Photos by Artefact and Tim Miller

Lehigh County hired Artefact as lead architect on the full renovation and retrofit of the Old Lehigh County Courthouse in downtown Allentown, PA, an early-nineteenth-century courthouse that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

First erected in 1817 as a modest two-and-a-half-floor stone building, the Courthouse has undergone numerous renovations and additions in different architectural styles over the past two centuries. A particularly notable aspect of these renovations is their coincidence with key dates in US military history; for example, a Victorian/Italianate-style expansion was constructed in 1865, the last year of the US Civil War, a small brick building for a law library was appended to it in 1898, during the Spanish American War, and a Beaux-Arts-style rear addition was erected in 1914, the first year of World War I.

By the mid-twentieth century, the mechanical systems in the Courthouse had become outdated, and the building could no longer accommodate the County’s growing needs for space. A new courthouse was constructed in 1965, and various courts, offices, and the law library were moved into the new building and other nearby County-owned buildings in the coming decades. While the second-floor courtrooms remained in use, the first floor was occupied only intermittently by nonprofit organizations, with many historic features falling into disrepair.

By the 2010s, the County again found itself grappling with space constraints, as the 1965 Courthouse was now bursting at the seams. The County selected Artefact to design a restoration that would preserve the beauty and historic character of the building through envelope and interior restoration, reconfigure layouts to maximize space, and overhaul mechanical systems to provide modern functionality, comfort, and accessibility.

As a result of our work, the County was able to consolidate many Court functions within a single complex for optimal utility while preserving and celebrating the unique character of the various architectural styles incorporated throughout the centuries.