Spotlight – 2007 Justice Facilities Review
The American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Justice will in September publish the 2007 Justice Facilities Review, a collection of justice facility projects that demonstrate quality of form, functionality and architectural responses to complex justice design issues, according to the AAJ. The review will be featured at the AAJ 2007 conference on Sept. 26 in New York.
This year, 27 projects were selected by a six-member jury, including the following eight projects that were recognized with citations of excellence. For more information, visit www.aia.org/aaj.
Adams County Communications Center, Commerce City, Colo.
Architect’s Statement
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The 6,545-square-foot addition is designed to house a new dispatch center, support space, offices and lounge. The addition’s L-shaped organization is reinforced by a secure masonry exterior and a naturally daylighted zone that activates the space between the existing building and the addition.
The massing and masonry modulation of the existing building is referenced and reinterpreted in the addition on both the exterior and interior. Natural daylighting is maximized by clerestory lighting and diffused natural light from the south and west lobbies and lounge areas.
PROJECT DATA |
Jury’s Statement
This building embodies an elegant restraint that at once elevates the building itself, while simultaneously being perfectly in tune with its mission. An L-shaped addition surrounds an existing structure with a hard skin that is broken only twice at front and rear to reveal the warm interior.
Generous natural light is provided throughout the structure via secure clerestory windows, thereby enhancing the interior experience without reducing the security of the building. The appropriateness of the clean lines and quiet design to the function of the building is striking and admirable.
Bronx County Hall of Justice, New York
Architect’s Statement
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Within the courtyard, a free-standing public building serves as a jury assembly room, gives scale to the space, and is the symbolic and formal focus of the project. The exterior wall design responds to the various functions and orientates the building. The curtain wall facing the south and west takes the shape of a folded plane with integrated light shelves that reflect light into the courtrooms and shade the adjacent corridor. The intent is to express the building as open and inviting, a metaphor for the transparency of the judicial process.
Jury’s Statement
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Courthouse PROJECT TEAM Owner: Department of Citywide Administrative Services, New York |
The glass curtain walls create two front-to-back architectural expressions, separate yet harmonious. These glass walls are elegant in their luminosity and play with sunlight. The building is complex, yet all spaces relate well to one another, generating the feel of simplicity. The public areas are particularly dramatic. The placement of the jury rooms immediately on the entry area impressed the jury. It expresses respect for and celebration of this critical facet of citizenship. The building’s relationship to the well-designed plaza also impressed the jury.
Davenport U.S. Courthouse Renovation, Davenport, Iowa
Architect’s Statement
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Continued criminal caseload growth, poor inmate transportation and security, insufficient space to expand court operations and an aging infrastructure rendered the historical building inadequate. The program included upgrading and restoring the historic courtroom; adding two new courtrooms, support space, and three new judges chambers; expanding court-related offices; and adding new prisoner holding facilities and a secure judges parking area.
The design removes previous renovations, exposes and restores significant original interior features and introduces a textured glass wall paralleling the original public lobby, beyond which two new courtrooms and support space are inserted.
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Courthouse PROJECT TEAM Owner: U.S. General Services Administration, Heartland Region, Kansas City, Mo. |
Jury’s Statement
The restoration and renovation of a former 1930s U.S. Post Office and Courthouse presented a particular challenge that may be presented with increased frequency: renovating and modernizing an older courthouse to meet current requirements for courthouses.
The architect met this challenge with stunning success by maximizing limited space with respect for the preservation of beautiful interior materials and fixtures.
Plymouth Public Safety Building and City Hall, Plymouth, Minn.
Architect’s Statement
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The incorporation of these programmatic elements with the existing City Hall unifies the complex and supports the natural setting. The secured squad garage is built under and into the natural bowl, reserving additional city park areas and providing the necessary security separation of police and staff vehicles. The landscape articulates and supports this gesture through native plants and low stone walls.
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Multiple use PROJECT TEAM Owner: Plymouth Public Safety Building and City Hall, Plymouth, Minn. |
Jury’s Statement
The jury was impressed with this elegant new addition. The well-crafted pergola at the entry presents a new stronger image yet manages to extend a more welcoming invitation to the public. The project philosophically and literally connects two disparate buildings into a unified whole in an exuberant manner. The jury admired the architect’s ability to maximize the site by burying the secured parking underground and maintaining the terraces that draw the surrounding landscape into the project. The project submittal reflects the clarity and care of presentation the program is seeking.
Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Federal Courthouse, Miami
Architect’s Statement
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The primary material for the north and south façade of the tower is the same precast stone used to frame the curtain wall, providing solidity to the elevations. The monumental windows are arranged horizontally and vertically, each orientation and fenestration unique, reflecting the hierarchy between office space and courtroom functions. The architecture is meant to reflect the importance of what goes on inside making the building a recognizable icon both day and night.
Jury’s Statement
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Courthouse PROJECT TEAM Owner: U.S. General Services Administration, Region 4, Atlanta |
The courthouse captures innovation in an attractive and forward-looking manner. The placement of paired courtrooms on each side of an open circulation area, pieced by a glass atrium, breaks the standard arrangement and provides an open feel to this area. Well-balanced proportions in the building are achieved by dividing it into two halves mediated by a glass inclusion. The building’s unique fenestration admirably accomplishes the task of presenting a building that is iconic, day or night.
San Francisco Juvenile Hall Replacement Project, San Francisco
Architect’s Statement
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Unit designs vary according to classifications — single sleeping rooms for high-security classifications and double rooms for the general population. Environmental quality, abundant natural light and artwork integrated into the design reduce tension and assist staff in managing the population.
Jury’s Statement
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Juvenile detention PROJECT TEAM Owner: City and County of San Francisco Architect: The Design Partnership, San Francisco |
The interior mixes well with the exterior by integrating the public art from outside. The overall massing of the project is pleasing and maximizes light in the interior. There is a certain playfulness in the fenestration that lightens what is often a dark, heavy feeling in such structures. But the purpose of the facility was not forgotten as the lines of sight offer superior functionality in a facility where supervision is critical.
This is an excellent example of what those doing detention work can accomplish and how design can create an environment that is conducive to change within a structure that must also be secure.
Snohomish County Jail Expansion, Everett, Wash.
Architect’s Statement
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The project’s overall massing and details complement these public spaces. Key to the design concept was a city zoning variance dictating the jail expansion should not “look like a jail.” Its fritted-glass curtain wall façade achieves this in two ways: by obscuring typical concrete walls and narrow jail window patterns during the day and creating ethereal and unexpected patterns of diffused light from cells at night. By including video visitation facilities and secure connections between the separate jail buildings and courts, the facility offers safer inmate movement for staff and increased inmate availability for attorney and family visits.
Jury’s Statement
| PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Correctional, court and detention PROJECT TEAM Owner: Snohomish County, Wash. |
At the same time, the architect has provided a positive environment for staff and residents by focusing on providing abundant natural light from adjacent outdoor recreation areas which are tiered to increase access to natural light. Of particular note is the overall planning of the facility and the housing units which provides a variety of program spaces, in a simple and efficient parti.
Also noted was an attention to detail in implementing the direct supervision operational program, as evidenced by the location and open design of the officers station. The architect has successfully responded to the urban context of the site and city as well as requirements of the operational model and program.
Wayne Lyman Morse U.S. Courthouse, Eugene, Ore.
Architect’s Statement
The Wayne Lyman Morse U.S. Courthouse in Eugene, Ore., serves Oregon as part of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. The 4-acre site is the previous home of the Agripac cannery plant and is regarded by the city as an impetus for redeveloping the surrounding area with civic and commercial development.
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Rising 72 feet high, the 81,360-square-foot courthouse has five stories above grade and one level of below-grade parking. The first two floors hold offices for the courts, the U.S. Attorney, probation and pretrial services, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. General Services Administration, two U.S. senators, and one member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The building’s six courtrooms, all on the third floor, are paired by their purpose — two district, two magistrate and two bankruptcy courtrooms. There are six judges chambers above the courtroom level, one visiting judges chamber and two separate judicial library spaces.
Jury’s Statement
PROJECT DATA Type of facility: Courthouse PROJECT TEAM Owner: U.S. General Services |
It is an exhilarating piece of sculpture resulting in unexpected encounters with evocative free-flowing spaces of abundant daylight. The sculpted forms carry into the courtrooms using a teardrop shape to focus on the judge’s bench and embrace the room’s occupants with the richness of elegant wood patterning.
Select JFR Published Projects • Fredrick County Work Release Center Fredrick, Md.; PSA-Dewberry • Circuit Court of Cook County • El Paso County Terry R. Harris Judicial Complex Addition • The New Fall River Trial Court • Haywood County Justice Center • Kent County Courthouse • Bell County District Courthouse • Gwinnett County Detention Center Renovation and Expansion • Solano County Juvenile Detention Facility Fairfield, Calif. ; KMD Justice • San Mateo County Girls Camp • San Mateo County Youth Center |
