In an online article in the Denver Post from a few days ago (Courthouse Design Gratifying) was a link to a PDF document containing renderings of the proposed Courthouse, Detention Facility, and Parking Garage/Post Office… the three components of the new $378 million Denver Justice Center approved by Denver voters in May 2005. While these designs are likely to get tweaked a bit, I would think they represent more or less what will be built over the next three years. I’ve reassembled the many renderings from the PDF into a couple of condensed images for your convenience. I imagine the full PDF will be available eventually on the city’s project website at www.denvergov.org/justice_center/, which already contains a number of other documents you can download about the project. Here’s a link (3.45 MB) to that PDF file from the Post, although I don’t know how long the link will last.

So, without further to-do, here are the renderings… let the design debate begin!

First, the Site Plan (click and expand to view at full size):

On the left is the courthouse on Block 012-W. On the right is the detention facility on Block 011-W, and at the bottom is the Parking Garage/Post Office on Block 020-W.

The new Parking Garage/Post Office building is the first component of the project to be under construction. It broke ground a few months ago and is now starting to go vertical. The architect is AR7 Hoover Desmond Architects. The Parking Garage/Post Office is scheduled to be completed July 2007. Here’s what it looks like now (left) and when finished (right):

Next is the Detention Facility to be located on the site of the now-vacant Rocky Mountain News/Denver Newspaper Agency building, across Delaware Street from the US Mint. The old RMN/DNA building will be razed in January 2007 to make way for the new jail, which will be completed in late 2009. This structure has been designed by Hartman-Cox and Oz Architecture. Here are elevations of the new facility (click and expand to view at full size):

Here is the design of the new Courthouse to be located on the site of the existing Post Office building between Gene Amole Way (Elati Street) and Fox Street. The Courthouse will begin construction in July 2007 with completion also in late 2009. The Courthouse design team is now led by local firm klipp. Here are the Courthouse elevations:

Finally, here are some perspectives showing most of the Justice Center complex and, in particular, the public plaza and street that will occupy the space between the Courthouse and the Detention Facility.