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East Bay Market Report
The Contra Costa County courthouse in Pittsburg highlightsa $5 billion program to replace or renovate the state’s aging judicial facilities.
By David Silva
Everyone wants to feel special, but the judges, lawyers and other denizens of the county courthouse in Pittsburg have been laboring under a distinction they’d just as soon have avoided.
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| The $64-million project is one of 41 courthouse projects scheduled for construction across the state. |
“One of the unique things about this particular courthouse is that the [state] Administrative Office of the Courts did a survey of all courthouses in California, and this one was deemed the worst facility in the state,” says Teri Jones, vice president of Sundt Construction Inc. in Sacramento.
Help is on the way.
Sundt Construction in April began building a $64-million replacement for the dilapidated and severely overcrowded courthouse – if a state-of-the-art facility nearly three times the size of the 52-year-old existing one can be called a replacement.
One of 41 new courthouse projects scheduled for construction across the state, the 73,500-sq-ft East Contra Costa County Courthouse is expected to be ready for trials and jury duty by October 2010.
The existing structure is scheduled to be removed two months later.
The replacement building was originally called the Antioch Courthouse project by state officials, until someone realized it wasn’t located in the city of Antioch. It is being built near the existing facility, adjacent to Pittsburg’s Civic Center.
Sundt was chosen by the AOC as construction manager at risk for the project, with the San Francisco offices of HOK serving as project architect.
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| HOK will serve as the architect for the two-story courthouse. |
The new, 2-story facility will include seven courtrooms with room for expansion to 10; judges’ chambers and family law administrative offices; holding cells; conference rooms; 15 customer-service windows; a self-help/library center with a children’s waiting area; a jury assembly pavilion; attorney/client meeting rooms; and on- and off-site parking areas with a total of 280 spaces.
The facility will also include elaborate security features, including entrance screening and metal detectors, a sally port, surveillance cameras and secure parking for judges.
The courthouse, which officials say should receive LEED silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, will include such environmentally friendly features as an energy-efficient HVAC system, plumbing fixtures that will reduce water use by 40%, drought-resistant landscaping, and a 2,900-sq-ft “green” roof above the jury assembly room.
“The AOC’s design goal was to provide a contemporary, yet enduring, civic edifice,” HOK notes in a written reply to an interview request.
“It will present a striking contrast to the existing one-level, 1950s-era courthouse. The primary building materials are limestone (most public facing walls), pre-cast concrete and glass. Most interior finishes, such as terrazzo floors, are made from recyclable materials. The courthouse `square,’ which connects the entry with the public areas, is landscaped with native plants and trees, along with decomposed granite, gradual steps and ramps up to the elevated building entry.”
Sundt’s Jones says a key challenge for both construction workers and court employees has been maneuvering around one another throughout the long working days.
“The court employees have a lot of their offices set up in modular trailers, and so just their circulation logistics and security are issues for them,” she says.
“The courts are fully functional during construction, and in order to keep them fully functional, we erected a temporary sound wall to keep all the construction noises out of their existing facility.”
Details of the California Trial Court Capital Outlay Program
By David Silva
The East Contra Costa County Courthouse replacement facility is but one gem in a $5 billion jewelry box of infrastructure projects known as the California Trial Court Capital Outlay Program.
Established with the passage in October of state Senate Bill 1407, the program calls for replacing and/or renovating 41 court facilities in 34 counties across the state over a five-year period.
The bill, written by state Sen. Don Peralta, both streamlines the court construction process and sets up a formula for paying for the projects: The money will come from the issuance of lease-revenue bonds, plus increased court fees and penalties to service the bonds.
According to the California Judicial Council, the state court system’s policy-making arm, some 90% of the state’s courthouses are in need of significant repair.
Sixteen courthouse projects are already underway, while the rest await revenue generated from SB 1407 to proceed. Of the latter, one of the more ambitious projects is the 185,000-sq-ft East County Hall of Justice in the Alameda County city of Dublin – a joint effort between the AOC and the county of Alameda.
With construction expected to begin in 2011, the $130 million project will provide 13 courtrooms and support services for east Alameda County residents.
Six of those courtrooms will replace those currently housed in a leased facility called the Gale-Schenone Hall of Justice in Pleasanton.
The remaining seven will replace those lost when the Allen E. Broussard Courthouse in Oakland closed due to unsuitable conditions.
No general contractor or project architect has been chosen to date, AOC spokesman Philip Carrizosa says. |
The East Contra Costa County Courthouse Project Team
Owner: County of Contra Costa
Construction Manager at Risk: Sundt Construction, Sacramento
Project Architect: HOK, San Francisco
Electrical Contractor: Del Monte Electric Co. Inc., Dublin
HVAC Contractor: Control Air North Inc., Hayward
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