New York Court of Appeals Building
New York Court of Appeals Building | |
Location | Albany, NY |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°39′8″N 73°45′13″W / 42.65222°N 73.75361°W |
Built | 1842[2] |
Architect | Henry Rector |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
Part of | Lafayette Park Historic District (ID78001837) |
NRHP reference No. | 71000520[1] |
Added to NRHP | February 18, 1971 |
The New York Court of Appeals Building, officially referred to as Court of Appeals Hall, is located at the corner of Eagle and Pine streets in central
When built it was known as the State Hall, housing not the court (which sat in
Rector's design incorporates all three classical orders in the building's rotunda and uses stone arches to support the ceilings in an early attempt at fireproofing. It is one of only two extant buildings known to have been designed by him. Other architects were involved in later work on the building. Henry Hobson Richardson designed the courtroom, originally located in the nearby state capitol in the 1880s and described by a visiting Lord Coleridge as "the finest ... in the world".
Building
The courthouse occupies half of the block between Columbia, Eagle, Lodge and Pine streets. The building itself takes up the southwestern quadrant; its parking lot, the southeast. The land slopes gently to the east, reflecting the proximity of the Hudson River one-half mile (800 m) in that direction.[11]
In the surrounding neighborhood are many similarly large buildings, most of them governmental or institutional and
Across Eagle Street is the two-acre (0.81 ha)
Exterior
The building itself is a three-story, 11-by-7-
In the middle of the east (front)
Above the columns and pilasters is a plain frieze divided by a small molded cornice. On the portico, the upper portion of the frieze has the legend "Court of Appeals State of New York" engraved in it. Above it is another, broader, overhanging cornice, also found on the pediment. The third story has the same nine-over-nine double-hung sash. Above it is a smaller cornice and parapet. In the middle of the roof is the dome,[2] clad in stainless steel, with an oculus and gold leaf finial at the top.[14]
Interior
Inside the ceilings are supported by
All seven judges'[b] chambers are on the second floor, along with their library and the conference room where they meet to cast votes on cases after hearing arguments. The chambers are finished in wooden paneling. A modern Art Deco chandelier lights the conference room. The third floor has some additional library space along with the offices of court and individual judges' clerks.[14]
Under the dome, the
In the rear wing is the courtroom, its interior decorated in ornately hand-
History
Originally, the building housed various state officials rather than the court. Insufficient space at the capitol led to the court's takeover of the building in the 1910s, the first of three major renovations in a century.[14]
1842–1917: State Hall
Created in 1777 during the
In 1833, the occupants complained that the building was running out of space and inadequate in other ways—in particular, they said, the many records kept within it could be destroyed in a fire. The legislature directed the capitol's trustees to find land for a new building. The trustees acquired the current land and commissioned local architect Henry Rector to design the building.[14]
According to architectural critic Talbot Hamlin, Rector's design "proclaimed the complete triumph of the
In addition to its architecture, the building would be notable for two aspects of its engineering as well. One was the use of the stone groin vaults to support the ceilings instead of the timber framing common at the time, an early attempt at fireproofing.[2] The other was the stone staircase in the middle of the rotunda, which started at the first floor and cantilevered out up to the third floor with no visible means of support.[14]
After the building's completion, the state chancellor, Register of Chancery, clerk of the Court of Appeals and its
However, the tenants of the building remained unchanged. The Court of Appeals sat in the state capitol, both the former building and
As the 19th century became the 20th, the state grew and, with it, its government. By 1909 the judges and lawyers alike were complaining that the court's capitol space was inadequate to its modern legal needs. The following year the legislature directed the court to appoint one of its judges to work with the state architect, then Franklin B. Ware, to determine whether the old State Hall could be renovated into an adequate facility. The court appointed Judge William E. Werner. He and Ware commissioned a report from a Rochester architect who concluded that such a renovation was possible.[14]
Even though the fire that ravaged the capitol in 1911 made the need for new court space more pressing, Ware refused to endorse the report, saying the renovation proposed was inadequate. Instead, he proposed redeveloping the entire area around the capitol (today the Lafayette Park Historic District) similarly to Capitol Hill in Washington, including a new courthouse on Swan Street.[14]
Ware's plan was rejected, and Lewis Pilcher replaced him as state architect. He proceeded with the planned renovation of State Hall. In keeping with the wishes of Chief Judge Willard Bartlett, Pilcher's most significant change to the building was a wing on the east to accommodate Richardson's courtroom, which could be moved to State Hall with the exception of its original ceiling.[c] On the interior of the existing building, the rotunda was faced in dark yellow faux Caen stone, and the judges' library, conference room and individual chambers were all painted in shades of cream and lit with pendant drop-globes.[14]
The court approved the redesign in 1914. Work began after the contract was signed the next year; it was complete in time for a formal dedication at the beginning of 1917. The building was at that time officially renamed Court of Appeals Hall, the legend still on its
1918–1959: Second renovation
For 30 years the converted State Hall served the needs of judges and lawyers alike. By the late 1940s its age was becoming evident. The state's
The work had been delayed while the judges considered, and rejected, building an entirely new courthouse, as their predecessors had in 1917. They heard cases in the Appellate Division courtroom at the nearby county courthouse, while they received temporary chambers at the capitol. The clerk of courts and his staff took their temporary quarters at an old storage building at Lodge Street and Maiden Lane. The reporter relocated to 6 Elk Street.[14]
Early in the renovation, a
A larger new dome, 64 feet (20 m) wide and 23 feet (7.0 m) high, built of steel beams and light concrete planks, replaced the original. It was sheathed in lead-coated copper and topped with a wooden cupola. Inside the dome a 34-foot–wide (10 m) mural by Eugene Savage, The Romance of the Skies, depicts the three seasons—fall, winter and spring—during which the court sits. Except for the removal of the cantilevered stone staircase, now deemed too structurally unstable to use, the rotunda remained unchanged.[14]
It was the only space inside that did. Many rooms received new coats of paint, and the ceiling arches were hidden from view by new walls. New elevators and stairs were installed to replace the original stone stair. Additional amenities, such as air conditioning, an enamel-walled kitchen and television in the reception room, were added for the judges. Their robing room was paneled in birch. Two of the seven judges had chambers on the first floor; the rest were upstairs. The paintings that hung in Robertson's courtroom were cleaned and rehung; a new carpet was installed.[14]
On the outside much of the original marble was removed and replaced with stone quarried in Vermont. Six Ionic columns and new stairs were built for the reconstructed portico. Above the main entrance, an 8-ton (7.3 t) emblem of the state seal sculpted by C. Paul Jennewein was installed.[14]
Despite the fire and the structural issues, the project was finished ahead of schedule in 1959. Nelson Rockefeller, who had succeeded Harriman, gave the court his full support. At the rededication ceremony that October, Chief Judge Albert Conway symbolically accepted the keys from him. Conway observed as he did that the new building reflected the "permanence of an ideal".[14]
1960–present: Third renovation
As it had following the 1917 work, the courthouse continued to serve its purpose for the next three decades. By 1999, however, it once again seemed inadequate to the needs of its users. The thick walls made it difficult to adapt for modern electrical and telecommunications purposes. The infrastructure within was almost half a century old, making it difficult to heat and cool the building. The space taken up by those walls meant that the courtroom was the only place the judges and all their combined staff could hold meetings. There were also very few spaces for the public within the building, frustrating attempts to make the court and its history transparent and accessible.[14]
The judges decided that it was necessary to make some small additions to the building along with the infrastructure upgrades. Chief Judge Judith Kaye designated Judge Richard C. Wesley, later elevated to the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals, as the court's liaison to the project, now managed by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York as the state architect's position had been abolished. After the necessary appropriations from the legislature, work began in 2001. During the 17 months it took, the judges continued to hear arguments in the courtroom but worked out of temporary quarters outside the city.[14] Project architects were DeWolff Partnership Architects LLP of Rochester.[18]
As the building had been listed on the
Elsewhere on the exterior, the dome was made over. The lead-plated copper installed in 1959 was replaced with stainless steel and the cupola from that renovation replaced with the current oculus. Its high-performance glass keeps out ultraviolet light and reduces heat inside. The gold-plated sphere that had topped the cupola remains above the oculus.[14]
Inside, the renovations once more made the ceiling groin vaults visible. The entire infrastructure was replaced, and the newly created space in the main building, plus the additional space in the wings, brought the building to 93,000 square feet (8,600 m2) of total floor space. The Red Room and the Jay Room were created on the first floor to host public functions and exhibits on the history of the court, as well as providing overflow space for those who wished to hear oral arguments in cases that attracted significant interest. All the judges' chambers were now located on the second floor, a change that Kaye had particularly sought.[14]
Photographs and other historical records were studied closely for information about interior decoration that matched earlier eras. The rotunda was done in shades of beige, cream and yellow, as it had appeared to be originally. On the first floor carpets, blues and reds were used following early 20th-century practices. The Red Room and all offices similarly have a painted faux-finish on the walls. Since the third floor is now largely new construction, it uses green primarily. Lighting used throughout duplicates the 1959 renovation, except in the courtroom, where reconstructions of the 1884 chandeliers complement a newly designed carpet.[14]
See also
Notes
- ^ In keeping with the inversion of the federal relationship in New York's judicial nomenclature, where the Supreme Court is below the Court of Appeals, those who sit on the former are called justices and the latter, judges.[15]
- ^ It can still be seen in the capitol's room 315.[9]
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ U.S. National Archives. pp. 2–3. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- U.S. National Archives. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- ^ ISBN 9780962536816. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Froessel, Charles (October 5, 1959). "The Restoration of the Historic Court of Appeals Hall" (PDF). Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ a b Albany, NY (Map). Cartography by Google Maps. AMCE Laboratories. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
- ^ U.S. National Archives. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad "Renovation and Restoration: 1842–2004" (PDF). New York Court of Appeals. January 2004. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
- ^ a b "New York State Constitution". New York State Senate. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- ^ "City of Albany History". City of Albany. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ "Architectural Firms". Rochester Business Journal. June 8, 2001. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
External links
- Media related to New York Court of Appeals Building at Wikimedia Commons