The Aurora Municipal Justice Center - Aurora, CO
The first phase of the development of the Aurora Municipal City Center, the 205,000 s.f. Justice Center was comprised of a new detention facility, the centrally located and domed courthouse building and an addition to the existing, and well-worn police station for the major suburb community near Denver. Robert E. Fitzgerald was the lead designer for what was to be the last project of the Denver office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Known as the catalyst for the unification of the city around a common civic core, the justice center was a daring blend of classicism and innovative technology. Fitz was responsible for the entirety of the detention center design, in constant consultation with the Aurora Police Chief and his staff. He also was the lead designer and detailer of the exterior facades of the entirety of the justice complex; working closely with the same pre-cast concrete manufacturer as he had utilized at the Colorado Center development in Denver. The justice center is a close relative therefore, to the form and styling of the Colorado Center office complex but on a one and two-story, much more horizontally oriented, scale.
The building's construction documents were completed a few years later by the D.C. office of SOM. The center was also known to be one of the forces unleashed by Fitz and the Denver office intended to move the firm into a more tradition and idea-based design strategy. A winner of many design awards for excellence, including the 1990 - In the Public Interest Award, this building (and the design direction it embodied), was never really studied further by the firm for which Fitzgerald worked at the time of its creation. The style for the rest of the City Center was set however, and the resulting complex has given the city a true iconic civic core.
Photos
The first phase of the development of the Aurora Municipal City Center, the 205,000 s.f. Justice Center was comprised of a new detention facility, the centrally located and domed courthouse building and an addition to the existing, and well-worn police station for the major suburb community near Denver. Robert E. Fitzgerald was the lead designer for what was to be the last project of the Denver office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Known as the catalyst for the unification of the city around a common civic core, the justice center was a daring blend of classicism and innovative technology. Fitz was responsible for the entirety of the detention center design, in constant consultation with the Aurora Police Chief and his staff. He also was the lead designer and detailer of the exterior facades of the entirety of the justice complex; working closely with the same pre-cast concrete manufacturer as he had utilized at the Colorado Center development in Denver. The justice center is a close relative therefore, to the form and styling of the Colorado Center office complex but on a one and two-story, much more horizontally oriented, scale.
The building's construction documents were completed a few years later by the D.C. office of SOM. The center was also known to be one of the forces unleashed by Fitz and the Denver office intended to move the firm into a more tradition and idea-based design strategy. A winner of many design awards for excellence, including the 1990 - In the Public Interest Award, this building (and the design direction it embodied), was never really studied further by the firm for which Fitzgerald worked at the time of its creation. The style for the rest of the City Center was set however, and the resulting complex has given the city a true iconic civic core.
