Communication Studies

by caroothers

The overwhelming experience that I had at the Mecklenburg County Court was the feeling of emotion.  It was an interesting meeting of emotions in a place that requires the suppression of emotion in making a decision.  In almost every court case that I witnessed, emotion played  a major role in my judgement of the case as an outsider.

In Civil Court, the domestic abuse trials were focused on convincing the judge that the person in custody was really a good person, and messed up one time.  The majority of the trial involved background on the convicted party proving how good of a person and citizen they are normally.  It resulted in each of the people that I witnessed (all were up for a removal of bail and release) being freed of their bail and released back into society.  I agreed with most of these decisions, but there was one case in which the judge seemed undecided.  The ominous words to end the trial were ‘Don’t make me regret this.’  This decision seemed like the back story on the plaintiff won the judge over emotionally.  With the criminal cases, the most striking thing was the representative of the state.  He was charged with prosecuting many people, and was not well versed in the background of the case, however, he had very little motivation and seemed to not be representative of the state.  It was a very emotionless plea that did not work even once through my observation.

The Family Court Trial was the most emotionally charged.  The case I witnessed involved a separated Father and Mother arguing over child support payments.  The father lost most of the arguments, and had to be told several times to be respectful and quiet.  It was overwhelmingly obvious that the judge did not like the Father, but to see his disgust with the man, and then side for him on certain aspects was very interesting.  The ability of the law to put motion aside and make a decision was clearly executed here, and sent that point home with me.  The Father’s failure to have proper representation hurt him in the trial, as he was not as well versed in the nuances of the law.  He would have won all of the aspects of the trial if he did not refuse to be witness to questioning.  It was very difficult for me to witness this case, as there was so much emotion and tension in the room.  It was obviously wearing on the judge over the course of the day.

The Family Courts have an entirely different spacial feeling than the other court rooms.  The common areas are all very soft and playful.  The walls are decorated with art, there are different color schemes throughout, and there were a lot of people and children milling about.  It came across as a much more informal area that respected the children and tried its best to not be imposing.

The Criminal Court trials featured several people pleading guilty and not guilty drug use/distribution.  To see a mother of two get convicted of Cocaine Possession was very interesting.  The Defendant pleaded guilty to get a reduced sentence.  This worked for her, and she was sentenced to the minimum jail sentence.  The family was distraught and inconsolable.  I was also able to speak with the judge about something I noticed about how the space functioned.  That was the amount of movement, people in and out of the room.  The constant movement was very distracting to me in the audience.  The judge said that in most cases it did not effect him, but he does get distracted on occasion.  He said that the respect for the courtroom has really changed over time, and he does not understand why people behave inappropriately and without respect.  He suggested trying to create a solution for the constant movement.

I was also witness to a trial by jury, in the case of a rape accusation.  This was much more typical to what I understand as a court room trial.  I was able to witness most of the witness questioning for the day, and felt the emotion leave the room in the trial.  This was a very by the book trial, as most of it was listening to lawyers.  The lawyers were very precise in their language and actions, which seemed to emulate the intentions of the law.  It was very interesting to see the lawyers take over and run the court room.  The amount of information that they had to get out of each witness was immense.  Very basic facts had to be repeated several times in order for the court to fully understand.  The Jury can be easily swayed by the emotional aspects, and it is interesting to see the lawyers try to control that aspect, in order to get sympathy toward their client, and anger toward to other party.

In all of these cases, it really boils down to someone not telling the truth.  I do not understand how it can get this far into the trial process, on a lie.  I am glad that the court system is there to interpret this, but it should never get this far in the first place.  I was disappointed with how most of the court rooms functioned, in that a mass of people were on trial for only a few minutes and then convicted.  I was expecting more of this.  However, all of the cases proved interesting and it was very nice to see the interaction of emotion and law, and how that affected the judges and the people on trial.

Intertwining Public and Private

by cchlebda

As I continue to develop study models and examine the courthouse program, I am becoming increasingly interested in blending or interweaving public and private spaces of the courthouse in order to make court and the law seem more accessible to the public. Though the private spaces of the courthouse (judge/staff/in-custody/etc.) have to be completely separated from public spaces for functional and security reasons, I am interested in finding ways to weave public spaces through the private spaces. One way I have experiemented with is to insert public spaces “in-between” private floor levels. Another way is to think about the courtrooms as nodes/bridges between private and public, since it is the only space in the courthouse where all parties (judge, jury, counselors, defendants, and spectators) are present together at any given time.

I developed a series of plans and models resulting in a kind of “finger” scheme, a series of alternating public and private wedges. I then took this a step further and started to look at how to bring the park/nature into the building. I also thought about the unique position of the jury (a combined public and private entity) and how their spaces might be positioned in the courthouse. In my plans, sections, and diagrams, I have been using blue to represent private spaces, yellow to represent public spaces, and green to represent outdoor, potentially vegetated spaces. The green is present in areas (in plan) where the public and private spaces start to intersect (coincidentally, blue + yellow = green); in other words, the building starts to open up exterior spaces where public and private spaces intertwine.

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Court visit

by JP Mays

On Tuesday afternoon I was able to attend several courts at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse; domestic violence, drug crimes arraignment, and a rape jury trial.

Domestic Violence/Magistrate

During this court there were multiple defendants and plaintiffs, separated in the spectator seating by gender.  I assume this to be in order to more effectively keep the peace in the courtroom, to prevent outbursts or even more assault.  The prosecuting table was set up with a computer and multiple files for all the defendants.  The DAs cycled through the cases, but it seemed very informal.  Whenever they began addressing the judge I was always surprised, because they’d just be sitting there, shuffling through papers, different attorneys coming and going, then apparently randomly they’d call a defendant up, and present the charges to the judge.  Most were pleading for reduced sentences or bail.  They also were very typically casually dressed, and showed little respect for the proceedings.

Drug Court/Arraignment

Here it seemed a bit more orderly, but there was still a lot of coming and going at the counsel tables and in the spectator area.  Many defendants pleaded for more time, and got their trials postponed for a month or so, for various reasons including more time to develop their case.  Some contested their trial since the plaintiff was not present, and either had that delayed or dismissed.  One defendant was not present, and then the bailiff had an interesting, proscribed, almost archaic speech he had to make, in a raised voice, calling the person to court.  When he did not present himself the judge issued a warrant for his arrest.   Several defendants were convicted and sentenced, handcuffed by the bailiff and taken away through a side door.  I found it interesting that any money seized during their arrest was donated to the Public School System.

Adam happened to come in also, and we stayed until the end.   After we left, we lingered awhile in the corridor discussing the cases, and then the DA came out and wanted to know a little about what we were doing, and if we wanted to meet the judge.  Naturally we accepted, and got to talk to the Honorable Judge Foust about our project, and our research so far.  He shared some insights on the increasing lack of respect in the courtroom and some of the distractions he is faced with daily.  He also tipped us off to a juried rape trial that was going on, so we thanked him for his time and headed that way.

Rape Trial

To sum up the trial, the plaintiff was allegedly held at gunpoint and forced into a vehicle by the defendant, who drove her to a semi-isolated street and raped her.  We came in during the cross examination of the plaintiff, where the defense attorney was trying to solicit testimony to support his client’s not guilty claim.  That was a very surreal experience, to watch her respond to his questions in a deadpan voice, giving many monosyllabic answers … “Yes,” “No,” etc.  She did not show much emotion, or cry, or seem angry.  Afterwards the prosecutors brought in two other witnesses to help flesh out what happened prior to and after the alleged rape.

This was the first courtroom I attended that actually had a jury (the others didn’t even have a place for one).  This trial was exponentially more formal than the others.  The defendant was dressed to the nines, very clean cut, and the attorneys addressed the judge very formally.  The jury was quite varied, but not all seemed completely engaged in the process, often being distracted by the spectators.  There also was an actual court reporter, which I did not notice in the other courts.

Impressions

Overall I had a pleasant interaction with MCC.  It is a very light and airy space, with all courtrooms publicly accessible from a corridor which wraps a large atrium.  It was easy to just pop into a courtroom, and I did not feel like an intruder.  While the security at the entrance was smooth to get through, I had to detour off the main procession.  It diminished the approach of the building, but since it was painless I did not mind it so much.  The navigation also was detractive, in that it was not clear which types of court are on which floor.  I wandered around for a while before I could determine which courtrooms held the types of court I wanted to attend.  In general, however, I feel that I have a better understanding of the courthouse and the courtroom, and would be more comfortable if I ever needed to return (hopefully not as a defendant).

by pdgaither

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This past week I have been developing several things. I began with further courtroom organization and developed a set of rules for myself while designing the court space, i.e. the jury box will always be in line with the witness stand, making the counsel always in line with the judge. I also looked at how the different parties of the courtroom move within the space. This set of diagrams informed a development of support spaces for the courtroom. I also looked at the overall design and look of the building. Very basic facade studies were done and a quick model showed how the building will reside within the landscape.

Further Concept & Progress Models

by workbymariahroth

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This week consisted of creating a module that can be manipulated in multiple ways.  This module is then duplicated in model form and then “slid” apart from each other.  Then in further models materiality started to play a role as well as slightly changing the proportions of the module.  From here I will develop the last model to further extent and with different materiality.

Form and Function?

by JP Mays

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This model was a combination of one of my rather blocky models and a more sculptural one.  The skin ended up being more figural and sail-like, which diverges too much from my weaving concept.  It was successful, though, in that it began to integrate an idea of skin with my interior volume concepts.

This led to a very organic investigation of connection to the site and the landscape, and how to weave that into a structural system to create spaces or vantage points.  I tried to explore the relation to the street, the nearby park, and views to Uptown.  So far, I’ve been pursuing this from the outside in.  Moving forward, I’ll be diving into the program and trying to merge my exterior, formal studies with a more direct programmatic approach.

Is It Possible To Freeze Movement?

by fcahill

I began this past week still looking at the individual courtrooms but progressed to looking at the court set as a whole within the site.  I continued to focus on ‘movement through built-form’ and fluidity by expanding to a slightly more flushed out concept model.

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Interpretive Dance

by caroothers

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Working toward extruding the dominant courthouse circulation into a site form.  The Lines of the interior circulation become the form of the building gesturing toward the public spaces and toward the greater Charlotte City Center.  A Sketch Model development toward discovering the form of lines.

Slipping

by Anna Raines

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My ideation models continue to explore the threshold concept begun in my site analysis, investigating the relationship between threshold and the court set. The expression of threshold at this stage has taken the form of “slipping” horizontal/vertical planes and light as the primary means of defining  the space of the courtroom and court set.

Layering law with community: Playing with more “legos”

by workbymichelletodd

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Following through with the approach of creating massing of my courthouse through a “lego” modular, I have pushed to create effects in my massing that reveal a sense of layering between the different volumes. Through my process, I have come to realize that all forms of law support itself and removing one part of law can create instability. With this thought, I began to find solutions that create a sculptural design so that it seems if one volume were to be removed, the building would no longer function and stand on its own. This philosophy also applies to the merger of law and community, revealing a symbiotic relationship between the two.