p_bubel said:

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This popped up on my Facebook feed, holy cow, they're going for broke with the restoration.



1929 Fire:


1939:


60s update:


Recent renovations:






Live Facebook feed:


Texas Escapes

Absolutely amazing.

I wish they could put back the old Brazos County Courthouse but that ship sailed with the wrecking ball.

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where there is a will.... and sufficient funds....

this is AWESOME ....

Quote:

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I wish they could put back the old Brazos County Courthouse but that ship sailed with the wrecking ball.

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Reminds me of Austin Co. (Bellville) 1888 Courthouse:

Replacement after 1960 fire:

My in-laws live two blocks north of the courthouse and it has been impressive to watch the progress. They even reopened the quarry in nearby Gober to to get the exact same limestone to match the original.

I hope they are restoring the clock tower and cupola.
Most modern architecture is crap pleased to see this restoration

Apache said:

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I hope they are restoring the clock tower and cupola.
Most modern architecture is crap pleased to see this restoration

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You can see both on the ground near the crane in the modern picture.

The destruction of the old Brazos County Courthouse and replacement with the one we have today was a crime against architecture. A real loss.

Zona81 said:

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The destruction of the old Brazos County Courthouse and replacement with the one we have today was a crime against architecture. A real loss.

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I think the biggest problem with the current courthouse is the addition that was done in the 80's. The 50's building has a lot of mid-century modern elements that are very attractive. Modernism works when you use attractive, high quality materials with very careful attention paid to the details. It actually takes a lot of work to make the building look that simple and clean. The problem with modernism is that if you start reducing cost at the sacrifice of those elements, you usually end up with an ugly building.

Windows would be nice!

Yeah, I have a real hard time finding anything about that 50s mid-century modern building that I would call attractive.

Apache said:

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Windows would be nice!

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Haha, no doubt! I think that was a product of the holding cells and courtrooms being on the upper floors and for security reasons they thought it best to not have windows. And once they moved the holding cells to a different building, they did add Windows to the 80's addition.