Background

Montgomery County, MD was planning an expansion of its circuit courthouse. Several programming studies had already been conducted for the project, but county officials wanted an independent verification of the future needs and a revised space program to finalize the scope of the project.

Project Summary

Fentress was hired by the URS Corporation, the prime contractor working on the Montgomery County circuit courthouse expansion, to:

• Review the past programming documents
• Gather additional facility information through site assessments and interviews with court personnel
• Conduct an analysis of the court in comparison with similar court districts from around the country (comparisons included demographic, economic, and workload variables)
• Prepare a detailed space program that included a trend analysis, court component descriptions, space needs, security, and adjacency and housing requirements.

Results

Fentress verified the need for the planned expansion project and provided a professional report that documented the existing space deficiencies, anticipated future growth of the court, and identified needed facility improvement projects. The report contained a detailed space program that helped the county prepare preliminary design concepts and develop an accurate project cost. Fentress also presented the results of the study to county decision-makers, which helped the funding effort for the project. At present, an annex to the Montgomery Court Circuit Courthouse is proceeding through the funding and design process.