San Bernardino Courthouse

The San Bernardino Courthouse will occupy 370,000 square feet on a seven-acre site and will consolidate services from seven facilities. The new trial facility will serve the criminal, traffic, family law, probate, and dependency divisions of the Superior Court, as well as provide spaces for court administration, self-help, jury services, sheriff’s operations, and in-custody holding.

The 370,000-square-foot courthouse will occupy a 7.1-acre site as part of a larger downtown campus of City, County, State, and privately-owned buildings. The new courthouse will consist of 36 Courtrooms, 36 Judges’ chambers; office work areas and support spaces, as well as 33,000 square feet of public space and common areas. The facility will also provide administrative areas for the following divisions: Criminal, Traffic, Family Law, Juvenile, Appeals and Appellate, and Probate.

• A three-story section, or podium, built along the site’s northern edge, will house functions that the public accesses most frequently: clerk’s offices, jury assembly, and support spaces. The west section of the podium contains a spacious entrance lobby incorporating features that draw in daylight while limiting heat gain. This lower building mass helps to scale the courthouse to its immediate context.
• An 11-story, 200-foot-tall tower will house the courtrooms and judicial offices. This tower will express the stature of the Court and serve as a landmark for the city.

The two sections are connected by a top-lit, cascading stair and a multi-story atrium. Within the tower, each floor will contain four courtrooms, with public hallways and waiting areas occurring behind a glassy façade on the north. This transparent façade will enable those using the building to view the city and surrounding mountains, while providing visibility into the functioning of the Court to the public outside the building.

Both the body of the tower and the frame of the podium will be clad in richly textured limestone, which will recall the historic courthouse and reflect the dignity of the Superior Court.

The building’s key features include the following:

• Courtroom configuration: Four large courtrooms, 28 standard courtrooms, and 3 small courtrooms, plus 2 hearing rooms. Most courtrooms will accommodate juries, and all have access to holding facilities for in-custody detainees.
• Designed for future expansion, the building design will accommodate construction of 4 full-sized courtrooms in lieu of the smaller courtrooms and hearing rooms, as caseload needs change in the future, for a total of 36 courtrooms.
• Sustainable design: With a minimum target of LEED®Silver certification, the New San Bernardino Courthouse will seek to establish a sustainable model of development in the city. The design has carefully considered orientation, shading, material selection, and landscaping so that the building will thrive within its desert climate.

The $272,000,000 project was awarded through the Administrative Office of the Courts’ (AOC) Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) evaluation process that evaluates candidate in four categories:

1. Financial Strength, Safety Record, and Claims Avoidance
2. Demonstrated Experience of the Firm
3. Demonstrated Experience and training of project personnel
4. Project Plan

The evaluation results in a score that is then divided into the total bid price to generate the cost per unit of quality.

“The best value process allows for a bigger picture evaluation, where more is considered than just the lowest bid. This type of selection process is a growing trend in our industry, and Rudolph and Sletten consistently ranks high in these evaluations due to our high level of preconstruction and construction management services that bring added value to the customer.” Martin Sisemore,
CEO,
Rudolph and Sletten

The 24-month construction process is scheduled to begin in late 2010. Rudolph and Sletten will work collaboratively with the Administrative Office of the Courts and with the project’s architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, to perform all preconstruction and construction services.