In this courthouse only a few blocks from the earlier Page-designed county courthouse (
AU6), this building restates the Art Deco influence with a classical orientation. Ground was broken in late 2009 for a new U.S. courthouse four blocks to the south at W. 5th and San Antonio streets designed by Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects of Atlanta with PageSoutherlandPage, Architectural Engineers Collaborative, and the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, with landscape design by Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco. The seven-story courthouse's cubic design is fractured by vertical slices into the masonry skin and large cut-outs at the corners. The city agreed to close the block of San Antonio Street between the courthouse and the park, unifying the two sites into a major civic space otherwise lacking in downtown. Republic Square, the one remaining square in Austin's original town plan, is frequently used for a farmers' market, adding considerable pedestrian activity to this quarter.