Fulton County commissioners on Wednesday agreed to spend more than $19 million to renovate the 105-year-old downtown courthouse.
The courthouse is now covered with scaffolding, after ornamental molding made of terracotta detached from the building and fell to the sidewalk below. Other pieces of the building have also fallen off in recent years.
The building, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, is nine stories and about 275,000 square feet. As part of the renovation, workers will replace or repair cracked terracotta and granite on the facade, replace the roof, fix exterior leaks and improve safety for pedestrians below.
The Lewis R. Slaton Fulton County Courthouse is part of a justice complex that includes two other buildings; those buildings are not part of the project. The architect of the 1914 building, A. Ten Eyck Brown, also designed the Miami-Dade courthouse, which was recently renovated, as well as other Georgia courthouses.
The total cost of the project is $19.1 million.
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