Palm Beach Architecture: Courthouse Divides Pt. III

                From the oldest origins of the neo-classical Miami-Dade courthouse, to the tropical decay brought to mind by the Fort Lauderdale courthouse, we bring you, finally, to 1994-built main courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach.  The WPB house of justice is perhaps a middle ground between the ancient origins of Miami-Dade’s courthouse and the new wave tropical decay of Fort Lauderdale’s.

                

Consider the attempt to give the pedestrian entryway from Dixie Highway some form of permanence: little stone monuments! Quotes! Wow!  Unfortunately, these “monuments” bear an unfortunate resemblance to road barriers.  No one could think of a more inspiring testament to our system of justice?

Consider also the symbolism of the arch at the top of the entryway between the two wings of the building: this rather overt walkway is symbolism by blunt instrument; an attempt to symbolize the openness of the justice system – come one, come all, you are welcome here.

                Yet for this critic, as you may have suspected gauging by my earlier commentary on the neo-classical Miami-Dade courthouse, the overall effect of the design strikes me as rather cheesy.  The arch, for all its pompous self-importance in the skyline of West Palm Beach, is something that beats you over the head.  Its supposed symbolism slaps your face, rather than the timeless pillaring and triangular designs of Miami.  

          Consider the effect of the building as a whole: [Special thanks to Mr. Keith Vincent of the fascinating www.courthousehistory.com website for allowing use of the image below].

           To this critic, this design calls to mind the 2000s, the era of the Rush Limbaugh pill trial, rather than the eternal struggle of truth - the quest for Western man to better himself - called to mind by timeless Greco-Roman columns of Miami.  The cheap attempt to replicate or imitate columnar shapes in the second levels do not inspire.

                I know there will be some in our audience who disagree – but we at the FAD Palm Beach will always err on the side of the classic-yet-never-outdated rather than siding with those who confuse a pretentious symbolism with weightiness.  

We at the FAD blog temporarily take leave of critiquing our public buildings.  But to those who think that architectural design in courthouses is a mere trifle, consider the timeless, evocative response felt by an earnest bankrupt in Honore de Balzac’s Cesar Birotteau, who can express the weight of our courthouses' symbolisms better than we ever could:

"To those persons who take society in its serious aspects, the paraphernalia of justice has a grand and solemn character difficult perhaps to define. Institutions depend altogether on the feelings with which men view them and the degree of grandeur which men's thoughts attach to them. When there is no longer, we will not say religion, but belief among the people, whenever early education has loosened all conservative bonds by accustoming youth to the practice of pitiless analysis, a nation will be found in process of dissolution; for it will then be held together only by the base solder of material interests, and by the formulas of a creed created by intelligent egotism......

It is a rare thing nowadays to find men who mount the stairway of the old Palais de Justice in the grasp of keen emotions. Cesar Birotteau was one of those men.....

Possibly the mind is sobered by a glimpse, caught through the rich gratings, of the Place du Palais-de-Justice, where so many sentences have been executed. The staircase opens above into an enormous space, or antechamber, leading to the hall where the Court holds its public sittings.

Imagine the emotions with which the bankrupt, susceptible by nature to the awe of such accessories, went up that stairway to the hall of judgment, surrounded by his nearest friends....."

We seriously doubt that the West Palm main courthouse could evoke such serious emotions among litigants and the public.  Which would be more likely to bring forth such gushing respect for a nation’s judicial institutions, the nondescript West Palm building which could just as easily be an office building, or the classic, neo-classical look of the Flagler courthouse?