United States Courthouse for the District of Utah, Federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, United States
The Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse is a ten-story cube of anodized aluminum and clear glass at 351 South West Temple, measuring 180 feet on each side and nearly 200 feet tall. Its ten courtrooms sit at the four corners of floors three, seven and eight, and a ten-story atrium holds James Carpenter's suspended sculpture of 380 hexagonal aluminum tubes.
Plans for a new federal courthouse took twenty years to secure funding and property, with design starting in 1997 and security updates added after the September 11 attacks. Groundbreaking took place in January 2011, and Congress appropriated funding in 2010. The building opened on April 14, 2014, at a total cost of around $186 million, less than the original budget request because construction costs were lower during the Great Recession.
A central sculpture made of optical aluminum tubes by artist James Carpenter creates a focal point in the atrium. Visitors passing through notice how light plays across the installation, drawing attention to the open interior space.
The courthouse stands at 351 South West Temple Street, on the corner of 400 South and West Temple, behind the Frank E. Moss Courthouse; the two are linked by an elevated landscaped garden. The building is set back fifty feet from the street for security, and the main entry on the west side faces two reflecting pools, a smaller one to the south and a longer one to the north. The first floor holds a public café, a jury orientation suite and an intake counter.
The courthouse earned LEED Gold certification, and builders reported 86 percent waste diversion as the project neared completion. Its construction also required moving the historic three-story Odd Fellows Hall to Market Street, a transfer costing about $6.7 million that federal authorities negotiated with preservationists for months.
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