The Yankee Stadium and its new park are just down the street from another public building complex: the Bronx County Hall of Justice. The Hall (or courthouse) opened for business in January 2008, and it was designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects. The building’s exterior is luminous and translucent, made up of glass panels, and the block-long façade is broken up into several parts, moving in and out along 161st Street, with stretches of a zig-zag glass wall that provides a lovely texture along the street. Unfortunately, most of the glass is translucent, so you cannot see inside the building as you pass by. Beyond the 161st Street entry wall, there are garden spaces that further break up the massing of this very large, full-block complex. The historic courthouse, located closer to Yankee Stadium, has a generous entry plaza, and a lot of intricate detail along its exterior walls. Mr. Vinoly’s Hall does not provide that urban entry foyer, and the beautiful glass walls do not allow for a pedestrian to gain either a sense of awe or familiarity.

My biggest problem with the building, however, is the interior. I served my jury duty there a few weeks ago, and the issue is the lack of public accommodation. This problem begins at the entrance, where the security clearance area is too small for the long line of potential jurors. We had to wait outside without any protection (on a rainy day!). Once inside, the jurors line up to go through the metal detectors, which were not accommodated in the design specifications for the lobby space. And finally, the jury assembly room is a windowless space! This room is adjacent to a lovely bank of windows that look out upon one of the garden spaces, so it is a particularly painful loss of daylight and outdoor connection.

All of this is a reminder that it is not enough for us, as designers, to provide beautiful spaces. We must think about the use, the choreography of movement through the space and building, that makes the experience of architecture either soar, or fall flat.