Queens Chronicle, Thursday, February 6, 2003 by Daniel Hendrick, Asst. Managing Editor

City officials and state judges cut the ribbon on Queens’ new family courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, marking the completion of the first new family court to open in the borough in three decades.
   The airy five-story structure, located at 150th Street and Jamaica Avenue in downtown Jamaica, had officially opened for business on Monday, January 27th.

The new $104-million courthouse, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in conjunction with Gruzen Samton, includes 16 courtrooms, hearing rooms, judges’ chambers and clerical offices.

An adjacent building, attached to the court on the second floor, houses a dozen city and court-related agencies, from the Administration for Children’s Services to the Legal Aid Society and Community Mediation Services.

Speaking in a cramped ground-floor courtroom with the court’s judges behind him, Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the new courthouse as a “magnificent” and dignified place to do important court business. Two thousand people pass through the court each day to adjudicate cases ranging from foster care to child abuse and juvenile delinquency.

“This new facility embodies our resolve to strengthen the family court which serves some of the city’s most vulnerable citizens,” Bloomberg said.

New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye said that the courthouse should “inspire in citizens respect and confidence” in the legal system through the dignity of the surroundings.

“Unfortunately, for too long families with cases in Queens Family Court have been subjected to anything but dignified surroundings—they have had to contend with the overcrowded and dilapidated conditions of a building that was never meant to be used as a courthouse,” Kaye said.

The new family court opened one year behind schedule, after the state abruptly fired general contractor L.A. Wanger in July 2001. Wanger did not forward money earmarked for benefits to the unions representing the subcontractors, causing some subcontractors to walk off the job over the dispute.

Wanger also ordered windows through subcontractors that were improperly manufactured, adding more delays. All told, the project exceeded the original $86.2 million price tag by $18 million.

On a tour following the ribbon-cutting, lead architect Ian Bader discussed the details that combined to give the courthouse an open and soothing feeling.

As visitors enter the building, they register at a ground-floor petition office. Then they are whisked up the central escalators to the upper-floor courtrooms through a glass atrium.

Each floor was designed to give sweeping vistas over Rufus King Park and Jamaica—all the way to Kennedy Airport—allowing in as much natural light as possible. Individual courtrooms are simply furnished to increase their efficiency and comfort.

“People are coming to the family court in difficult times and under some duress,” Bader said. “It was important to create an atmosphere that is pleasant, light and cheerful.”