At a time when Americans are deeply divided about the role of government and whether judges should interpret or apply the law, courthouse architecture has become a potential battlefield.

Adding a 440,000-square-foot clinic to an urban site already occupied by several buildings requires a talent for master planning, architecture, and logistics.

Having worked together since 1977 and been partners since 1986, Williams and Tsien (who are married to each other) have developed a practice known for its lyrical designs that bring out the humanity in institutional buildings and highlight the poetic in residential ones.

This is the eighth year that Samuel Mockbee and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama’s Hale County.