Austin's New Courthouse Gets Modern Stylings

Funding still has yet to be approved, but Austin's new federal courthouse might look pretty damn spiffy. Atlanta's Mack Scogin Merrill Elam, the architecture design firm that most recently design UC Berkeley's Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, recently submitted a preliminary artist's rendering of the proposed building, which will replace the current Intel shell at 5th and San Antonio. From the Statesman:

The conceptual design envisions a seven-story building with a modern look, "not a traditional courthouse," said Roger Curtis, project manager for the U.S. General Services Administration in Fort Worth.

The architects, Atlanta-based Mack Scogin Merrill Elam, aren't expected to complete a final design for the $60 million project until sometime in 2007. The drawing, which was done months ago, "gives a general theme of the exterior, but I wouldn't think the (final design) would look substantially different," Curtis said.

Construction wouldn't begin until 2008 at the earliest, as Austin is only one of many on the U.S. General Services Administration's list of proposed projects.