09/2003 | CAJ Jury Honors 22 Justice
Facilities |
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A Committee on Architecture for Justice jury has selected 22 projects for inclusion in the Justice Facilities Review 2003–2004, to be published this fall. These projects and their architects will be honored at the second annual Congress on Infrastructure Security for the Built Environment (ISBE) September 16–18 in Washington, D.C., in tandem with the CAJ fall conference. Although the jury would have liked more innovation in this year’s entries as a whole, they say in the jury comments, two particularly captured their attention and will be awarded citations. They are the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, Las Vegas, by Cannon Design, and the Ketchikan Regional Youth/RDT Facility, Ketchikan, Alaska, by ECI/Hyer Inc. Las
Vegas courthouse creates powerful totem This 437,000-square-foot, $95 million courthouse revolves around an L-shaped floor plate. The public lobby features a three-story rotunda with glazed roof, accessed through a secured entry. An enormous canopy frames the entry plaza as a grand civic space and is supported by a monumentally scaled steel column. “The courthouse creates a symbolic corner within downtown Las Vegas, with the open side of the L embracing the city and protecting the entry plaza from the southern sun and prevailing winds,” noted the jury. “In addition to symbolizing a federal presence in the city, the building responds to its urban surroundings, establishing a design precedent for large-scale public buildings in Las Vegas.” Ketchikan
youth facility serves two disparate populations The facility provides both secure detention for juvenile offenders and a program for youth with mental-health issues. The design allows these two populations to be separated while still benefiting from the multi-use spaces. The facility’s program is centered on four youth-detention and four mental-health single-occupancy beds, with two swing cells available to both populations for flexibility. To meet the requirement of sight and sound separation between populations while maintaining an efficient, open plan, the design connects a centralized workstation to two independent living wings. The architects report that the site provided by the City of Ketchikan offers beautiful views of a nearby creek and challenging topographic conditions. Consequently, the building is supported on a foundation of steel pilings up to 60 feet long. Exterior paint in traditional Tlinkit-Indian colors, sloping roof forms with long eave projections, and covered entryways complete a building envelope intended to harmonize with its breathtaking surround. The jurors stated that this entry caught their attention immediately because it breaks from the traditional style of juvenile detention facilities. “The Ketchikan facility is a good example of a facility that can be designed to meet the multiple needs of youth in smaller, more rural communities,” they concluded. Variety of outstanding works
For future editions of the review, the jury recommends that categories be added to include unbuilt projects and projects that have performed successfully for 10 years or more. Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page |
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