The courts around Foley Square are composed of several stately and imposing government buildings…read morewith neoclassical elements, including the New York County Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall US Federal Court, David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building, Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building, US Court of International Trade, Jacob K. Javits Federal Building and Surrogate's Court of New York County.
The Supreme Court building is just like you may have seen on TV or in movies*, tall Corinthian columns with a short flight of stairs leading up to the front entrance. Architect Guy Lowell won the contest for design on the building in 1913, its exterior modeled after a Roman temple, and work started 1919, with initial intent to be a circular building. Due to WWI, the plans downsized to a smaller hexagonal structure with a rotunda, and completed in 1927.
The court is open to the public 9am-5pm when there are cases proceeding and you are able to sit in, though I have not personally done this before. A security scan/metal detector is required when entering the building. Free tours are available to those interested in learning more about the judicial system, more info available here:
https://ww2.nycourts.gov/courts/1jd/supctmanh/Court_tours2.shtml
A main point of interest inside is the circular wall mural "Law Through the Ages" in the rotunda, designed by Italian artist Attilio Pusterla and painted between 1934 and 1936. It's divided into six sections depicting pairs of historical figures important to the history of Western law: Assyrian / Egyptian, Hebraic / Persian, Greek / Roman, Byzantine / Frankish, English / early colonial, with the final section portraying George Washington / Abraham Lincoln. Above the seated figures are portraits of six lawgivers: Hammurabi, Moses, Solon, Justinian, Blackstone and John Marshall.
*These include most famously:
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Goodfellas (1990)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
- Night Court, television series
- Law & Order and its many spinoffs
- Cagney & Lacey
- Damages
- Blue Bloods
- Suits, television series