FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Tuesday, February 4, 2003

New Queens Family Courthouse Opens

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JAMAICA Chief Judge Judith Kaye and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials opened the new Queens Family Courthouse today. Dormitory Authority Board Chair Gail H. Gordon attended the ceremony. The Authority provided financing and construction project management services for the $104 million courthouse.

The Family Courts home for the past 30 years had been a cramped, converted public library on Parsons Boulevard in Queens.

Chief Judge Judith Kaye said, For too long, families with cases in Queens Family Court have been subjected to anything but dignified surroundings, but now, with the opening of this new justice complex, they will be in a place that will inspire confidence and respect again.

Located at 151-20 Jamaica Ave., the new facility has 23 courtrooms, seven hearing rooms, 14 large waiting rooms, chambers for 16 judges, a childrens center, and offices for agencies, including the Law Department, Department of Probation, State Office of Mental Health and the Legal Aid Society.

What a change this facility will be for the families in Queens, said Gail H. Gordon, Chair of the Board of the Authority, who attended the opening. This is a court for the people. It welcomes parents and children with natural light, a beautiful five-story atrium and courtrooms, hearing rooms, and the agencies that serve families. The building upholds the decorum that matches the serious proceedings in Family Court.

Interior space was designed to help the more than 2,000 people who use the courthouse daily to move efficiently from place to place. Waiting areas with exterior views and maximum exposure to natural light should make the long waiting periods less stressful to families.

Chair Gordon added, The Dormitory Authority is privileged to be a partner with New York City in the financing, reconstruction and renovation of its court facilities. We also appreciate the confidence that the Office of Court Administration has placed in us. In Queens alone, we have partnered for the new Civil Court, this Family Court and the Queens Supreme Court renovation.

In 1999, the City Art Commission named this as one of the Citys outstanding public projects, recognizing the blend of traditional courtroom architecture with a family agency facility to serve the needs of a 21st-century city.

The Dormitory Authority project team was headed by Philip Piscatella, Director of the New York City Courts Construction Program; Project Manager David Galligan; Assistant Project Manager Julia Garzon; Field Representative Phillip Picnic; Ernest Papa from the Cost Control Unit; and Administrative Assistant Maria Pantoja.

Project architects were the team of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners/Gruzen Samton LLP. Bovis Lend Lease was the construction manager.

For more information, contact Press Officer Claudia Hutton at (518) 257 3382, or CHutton@dasny.org.

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