High Court of Australia, Canberra

Continuing on from my recent Canberra visit, here are some images I took of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the land.

Opened in 1980, the competition winning design was by Edwards Madigan Torzillo & Briggs, the same architects who won the design competition for the nearby National Gallery of Australia the subject of a companion post here in Open Views.

The Chief Justice of that day was Sir Garfield Barwick, and the building was nick-named "Gar's Mahal".

Again, a classic modern Brutalist design of off-form concrete and glass. The soaring Public Hall can be booked for recitals and such functions when the courts are not sitting.

This is a selection from a larger set of images posted in the Canberra album on my Flickr site.

All a99ii with Carl Zeiss 16-35mm Vario-Sonnar.
C&C welcome.

1. View from the lakeside promenade of Lake Burley Griffin.
Australian High Court, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

2. On the left, from a boat in the middle of the lake.
High Court, Parliament and Questacon, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

3.
Forecourt, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

4.
Split levels, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

5.
Public Hall, atrium, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

6.
Courtroom 1, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

7.
Public Hall foyer and artworks, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

8.
Connecting ramps, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

9.
Main atrium, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

10.
Mezzanine, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

11.
Courtroom 2, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

12.
Looking down from the mezzanine, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

13.
Public Hall with States mural, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

14.
Lake view from north foyer, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

15.
Forecourt with waterfall, High Court of Australia, Canberra by Joe Lewit, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.

Really nice
Too bad the weather changed and the clouds moved in. Beautiful building in and out. TFS.

Thanks for the feedback and comments.

As can be seen in Show Us Cities .... Canberra, our National Capital is a fully planned garden city that was designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin in the early 20th Century. Over the years the National Capital Development Commission has protected the intent of the original design principles and ensured that everything in the built environment accords with them.
It is home to some magnificent public buildings by some of the world's leading architects, mostly commissioned through design competitions.
I actually lived and worked there for six months in the late 1970s when I then worked for the Federal Government. It has grown and changed a lot.
One huge improvement nowadays is SatNav in cars. The radial/axial road layouts are impossible to navigate without it, and it used to be common for visitors to be driving around in huge circles, catching glimpses of various monuments and vistas along their way before being swept off course into another radial roadway.