Republic Square's dead zone

The Austin Chronicle has a piece on the forthcoming revitalization of Republic Square.  Republic Square will be remade with new anchors:  the federal courthouse, the post office mixed use project, and the Austin Museum of Arts.

I truly hope Republic Square's transformation succeeds.  But the federal courthouse will be a dead zone.  I've practiced law for fourteen years in federal courthouses; they're about as lively as a mausoleum.  Aside from a handful of employees, the traffic they generate consists of criminal defendants (who don't want to be there); civil litigants (who don't want to be there); and lawyers (no comment necessary).

On the positive side, the Chronicle reports they'll be demolishing the Intel shell to make way for the courthouse before the end of the year.   

Comments

[DSK]

Don't forget (sometimes) jurors.

[AC]

(Annoyed Grunt)! thanks

[M1EK]

During my time on the UTC, one of the handful of commissioners who served with me the whole time (and still does) was Michelle Brinkman, who ran (runs?) the jury pool for Travis County's Courthouse. She relies heavily on using the Dillo to ferry suburbanites to the building. I wonder how much free parking the Feds are going to build, since money's not much of an object? If they similarly rely on transit for juror travel, at least there's a tiny bit of street life coming that way...