Trial courtrooms that accommodate criminal proceedings require five points of access to achieve a secure separation of participants: one each for the judge, law clerks, jurors, the public, and prisoners. More often than not, we find that the framework of existing circulation patterns, especially...

When the use of flexible furniture and fixtures, as described in an earlier article, is not enough to provide adequate space in an undersized courtroom, it may be necessary to reduce the courtroom's user capacity.

The most common challenge when undergoing major renovation projects in existing courthouses is designing a functional courtroom in a tight or poorly configured space. We often refer to this as “shoehorning” a courtroom into existing space. In many cases, adequate space cannot be found to construct...