Maryland Expands Capacity With LEED Project

BALTIMORE — Maryland officials selected a team led by PSA-Dewberry to design a new $80 million youth detention facility in downtown Baltimore.

The Baltimore Youth Detention Center, operated by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, will provide 180 single-occupancy rooms to house youths charged as adults.

The new five-story facility, which will be designed to meet LEED Silver certification standards, will allow the state to expand housing capacity for youth offenders while improving programming and services.

The project team includes local architects Penza Bailey and programming consultants Carter Goble Lee.

“The center will allow the state to enhance its program for youth offenders through appropriate spaces for education, counseling and housing,” says Jim Beight, AIA, PSA-Dewberry’s director of design.

The 200,000-square-foot facility will incorporate six housing units, visitation, programming and administrative support space, a gymnasium and a separate booking and intake center. Each housing unit will include activity space, a multi-purpose room, a counseling room and an officer station.

A community space component is designed to accommodate a range of activities and services, including education and training, medical care, recreation and food service.

The new youth facility will be erected on a site adjacent to a new women’s detention center that is also being designed by PSA-Dewberry.

EBA Engineering and Hope Furrer Associates will provide civil and structural engineering services, with WFT Engineering and Sidhu Associates providing mechanical and electrical engineering services.

“The site is challenging and will require careful strategizing for public access and inmate transport,” Beight says.

The youth detention center, which is scheduled for completion by spring 2012, and the women’s facility will be linked as part of a project master plan developed in close collaboration with MDPSCS staff.