Courthouse

Each United States district court also has a federally owned building that houses courtrooms, chambers and clerk's offices.

Courthouses are often shown in American cinema (i.e. "Peyton Place", "Back to the Future", and "My Cousin Vinny").

They range from small-town rural buildings with a few rooms to huge metropolitan courthouses that occupy large plots of land.

Due to the modalities involved in the hearing of complex cases, including civil, criminal, and family law disputes, the architecture of court buildings can present significant security challenges to enforcement officers.

[8] Secure entrance vestibules provide court staff the opportunity to screen visitors to the building for contraband, such as weapons and narcotics, as well as for unauthorized access.

Mid size to larger courthouses often have separate entrances to the building for the public, prisoners, judges, and witnesses.

In lower risk settings, the security screening may be more perfunctory and serve as an information desk to direct visitors to the various agencies and offices housed within the court building.

Some courthouses in areas with high levels of violent crime have redundant layers of security.

One well-known court house in Canada is the Romanesque Revival (Neo-Romanesque) Old City Hall in Toronto, Ontario.

These characteristics include the materiality in terms of large stone construction, the repetitive rhythmic use of windows containing various sized arches and barrel vaults directing attention towards them, decorated spandrels (wall section connecting arches) and the inclusion of gabled walls (pointed sections).