Design of US courthouse is inspired by protection of levees

GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) - A federal courthouse in the Mississippi Delta is being designed to mix security and transparency.

The Delta Democrat-Times reports the courthouse will be built on Stein Mart Square in downtown Greenville.

One of the building’s lead designers is Roy Decker of Duvall Decker Architects. He says one inspiration is the levees along the Mississippi River. Decker says that just as levees protect the city, the U.S. Constitution protects people from the “wilderness.”

The new courthouse is designed with lots of windows to represent how the courts should operate in the open.

Decker says the courthouse is supposed to last decades, and it will be built so it can change as technology needs to be updated.

The General Services Administration says the $40 million courthouse should open by 2022.

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Information from: Delta Democrat-Times, http://www.ddtonline.com