Towering New Miami Courthouse Designed for LEED Silver
By CN Staff
MIAMI—One of America’s most iconic skylines will soon be joined by a towering beacon of justice, as work continues along on a modern new Miami courthouse downtown.
The 25-story, 474-foot-tall tower is rising across the street from the existing courthouse in the western part of downtown Miami. It will be complete in 2024.
The new Miami-Dade County Civil and Probate Courthouse will provide 620,000 square feet of modern facilities for the Civil and Probate Divisions of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, the Clerk of Courts and other related court partners and agencies. It comprises the construction of 46 finished courtrooms and a shell floor that will allow for the future addition of four courtrooms.
The new courthouse will replace the current Miami-Dade Courthouse, which was built in 1928 and has become functionally obsolete. It will be one of Miami’s tallest government-use buildings.
“Our design emphasizes the dignity of the justice system and the importance of Miami-Dade’s citizens in the judicial process,” said Jeff Goodale, HOK’s director of Justice. “We want to enhance the health and well-being of everyone who uses the building’s spaces and provide new efficiencies and flexibility to meet the County’s needs for decades to come.”
HOK’s team has designed the building to achieve LEED Silver certification. Sustainable design features include allowing an abundance of daylight into the building, strategies for energy and water conservation, and use of healthy interior materials. Strategies for resilience include raising the ground floor above the street level in anticipation of sea-level rise and locating mechanical functions on higher floors.
The new courthouse is the state of Florida’s first social infrastructure project to be delivered under a public-private partnership (P3) model. HOK is the architect/designer on the project, Plenary Group is the developer and financial sponsor, Tutor Perini is the design-build contractor and Johnson Controls is the operations and maintenance partner.
