BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4 - (Page 18)

BUILDING BE Award Finalist Courting Success BIM marshals multiple disciplines for federal courthouse design synchronicity T he design directives for the new United States Courthouse in Rockford, Illinois, called for multiple, sometimes seemingly contradictory objectives. For instance, because the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) foresees a building life of up to 100 years, provisions for future expansion had to be extremely ﬂexible to accommodate changing space needs. Also, the building design needed to meet stringent security requirements while simultaneously being open and inviting to the public. To meet these challenges, GSA retained the design team of Koetter, Kim & Associates and PSA-Dewberry in November 2002. Forming the centerpiece of a new urban district within Rockford, the two urban blocks selected as the courthouse site lie in an underutilized section of the city. The plan focused on further developing Rockford’s Main Street as an urban street interspersed with public green spaces. The courthouse location forms a park-like square that connects to Rockford’s riverfront park system, with the main entrance to the courthouse marked by a pavilion located in park space. The primary security checkpoint occupies the connector between the pavilion and the building itself. The building is designed to project a stable and digniﬁed image appropriate to the judiciary while being visually engaged with the city’s character. It will house ﬁve courtrooms: two District Courts, one Magistrate Court, and two Bankruptcy Courts. Space is also provided for District and Bankruptcy Clerk of the Court, U.S. Marshals Services, U.S. Attorneys, and Pre-trial/Probation Services. The organization of the building produces a long narrow form that deﬁnes the western edge of the newly created park. The scale of the courthouse relates well to surrounding buildings, but the courthouse is tall enough to establish an urban presence and provide views in all directions from the upper ﬂoors. Upon entering the courthouse, visitors receive an immediate sense of how the building is organized. The entrance lobby cuts through ﬁve of the building’s six ﬂoors to orient visitors to the publicly accessible areas. The departments that will generate the most trafﬁc are located on the ﬁrst and second ﬂoors, adjacent to the lobby, which also introduces as much natural light as possible into the interior ofﬁce spaces. Clerks’ ofﬁces on the ﬁrst and second v PSA-Dewberry designed a courthouse that projects a digniﬁed image while visually reﬂecting the city’s character 18 BE MAGAZINE | Volume 4, Issue 4

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

BE Magazine - Volume 4, issue 4 Contents The Drive To Innovate News BE Newsletter Highlights Converging on the Market Bytes and Bricks Generative Components Building Courting Success Remodeling an Icon Structural Integration Building News From Bentley Civil Greenfield Airport Takes Flight Good Neighbors Collaborative Innovation Civil News From Bentley Advertisers Index Geospatial Ring of Fiber Revolutionizing Integrity Management Port City Transformation In Conversation With Greg Bentley Geospatial News From Bentley Plant Single-Source Service Committed to Cleaner Air Expediting Expansion Plant News From Bentley Strength in Numbers The Art of Visualization A Winning Legacy Zero Change Culture: Further Definition A Remarkable Collaboration With a Forward-Thinking Community

BE Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 4

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