United States Courthouse, Foley Square

History and architecture

This imposing neo-classical skyscraper, begun in 1933, was the last building designed by the noted American architect Cass Gilbert, who died in 1934 while the courthouse was under construction. It was completed by his son, Cass Gilbert, Jr. Gilbert was born in 1858 in Zanesville, Ohio, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then joined the prestigious firm of McKim, Mead & White as Stanford White's personal assistant. In 1882, he left New York to open his own architectural office in St.

Paul, Minnesota, where his best known work was the State Capitol, designed in 1896 and completed in 1903. After he won the competition of 1905 for the United States Custom House at Bowling Green--now a designated New York City Landmark--he moved back to this city. With the completion of the Woolworth Building in 1913--then and for many years the tallest building in the world--he gained international fame. The innovations necessary for the construction of such a high building reflected his lifelong interest in structural techniques.

Among his best known later buildings are the West Virginia State Capitol, the Detroit Public Library, the United States Chamber of Commerce and the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D. C., the New York County Lawyers' Association Building, another New York City Landmark, and the New York Life Insurance Building.

Gilbert felt that the key to good architecture was proportion. By this he meant not only the ratio of various elements to each other, but also the amount of decoration, and a style that was appropriate to the building's function. It was not then considered inappropriate for a commercial skyscraper, such as the Woolworth Building, to be a neo-Gothic structure--it was, after all, a "cathedral of commerce"--but it was generally assumed that a government building, such as a state capitol or a courthouse; should be classical in style.

This solution to the problem of the skyscraper worked very well in the design of the United States Courthouse. As seen from a distance, it is the tower of the build-ing, with its golden pyramidal roof, that dominates. From Foley Square, the monumental colonnade at the entrance is the dominant architectural feature, in the tradition of the adjoining New York County Courthouse and the Municipal Building. Interestingly enough, this colonnade theme is repeated in the arrangement of stilts supporting the new annex to the United States Courthouse located on Police Plaza.