When Coral Gables complex commercial and construction litigator Jorge L. Piedra became president of the Cuban American Bar Association in 2018, there was one thing grating on him: Miami-Dade County's civil courthouse was literally falling apart.

One of the county's first high-rise buildings, it was also lacking accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it had columns blocking the middle of its more than 90-year-old courtrooms because they used to be state attorney's offices, and it didn't have bathrooms on all floors.