City-County Building

Civic Pride

In the early 1960s, construction of interstate highways and urban renewal reshaped many downtowns across the country. In southern Indiana, construction of Interstate 64 and the Sherman Minton Bridge through downtown New Albany cleared four blocks for new federal, county, and municipal buildings. More than 60 years later, the area remains a remarkably cohesive enclave of Modernist civic architecture—including three buildings designed by the local firm of Walker, Applegate, Oakes and Ritz—but without intervention that design legacy could be lost.

The firm established the area’s character with the New Albany Floyd County City-County Building completed in 1961. The streamlined rectangular glass and concrete structure embodies Modernist principles through a symmetrical façade with minimal ornamentation, accented by three inscribed medallions and a distinctive curved entry canopy. The building is significant as Indiana’s first combined City-County Building, made possible by the Indiana County Building Authority Act of 1953. Walker, Applegate, Oakes and Ritz later designed the federal courthouse and public library across the street, creating a unified civic grouping.