Cook County Criminal Courthouse/Google 2022

Perhaps the most noticeable feature on the courthouse’s front-facing facade are the eight Doric columns which extend from roughly the second story to the sixth. Distinct for their tapering width toward the top of the column and their rather sturdy, “masculine” structure, Doric columns originate from 6th Century Greece (Craven). Iconic structures like the Parthenon, Temple of Hephaestus, Zeus and the Delians have featured the columns, to a similar effect (Craven). Structures throughout American history have likewise appropriated these columns to evoke Greco-Roman ideals of strength, unity, and justice (Craven). It can be inferred that this strong and masculine column was chosen by the architects of the courthouse to further uphold their vision for the building as a bastion of civil and criminal justice administration.

This vision is more clearly defined in the eight allegorical figures devised by sculptor Peter Toneman. The figures symbolize Law, Justice, Liberty, Truth, Might, Love, Wisdom and Peace (Noel). Per Juliann Urban, allegorical figures “serve two purposes: first, they are an important person in the story in their own right, and, second, they represent abstract meanings or ideas,” (SCMA). In other words, such sculptures personify otherwise abstract ideals (SCMA). The tradition of such figures can be traced back to ancient Greece where, once becoming personifications such as “Love” and “Democracy” the figures could be “active participants in mythological stories,” (SCMA). Rome later co-opted this tradition, with a similar product—making otherwise intangible or abstract ideals accessible and easily-digestible for those who view it (SCMA). In the context of the 1920s where crime was rampant and local leaders were desperate for a solution to quell the problem, creating easily understandable iconography representative of legal justice and liberty is a fitting rhetorical strategy. However, as explained throughout this e-portfolio, these ideals do not reflect the reality of what occurs within the criminal justice system housed at the courthouse.