Posted: 5/8/07
County board reviews revised CJC plans
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board of Commissioners, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, and various county department heads, met with representatives of Klein McCarthy Architects, and Johnson Controls to review the latest schematic designs for the proposed Criminal Justice Center (CJC) during a three-hour meeting Friday morning.
Much has changed in the design of the CJC during the past year, which was quite evident in the plans reviewed Friday morning. Although the square footage of the facility hasnít changed much, the "footprint" of the building was decreased by 3,432 square feet per floor for the three-story building. The outer dimensions of the building north-south will remain the same, but length of the building east-west was cut back 26 feet, moving the facility further away from residential areas.
Architects revised the plans considerably to help pare down the cost of the CJC, which had an estimated price tag last year of $15.9 million. Those changes included:
-To forgo attempting to match up the floors in the CJC with existing floors in the court house and not have the two buildings connected. The floors in the court house are at such a low elevation it would be impossible to have windows in the lowest level of the CJC, if the floors were matched up.
-By raising the lowest level of the CJC, many of the offices, such as the sheriffís, chief deputyís, etc, can be located in the lowest level, and still utilize natural lighting.
-Previous plans did not include any occupied space underneath the cell block area. The new plan calls for a large mechanical room, storage, and other rooms under the cell block. Even though the length of the building will be 26 feet fewer (or 3,432 square feet per floor) the total square footage of the facility will remain about 70,000.
"Right now, weíre trying to build in as much flexibility as possible in our plans," Scott Fettig of McCarthy Architects said.
Another issue discussed at the meeting was where to locate the heating and ventilating systems. One option is to locate those systems in an enclosed area on the roof of the building. Another would be to locate the systems in the lowest level adjacent to the mechanical rooms. The group discussed the pros and cons of each alternative.
Planners will also take a look at the existing heating and cooling system in the court house to determine if it would be more advantageous to include a system large enough to handle both the CJC and the court house.
While no figures were discussed, it was apparent the changes reviewed Friday would have significant cost savings to the project, and have less impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
According to Mark Beyer of Johnson Controls, the architects and other planners will continue discussions with county officials, and at least one more design will be presented for review.
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