Gee, the new courthouse is keen!

In a burst of civic pride, the Chronicle yesterday carried a glowing description of the soon-to-open Harris County Civil Courthouse. It's big! It's modern! It cost a lot! And it has a dome!

The new building's facade combines the sleek style of glass skyscrapers with the bulkier style of stone buildings capped by arched roofs and ornamental designs. The building's four corners are all glass while the middle of the building is composed of brown precast concrete and smaller windows.

The new building pays extensive homage to the old courthouse, whose most prominent feature is its dome.

The new building also is capped by a dome, clearly visible from Interstate 10 and U.S. 59 where they pass near downtown.

Like the old building, the new courthouse has columns on its front and rear faces. But these columns are elongated, extending from the third to the 17th floor.

"Extensive homage" — well, yes, except whereas the 1910 courthouse is a massive Beaux-Arts pile, the new building looks like a 17-story strip mall with a dome on top. The 70-foot dome, which serves no purpose other than to look "official," sticks in Houstonist's craw. As architectural historian Stephen Fox said this summer, "In the end, it should be about good architecture and not just having an irrelevant feature for the purpose of having an irrelevant feature." Of course, the design of the building shows the county is trying to make an architectural statement, even if that statement is "We like distinghished-looking crap."

Apart from the architectural wonders of the new courthouse, the Chron tells us something interesting about the way the county handles its court operations:

Sprawling Sun Belt cities similar to Houston, such as Los Angeles and Phoenix, rely on regional and satellite courthouses, not solely downtown court buildings.

County officials considered going the regional courthouse route, but rejected the concept.

"It was more efficient to operate in a consolidated location than in satellite locations," said County Judge Robert Eckels. "The judges and our operations people all felt it was better operationally to have one location."

According to officials, if the Houston area sees the massive population growth expected in the next 20 or 30 years, the county may open satellite courthouses in the suburbs. We understand budget constraints the county must have now, but it seems it would be wise to start planning for those satellite courthouses now — after all, it's already an ordeal to go downtown most days. But far be it from Houstonist to tell Harris County how to run things.

Civil courts should begin moving into the new courthouse in March, and the building should be fully up and running by the summer. At that time, the old courthouse will be restored to its 1910 glory and will house two state appeals courts.