Manhattan Civil Courts Building | courthouse, 1960_construction, Modern (architecture)

 courthouse, 1960_construction, Modern (architecture)

184-foot, 12-story early modern-style courthouse completed in 1960. Designed by William Lescaze and Matthew W. Del Gaudio, it contains the Housing Court, the Landlord and Tenant Parts of the Civil Court, and elements of the Supreme Court and associated offices. A giant cube in shape, it faces a park to the south. The walls are clad in smooth limestone and partial curtain walls of glass and stainless steel frames with dark-grey stone spandrels. The curtain walls are at the center section of the south facade, the southern 20% of the east and west facades, and the entire north facade.

The upper walls are otherwise blank expanses of white limestone panels, except for a large 18-foot-high bas-relief sculpture on each side elevation, near the base of just to the north of the curtain wall section, by Joseph Kislewski and William Zorach. The sculpture on Lafayette Street, titled "Justice", shows a female figure (representing justice) above a baby and a snake. That on the Centre Street facade, titled "Law", shows a trio of witnesses swearing in on Bibles above a pair of female figures, one cradling a baby and the other consulting a book.

The base on all four sides is clad in black polished granite, slightly recessed. On the east side are two strips of short windows running along most of the facade. There are corresponding bands on the west side, but they only run along the southern half. The center of the north elevation has a recessed area with four square, granite columns, and a single band of windows above. The wall of the recessed area is metal and concrete and has a central entrance, with an entrance to the underground garage on the left. The south elevation is further recessed, with an arcade of square black granite columns in front of a glass-walled front.

The Civil Court of the City of New York was established on September 1, 1962 as a result of the merger of the City Court and the Municipal Court of the City of New York. This merger was part of a statewide court reorganization in response to Gov. Thomas E. Dewey's Tweed Commission, which issued its recommendations in 1958.