Our new federal courthouse
A Treasure Coast Essay (2011-12-12)
FORT PIERCE, FL (wqcs) - The new federal courthouse in downtown Fort Pierce won't be dedicated until March 16. But it is already open for business. The imposing four-story white structure at U.S. 1 and Orange Avenue is hard to miss. The main entrance facing U.S. 1 is at the top of a flight of stairs taking you to the second level. You enter a sun-drenched glass-walled atrium. The U.S. Clerk's office is on the first floor. Two courtrooms and space for two more are on the top floor. On the floors in between are the U.S. Attorney's office, grand jury rooms, the Marshal Service and Probation Service A Bankruptcy Court will come later. The new courthouse takes on some of the heavy workload of the U.S. Southern District of Florida. It serves St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River, Okeechobee and Highlands counties. It was designed by the architectural firms Merrill, Pastor and Colgan of Vero Beach and PGAL of Boca Raton. They combined aesthetics with security measures, such as blast-resistant materials. The contractor was WG Mills Incorporated of Sarasota. Subcontractors included companies in the Fort Pierce area. The courthouse was finished on schedule. And the last we heard it was within its $42 million budget. Good! For 88.9 FM this is Paul Janensch.
Treasure Coast essayist Paul Janensch was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
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