Sleek, doomed

With one $200 million-plus project -- the new convention center -- opening in downtown Raleigh, construction of another is expected to start next year. That's the planned 11-story Wake County Justice Center, intended to house scattered county offices and, mainly, to replace a severely cramped courthouse.

For sure, the new building will offer far better facilities. But progress comes at a price, and in this case it's not just the cost of construction. Destruction will take a toll, too. As planned, a fine building must be torn down to clear the way for the new Justice Center.

That's the structure at Salisbury and Martin streets known since 1995 as the Garland H. Jones Building, named for Wake's first county manager. In recent years it has housed county offices. But it was constructed as a bank building, the downtown headquarters of First Federal Savings & Loan.

Completed in 1961, the First Federal building is an example of what, most generally, can be called postwar modern architecture -- the sleek, sometimes stark designs of the mid-20th century. Although consciously "new" at the time, these buildings are of an era now past.

The First Federal building spotlights several of the design elements of the era. It has simple rectangular lines, extensive glass walls and a "floating" exterior panel of white marble. Notably, some of the glass panels are blue, scattered like the colors of an abstract painting. There's also a still-functioning reminder of the days when bank buildings sported time and temperature signs.

All in all it's a handsome building that rewards a second look. It could have a future -- might even come to be treasured, much as earlier styles are today -- but it stands smack in the way of the insistent new Justice Center. That's a shame, one duly noted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which recently placed the Garland Jones on its threatened building list.

It will be a sad day when this building, a minor masterpiece of cheerful, effective design, is lost.