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California Courts Building Program Serves Largest U.S. Judiciary System

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Consistent with its population demographics, California has the largest court system in the United States , with more than 8 million court filings per year. The courthouse portfolio includes 500 individual building structures dating from 1854 to the present, comprising more than 24 million gross square feet that house both court and justice agency functions.


During the past 10 years, legislative reforms have unified the California courts as a separate but equal, independent branch of state government. One result has been the ongoing transfer of responsibility for the courthouses from the counties to the state. To manage that responsibility, a building program has been designed to meet the courts’ planning, design, construction, facilities management and real estate requirements.


The Legislative Mandate


The Judicial Council of California is the governing body of the judicial branch of the California government. The Administrative Office of the Courts is the administrative arm of the Judicial Council. In August 2003, the Office of Court Construction and Management was established as a division of the AOC, to implement the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 (Senate Bill 1732), landmark legislation that shifts governance of California ‘s courthouses from the counties to the state.


The OCCM’s mission is “to create and maintain court buildings that reflect the highest standards of excellence.” Its stewardship of this large court-building program includes:



  • Trial court master planning
  • Strategic planning for capital outlay
  • Funding to support design and construction of new and renovated courthouses
  • Real estate and facility management for the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and the 58 trial courts — one in each county of California.

Planning the building program


Before the passage of SB1732 in late 2002, and its Jan. 1, 2003 enactment, a small multidisciplinary professional team began to plan the future building program.


Using earlier studies and findings of the Judicial Council from a statewide assessment of buildings and borrowing best practices from partners in public and private sector institutions, OCCM worked closely with the courts during the last five years to develop the program.


Founded on a team-based structure with an anticipatory problem-solving philosophy, architects, engineers, attorneys, real estate professionals, risk managers and other highly qualified allied staff, and the expert professional consultants to OCCM have increasingly provided planning, project and building management support and services to the 2,000 judges and thousands of staff in the state’s superior and appellate courts.


Urgent Needs Remain


As the program is further developed and enhanced with the continuous transfer of facilities to the state and concomitant funding of new capital and renovation projects, services will be expanded to include on-site and on-call services to existing court facilities; real estate transaction and land acquisition support for new projects; expanded planned and deferred maintenance projects; and related planning, funding, design, construction and management support.


As documented in the 58 master plans prepared for the California trial courts by OCCM, there is an urgent need for construction and renovation of California courts. For example:



  • Only one courtroom exists per 15,432 Californians.
  • Twenty-three court facilities are in trailers because of the lack of courtroom space.
  • One-fourth of all courtrooms in California have insufficient space for jury trials.
  • Almost half of California ‘s court facilities have no way to securely transport in-custody defendants to the courtrooms.
  • Slightly more than two-thirds of the approximately 500 court facility structures have inadequate security.
  • A little more than three-fourths of the courthouses do not have adequate access for people with disabilities.
  • Most of the existing fire and life safety and structural conditions do not meet current codes and regulations.
  • Several hundred individual buildings have some level of seismic risk.

Accomplishment/Programs


Many accomplishments by OCCM have created the groundwork for this unique court facilities program. Those successes will provide the groundwork and basis for the next generation of California courthouses, including almost $300 million of new courthouse projects that are now active:



  • 4th District Court of Appeal, new courthouse in Santa Ana is in design development
  • 5th District Court of Appeal, new courthouses in Fresno and the Superior Court of Merced County are under construction
  • Superior Court of Fresno County new juvenile courthouse is in construction documents
  • Projects for the Superior Court of Fresno County/Sisk Federal Courthouse Conversion, Plumas-Sierra Cross Jurisdictional Courthouse, Mono-Mammoth Lakes New Courthouse, and the Contra Costa East County Courthouse are all in site acquisition and preliminary plans phase
  • Superior Court of Santa Cruz County New Watsonville Courthouse is out to bid

California trial court Facility Standards were developed and adopted by the Judicial Council in April 2006.


This effort resulted in detailed functional, technical and security-performance requirements for new trial courts. The standards, based on federal and California executive branch initiatives, will serve as the basis for achieving design excellence in court buildings.


A five-year infrastructure plan has been prepared for improvement of the court facilities in California.


The plan, which includes a prioritization methodology for 180 new capital projects totaling more than $8 billion, provides a rational framework for ranking projects. The plan was developed by OCCM in close partnership with the courts, and includes requests for funding for nine additional projects in Fiscal Year 2007–08, totaling more than $500 million.


A regional, team-based infrastructure was developed for facilities maintenance and real estate management of buildings.


The teams, located with the AOC regional offices in Sacramento, San Francisco and Burbank , are aligned with the judicial appellate districts to serve the courts in the vast geographical Northern/Central, Bay Area Northern Coastal, and Southern Regions of the AOC, respectively.


Ten court facilities have been transferred to the state with numerous additional transfers in progress, consistent with the intent of SB1732.


As noted in the Judicial Council’s five-year infrastructure plan for Fiscal Year 2006–07:


“The state’s court facilities require a renewed and continuing investment to ensure that they serve the public safely, efficiently and effectively, and that they provide equal access to the law and the judicial system.”


The groundwork laid by the vision and goals of the Judicial Council; the commitment of qualified and talented professional and support staff of the AOC and OCCM; and the interest, energy, and dedication of the members of the architecture and engineering, legal, and construction and facility management communities, will cultivate this investment. OCCM looks forward to the continued, long-term stewardship of this effort.


Rona G. Rothenberg, AIA, is a manager of the design and construction services for the California Office of Court Construction and Management. She has worked in institutional and corporate facilities projects for the past 20 years, and she writes and lectures frequently on this subject.