Our design for the jail reuse project is based on appropriate degrees of preservation, restoration and adaptation. The spaces involved include court and hearing rooms, offices, waiting areas (witnesses, victims and defendants), holding areas, separate entrances, secure corridors, and judges’ chambers and security clearance areas and guard stations. The project also includes public accesses, a cafe linked to an outdoor courtyard, and other courtyards.

Four existing wings radiating like spokes from the central rotunda are the organizing elements for the interior space, and this central focus will remain as originally designed, a partially expressed octagonal colonnade which culminates in a “semi-Gothic” octagonal dome. New work within the old structure is detailed in such a way as to create a formal or visual separation between the old and new, enabling us to realize the need to express the new functional complexity of the program.

Our design retains the important public and civic focus and provides the following:

•     The economy of reusing a structurally sound, functional building for a compatible use rather than erecting a new structure.

•     Consolidation of the Family Division of the Courts into a single, secure building with controlled public access that maintains adjacencies to other County offices.

•     A use that conforms to the building plan, does not adversely affect the historic exterior, and allows the significant spatial characteristics of the interior to remain and serve as focal points of the new scheme.

•     The opening of the former prison yards to the street and their use as public gardens, further enhancing that portion of the downtown area and any future proposed development.