Orange County Courthouse

Orange County Courthouse

Among several new civic structures planned for Orange County, including a library and city hall, a courthouse project was assigned to Richard Neutra. Seeking to accommodate the needs of its users, Neutra interviewed a range of courthouse officials, including bailiffs, judges, clerks, guards, district attorneys, and public defenders. His conversations reveal a concern for both the requirements of the freely moving public as well as prisoners under guard. The building has a twelve-story tower outfitted with fixed vertical louvers on the north and wider movable louvers on the south. At the base of the tower, a lower, two-story court building is also shaded by large louvers. On the east end, a white staircase is pulled away from the building and becomes a discrete sculptural element.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 453.