Lansing

Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Chief Justice Corrigan, justices of the Supreme Court, former justices who have joined us today, Chief Judge Whitbeck, judges of the Court of Appeals, and other honored guests from the Michigan judiciary:

Welcome home.

Greetings also to the members of the House and Senate, Mayor Hollister, and citizens of Michigan:

This is both an historic and fulfilling day. By one reckoning – dated from the Supreme Court’s move into what is now the G. Mennen Williams Building in 1970 – it took 32 years for this day to arrive.

By another reckoning – dated from the ratification of the Constitution of 1835 – it took 167 years for us to reach this point. Since Attorney General Frank Kelley was the only witness to both events, we should let him decide.

Whatever the time, we are all delighted – and I think moved – to gather at this place and to dedicate this new and impressive Michigan Hall of Justice.

The Michigan judiciary has come a long way since meeting, back in the 1830s, in a tavern on Fort Street

in Detroit. How we got from there to here is quite a tale.

A key chapter in the story began 82 years ago when a man visited Lansing and had an idea.

That man was Harland Bartholomew, one of America’s first great city planners. When he arrived in Lansing in 1920, our city was still relatively young; all this had been a wilderness at late as the 1840s.

Bartholomew did not think Lansing was as attractive as it should be; it had grown without any order or plan; and he believed that a capital city should be a beautiful city, an attractive place to visit and conduct the people’s business. At the time of his visit in 1920, the Cass Building was under construction. It was the only other state office building at the time, and he thought that it was a good classical design. But Bartholomew was dismayed that the Cass Building bore so little spatial relation to the Capitol. As he put it, the new state office building was "shunted off to the side."

Bartholomew wrote a report in which he said – quote – "This practice of haphazardly spotting magnificent buildings in the capitol city is unworthy of Michigan."  He recommended that Lansing take its cue from Washington, DC, with its beautiful mall extending west from the Capitol building.

There should be dignity, order, and beauty in Lansing’s Capitol complex. Spaces should be designed to encourage citizens to enter the mall, promenade its length, visit public sites, and enjoy picnics on the grounds.

Bartholomew even envisioned a building on the west end of our mall that would anchor the wonderful public spaces and complement the Capitol. He advocated a building in the classical style to ennoble state government and to express the timeless values of our civilization.

For various reasons – above all, the Great Depression and then the Second World War – the state was unable to act on Harland Bartholomew’s vision for decades.  The Capitol complex only began to take shape with the completion of the Mason Building in 1953. When the other buildings went up along the new mall, with their ultra modern facades, the public response was not universally enthusiastic. The buildings did not seem humane or approachable.

Perhaps the low point came when there were calls for a new capitol building, and the leading design featured three upside-down pyramids, apparently to symbolize an atomic age capitol for an atomic age society.A proposal, by the way, which didn’t last very long. Everybody knew the atomic capitol was dead when people laughed at it, and Governor Milliken wisely let the plan wither on the vine.

Still, state government had this modernistic mall, and Michigan citizens were describing the architectural style as "Mussolini Modern" and "Kremlin West." It was clear that our people wanted a more traditional building to anchor the west end of the mall. We had to wait three decades more, but we finally achieved what Harland Bartholomew envisioned back in 1920, and what the people wanted …a magnificent building, as he put it, worthy of Michigan.

A building that complements one of the most beautiful state capitols in the nation.

A building whose colonnade invites citizens to approach our halls of justice.

A building whose glass dome lets light into our judiciary.

A building whose wings gesture toward the other branches of government.

A building with a Learning Center that is second to none.

A building of limestone and marble that symbolize the permanent things on which our constitutional republic is founded – justice, ordered freedom, and self-government under the rule of law.

A building, ladies and gentlemen, that is the finest state judicial edifice in the United States … a fitting home for the finest judiciary in the United States.

In closing, I would like to call attention to a small detail that is symbolic of the large events unfolding today. At each end of the mall are two paintings, two portraits. The portraits are of the same man and they are identical.

They are of one of the greatest jurists in Michigan history – the first chief justice to preside in our Capitol building – James Valentine Campbell.

One of these portraits hangs in the old Supreme Court Chambers in the Capitol; the other will soon hang in this great new Hall of Justice. If you look at the portrait, I think you’ll agree that Justice Campbell looks content.

I like to think that he looked favorably on the justices this morning, when they adjourned in the old Supreme Court chambers.

I like to think that he will look favorably on Chief Justice Corrigan, when in a few minutes she gavels open the Michigan Hall of Justice.

I like to think that he would be proud of his successors who have been good and faithful servants.

May the men and women who come to this building for generations to come find the justice they deserve.

God bless the work in the Hall of Justice. God bless Michigan.