Girard Justice Center

With existing facilities deemed inadequate, the City of Girard, Ohio, retained ms consultants to supply programming and design for a new facility to house police, court, and administrative functions.

Combining court and police operations requires careful management of space and access. The project team developed a floorplan that would separate secured areas from public areas. Typical to most court operations, the secured spaces include those through which court employees access their offices and those through which prisoners are brought to court. A holding room for escorted prisoners is located adjacent to the courtroom on the second floor and is directly accessible from the police station sallyport through a secured elevator. Visiting officers from other districts can gain access to this area without passing through public areas or requiring an escort from the City of Girard, allowing the facility to operate with fewer employees while maintaining complete security and safety standards. The design team included electrical engineers for all lighting and power issues.

Working within a limited site, the architects designed the new 20,000-square-foot justice center as an addition to the original City Hall and linked with the existing Water Department building. As a result, the new building borrows elements and materials from the old, aesthetically integrating the new structure. The inverted piers of the new addition are modified from the traditional piers flanking the windows on the main façade of City Hall. The exterior form of the addition was designed to give the appearance of an inner shell encompassed by an outer shell. The outer shell is built of a textured brick, which matches the original City Hall material. The inner shell is built of a smoother, brighter brick in the same color range, creating contrast and interest. The entire police station was designed with glass block rather than regular insulated windows both for thermal performance and security measures. A two-story glass lobby allows large amounts of daylight into the public lobbies on the first and second floors.

The police station, containing a 24-hour 911 emergency response center, four eight-hour holding cells, interview rooms, and offices, along with the Probation Department occupy the first floor of the building. The Girard Municipal Court facilities are located on the second floor and include the main courtroom that accommodates up to 100 visitors, the judge’s chambers, offices of the Public Defender and Prosecutor, and the Clerk of Courts. This project employs a non-traditional courtroom layout with the judge’s bench situated in the corner of the room, directly opposite the main courtroom entrance. The clerk and witness are located to one side of the judge, with the reporter and the bailiff directly in front of the bench. The witness is located near the jury box, for ease of listening. The interior of the courtroom is designed entirely of white maple. Natural light entering the room reflects off the lighter wood generating an open and spacious feel throughout the room.

Mechanical Design

Mechanical systems for the new justice center involved more than $310,000 of fire protection and plumbing work. The fire protection for this fully sprinkled building included both light hazard and ordinary hazard occupancies, and two halon systems for the 911 emergency response center and other computer and electronics areas. The plumbing systems included approximately 50 fixtures of many types including stainless steel penal type fixtures in the holding cells. The mechanical systems were based on a geothermal water loop with 40, 300-foot vertical, closed-loop bore holes in the well field. Water source heat pumps were used to transfer heat to and from each zone, with 37 small capacity units (three-ton average) used to maximize comfort for each zone. A computer room cooling unit was used for the 911 dispatch area with a dry cooler for heat rejection. A ventilation unit with energy recovery wheel was used to balance the geothermal loads and minimize heating cooling costs for the ventilation system.

Awards

While the enterprise was declared a success by all project stakeholders, inclusion of the project in the National Center for State Courts’ Retrospective of Courthouse Design signified the Girard Justice Center as a project of merit. The project was also honored in the Eastern Ohio Chapter of AIA (American Institute of Architects) annual design awards and was a Merit Award winner in the Youngstown-Warren Chamber of Commerce Civic Improvement awards.

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