Supreme Court Library

San Juan

The original Supreme Court of Puerto Rico was designed in 1956 by the architectural firm Toro-Ferrer. Fifty years later, the need to project towards the future leads to the design of the New Supreme Court Library. With much respect to its iconographic predecessor, the new library uses simple horizontal forms and a modern language to establish a visual relationship with the existing buildings. The program attends to all the requests for the expansion: book storage, office spaces, a new entry gate and a multi-story parking. The entry atrium serves as a public art exhibit space which connects to the multifunction areas through a grand staircase. It simultaneously redefines the entry sequence by becoming the new gate to the judicial compound. The 22,000 square foot open plan library hovers above berms and setbacks to integrate itself upon the landscape. The book storage is conceived as a solid vault. The reading areas and office spaces are displaced from the main volume to open up views towards the landscape of the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park.