Behold: Shortlisted Firm's (Old, Outdated) Designs for Downtown Courthouse

Updated 3:52 pm: Four architecture firms are vying to design the federal courthouse planned for a weedy lot at First and Broadway and now here are some renderings. They come from Century City's Yazdani Studio (via SkyscraperPage) and reveal an intricate structure with several vertical pillar-like things (an SP commenter calls the building "The Radiator"). Update: Nope, sorry! These designs, listed on Yazdani's website, were done "over a decade ago in response to the first [request for proposals] for the LA courthouse," according to a rep. The courthouse went through the full bid process for an earlier plan that was eventually downsized. Yazdani is working (in the current competition) with Gruen Associates and competing against Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Brooks + Scarpa and HMC Architects; and NBBJ Architects. The feds were supposed to choose a winner last month, so hopefully we'll know soon. The courthouse is planned for a long fallow lot in the Civic Center--site of some recent guerilla art--and part of a deal that's caught the ire of a Central Valley Republican congressman, who's fighting it tooth and nail. Regardless, the 600,000 square foot building appears to be moving forward with an estimated finish date of 2016. To help pay for the project, government officials want to sell off the old Spring Street courthouse to a developer who agrees to build an office building on extra space next to the new First and Broadway courthouse.
· Federal Courthouse Archives [Curbed LA]