Location: Tacoma, WA

Square Feet: 20,100 SF

Project Keywords: Justice, Public Safety, Courts

Project Description:

KMB led the planning and design of the Pierce County courts renovation. The project added judicial system-wide capacity as well as provided three fully accessible courtrooms to the County-City Building campus.  The Pierce County District Court projects began with the programming phase to establish the need for spaces, relevant functions, and requirements of staff that will be working within these areas.  The programming and planning process involved a series of stakeholder workshops and design charrettes to explore various site strategies and building planning options.  These workshops were divided into two tracks: the Court Track for the District Court build-out, and the Probation Track for the Probation and the Probation Alternatives Program renovations.  This approach maximized user engagement and minimized time away from user’s regular jobs.  Once the program area was established, the project team then used the workshop charrettes to develop options and alternatives that were presented to the stakeholder groups, each charrette further refined the design solutions and overall design budget. The $5.5M District Court renovation totaled roughly 20,100 SF in two buildings and on three separate floors.  The project consisted of three primary components; an 8,500 SF renovation of the City-County Building to add three new District Courtrooms and ancillary judicial offices, as well as 5,900 SF renovation of the District Probation Department, and 5,700 SF of the 925 Building to house the District Court Alternatives and Community Resource Center for District Probation.