Court's in Session

摘要

Just about a decade ago, the U.S. government declared a "judicial emergency." No, there was not a constitutional crisis. Rather, the nation's federal courts were determined to be "out of space." Thus began the federal government's ambitious courthouse reconstruction program with a mandate for the Gene;al Services Administration to build 160 new facilities over a 10-year period. "The courthouses we are building today represent many of our city's future landmarks," states Rob Andrukonis, AIA, director of GSA's courthouse program. "They are the means of representing the federal government for probably the next century, if not two centuries. They have to be designed right." With that directive, GSA has gone so far as to set the bar in the design community, especially where sustainability is concerned. In fact, as the agency responsible for operating all the federal government's buildings, GSA has established a design policy requiring all new facilities to not only meet the sustainable design criteria of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, but also achieve no less than Silver certification.