a roofline or the strip that curves off at the base of the building to connect with the jury assembly room. That space, which juts out from the facade, has been sliced from two stories to one. More slits of glass have been added throughout the building.

The entry, on a line with Tremont Place, is defined by a dark gray granite to contrast with the light Alabama limestone that frames the facade and covers most of the building. Brighter illumination is planned over the entry.

A series of bays and floating planes of stone hover over the main surface to add dimension and movement, a device Klipp used on the convention center hotel.

• The jail: Little has changed in this 400-foot-long building that aims to serve two masters. It looks like an office building open to the public, while actually serving as a secure site for a couple of courtrooms and 1,500 beds for prisoners. The use of both clear and translucent glass is one technique the architects propose for this exercise in sleight of hand.

The material throughout is Indiana limestone, in a more colorful, variegated type than the courthouse. Pre-cast concrete will appear in some places.

• Public art: The tall, flower-shaped piece by New York- based artist Dennis Oppenheim has been moved a bit to the north of the plaza, closer to where Tremont Place meets West Colfax.

It's being termed a light chamber, since the soaring petals will be lighted and probably have a water feature at the core.

Percent for Art administrator Kendall Peterson said this week the $1.2 million commission will be about 30 feet in diameter at the base, rise 35 feet to 40 feet in height and at the top be about 40 feet in diameter, depending on the placement of the petals.

No surprise, but engineering is key in the ongoing discussions of this major work.

• Bottom line: The verdict is out on the entire composition until two things happen: First, a more fleshed-out description of the Percent for Art piece; then, the buildings and plaza corralled into a single, more tangible representation of what we'll see on those two key blocks.

And though adding more refined detailing shows greater thought, simplicity is preferred over tinkering that complicates a project where every penny counts.

Denver Justice Center

• What: new courthouse and jail

• Courthouse design: klipp, with RicciGreene Associates, Harold Massop Associates Architects and studioINSITE

• Jail design: Hartman- Cox Architects, with OZ Architecture, Voorhis Robertson Justice Services and RicciGreene Associates

• Cost: $265.6 million, funded by a $378 million bond issue approved by Denver voters in May 2005

• Estimated completion: December 2009 (jail); mid-2010 (courthouse)

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. or 303-954-2677

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