Toledo courthouse receives 2014 GSA Design Award

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) awarded the U.S. Courthouse in Toledo, Ohio, with a 2014 GSA Design Award. This award recognizes excellence in design engineering.

By CannonDesign May 27, 2014

Every two years, the GSA celebrates the accomplishments of its finest employees and the architects, engineers, landscape architects, urban designers, interior designers, artists, conservationists, and preservationists who create and safeguard the nation’s landmarks through this awards program. Mehrdad Yazdani will accept the award as part of a reception in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in downtown Washington, D.C.

The awards program stresses creativity and also streamlines the way GSA hires architects and engineers. Designed by the Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign, the Toledo Courthouse was cited by the GSA for its achievement in architecture and urbanism. The 232,000-square-foot courthouse, located on the intersection of Cherry and Michigan streets on the city’s Civic Center Mall, replaces a 1932 structure and features six courtrooms as well as space to accommodate future District Court expansion.

To ensure creation of a landmark building for the city, the design effort looked beyond the courthouse to the civic mall. The design process relies on a collaborative effort with city and county officials, judges, court administrators and downtown business leaders to improve the mall to meet community and governmental aspirations. The design also imbues a sense of democracy into the plan of the building by repurposing typical Jeffersonian elements such as domes, column, and the like – making the Toledo Courthouse a progressive building steeped with the modest values of our democratic system of government.

The new courthouse will accelerate the momentum for the revitalization of downtown Toledo sparked by such developments as Fifth Third Field, a new multipurpose arena, completion of the I-280 bridge, and other business, and civic initiatives. The project is registered for LEED Gold certification.

This article originally appeared on CannonDesign.com https://www.cannondesign.com/ideas/news/firm-news/2014/04/30/toledo-courthouse-receives-2014-gsa-award/. Edited by Jessica DuBois-Maahs, associate content manager, CFE Media, jdmaahs@cfemedia.com.