Georgia Justice Center. (Photo by John Disney/ ALM)

The new home for the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals has reached the halfway point in construction, and the steel frame is almost done, a spokeswoman for the State Properties Commission said Monday.

That last piece of steel will go up during a “topping out” ceremony on Nov. 13, according to Morgan Smith-Williams, public relations coordinator for the commission and Building Authority. The topping-out event will be a chance to celebrate for the contractor, Gilbane, and the architectural firm, Stevens & Wilkinson, but Smith-Williams said the justices from the Supreme Court and the judges from the Court of Appeals will also be invited.

As it turns out, the date is the same as the opening of the emergency called session of the General Assembly to address budget changes because of the hurricane damage to so many Georgia counties.

“It's really coming into form,” Smith-Williams said. “If you drive down Memorial Drive, you'll see the outside is framed.”

The building is the brick-and-mortar part of Gov. Nathan Deal's vision for the state's justice system, the first home for the intermediate and high appellate courts, which up until now have been jammed into state office buildings with the attorney general and other departments.

Legislative leaders have already announced plans to name the building after the governor: the Nathan Deal Judicial Center.

Initial plans had been to open the building in August 2019. The ribbon-cutting ceremony has now been pushed to December, with hopes of moving judges and their staffs in during the holiday season and opening to the public at the start of 2020, Smith-Williams said.

Thus far, the state has appropriated $122 million for the building. First came a $7.5 million outlay in 2015 for design. In 2016, the state set aside $6.5 million to demolish the abandoned state archives building that was on the site. The building authority sold $105 million worth of bonds in 2017 for the bulk of the financing. An additional $3.5 million came from a supplemental budget appropriation last year to finish the cleanup, which included removal of toxic chemicals from a dry cleaner and gas station once on the land, according to Building Authority Executive Director Steve Stancil.

The plan calls for 224,000 square feet of space on a 5-acre site facing the gold dome of the Capitol, with a 112-foot atrium that will connect six of the eight floors, Smith-Williams said. The next change visible from the ground will be the addition of large windows. Smith-Williams said the contractor wants those installed as soon as possible in order to operate the heating and air conditioning system, which is important to protecting the wood and terrazzo that will go on the inside.

The building also will have a pull-through area for drop-off and pickup, which could come in handy, since it doesn't have public parking planned. Secured parking underneath the building will be for judges only. For everyone else, parking options will look about the same as now. Smith-Williams suggested the garages on the other side of the Capitol, noting that parking is already a problem on the hill.