Case Study: Post Office and Courthouse, Texas

The original lobby was retained for continued post office use.

The former U.S. Post Office and Courthouse Building was constructed between 1929 and 1930 to house federal functions, including a post office, the district court, and offices for a broad spectrum of federal agencies serving the Dallas area. Occupying a city block, the monumental building is a 1930s streamlined interpretation of Classical Revival or Renaissance Revival architecture. Over time, the building size proved to be inadequate for the expanding federal functions within.

Top: West entrance detail with original lettering above second-floor windows. Bottom: Third-floor main corridor with its decorative columns, beams, wainscoting and tile flooring retained in the rehabilitation.

Consequently, the building was sold to a private owner in recent years, and a rehabilitation strategy was then developed to convert the upper floors to 78 luxury apartments while retaining the post office on the main level. The notable aspects of the $19.9 million rehabilitation included preservation of the historic steel casement windows; preservation of the elaborate post office lobby while providing compatible separate circulation for the residential floors above; restoration of the two wood-paneled courtrooms for reuse as community space (which included conservation of the stenciled plaster beams); retention of the central corridor layouts, features and finishes on the upper floors, and rehabilitation of the previously demolished office spaces for luxury apartments.