Venture Architects is working with The Samuels Group and Waushara County to improve working conditions inside the County’s nearly 100-year-old courthouse, where most county services were being held. After several months of discussion and site planning exercises, the County chose to build a new, two-story government center on the Law Enforcement Center campus.
The building will host all departments currently in the courthouse, in addition to Health and Human Services, which is currently in their own building. The design goal of the building is to create a main street concept, where the public enters into a single point of entry, a main promenade. From there, they can see the entrances to each department.
The building has an underground connection to the Law Enforcement Center, which allows for court cases to be heard, with the defendant transitioning from the LEC to the Government Center completely inside and isolated from the public.
Another advantage to the building is its design of a flexible meeting space, which can hold up to 500 persons for County Board meetings or can be subdivided into four equal-spaced conference rooms. These public rooms can all be accessed easily from the promenade.
The construction of the building is a steel frame, with a cast-in-place concrete partial basement. The basement contains utility spaces and a corridor for prisoner transport. The first and second floors utilize daylight in the atrium area and windows around the perimeter. The exterior envelope is comprised of brick or stone veneer on the exterior side of metal studs and insulation. A mechanical penthouse above the second floor keeps the air handling units from exterior exposure, which prolongs their lifespan.
