As part of a statewide courthouse improvement program, the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse was programmed to serve the expanded needs of the courts of Suffolk County in conjunction with Boston’s two historic courthouses, which are scheduled for renovation. During the final design stages, the project was expanded to incorporate an urban park between the courthouse and its neighbor, the State Services Center, and to refurbish and improve access to its raised plazas overlooking the park.

The Edward W. Brooke Courthouse provides accommodation for four specialized court groups: Land Court; Probate and Family Court; Juvenile Court and Housing Court. The four court groups share eighteen courtrooms and twenty-four judges’ lobbies. Each court group has a clerk’s office, probation or counseling offices, and public transaction counters. Shared court support functions such as jury assembly, alternative dispute resolution facilities, central detention, court clinic and child care are provided for. The facility will also house the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, the Administrative Offices of the Trial Courts (AOTC), and a small cafeteria. Three separate circulation systems, public, staff and prisoner are seamlessly incorporated into the design.

Located on the last parcel to be developed of the Boston’s Government Center urban renewal plan of the 1960’s, an irregularly shaped, sloping lot that had been used for surface parking, the courthouse renews the urban fabric. A four-story arcade along the west façade reconnects New Chardon and Merrimac Streets at mid-block, terminating in a monumental portico, signaling a second entrance into the building and framing the view into the park from New Chardon Street. The main entrance is located at the corner of Merrimac and New Chardon Streets, a prominent location suitable to the importance of the civic function within. Although the courthouse has its own identity, the sympathetic massing and the selection of compatible materials create a cohesive urban complex in a dialogue with Paul Rudolph’s adjacent State Services Center.

The courthouse is organized around a four-story, skylit atrium. The court transaction areas are located on the lower two floors with the courtrooms and judges’ chambers on the upper two. The top floor of the building houses the AOTC, which was designed to be remodeled into courtrooms for future expansion, and, utilizing the fifteen-foot slope of the site, a lower level of office spaces houses the Registry of Deeds. The central atrium provides generous and easily understood public access to all court functions. Behind the courtrooms, a private corridor connects the courtrooms with jury deliberation rooms, judges’ chambers, and staff stairs and elevators. Deep clerestory windows from the courtrooms to the exterior wall bridge over these corridors, filling the courtrooms with natural light and providing court participants with a glimpse of the outside world.

 

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