[KevinFromTexas]

Does anyone know of a courthouse that has retail or maybe some other use with it such as commercial office or residential? Are there any that have both or all three uses in one building, or even some that share a block?

The reason I ask is Travis County where Austin is has purchased a block in downtown with plans to build a 17-story courthouse. The property is an entire block with no height restrictions.

The Austin forumers are all kind of mad about it, because the block sits in an area that the City has been trying to redevelop with tons of retail and residential and have it be a lively place. Our fear is that it won't have any street level retail and will make the neighborhood sterile and even kill off pedestrian activity after the courthouse closes everyday. The block is also across the street from a park, and caddy corner to this block there is a federal courthouse currently under construction.

The 2nd gripe with it is that Austin has capitol view corridors set up which create these sight lines to view the Capitol dome from certain places. So some blocks in downtown lie within those view corridors and cause height restrictions on those blocks. What makes us unhappy about it is that this block where the courthouse is planned is the last undeveloped block in downtown that is not affected by the view corridors. So someone could put a 1,000 foot tall building there if they wanted to. But it looks like we're only going to get a 17-story building and may not get any street level retail or any additional height from it being mixed use.

So are there any courthouse highrises or lowrises that are mixed use?