GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Judges Await Redesign of New Courthouse

ORLANDO-Five Orlando-based federal judges on July 16 are expected to give their second personal opinion in six months when architects unveil the redesign of the planned $60-million, four-story, 308,000-sf courthouse for the middle district of Florida.

The judges’ first opinions in February were less than praiseworthy. They thought the glass-walled front of the building would make them sitting ducks for potential terrorist snipers or underworld assassins firing from a vehicle on nearby Interstate 4.

The General Services Administration, the largest property owner in the United States and an historical tyrant on property matters, was not amused by the judges’ opinions. But the GSA, under local and Washington political pressure, took the project back to the drawing board in a rare display of retreat.