The new Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse was designed to anchor the downtown Long Beach area and create an engaging and purposeful civic place. The courthouse is the first civic building in the United States delivered through an availability-payment-based public-private partnership (PPP). Under this agreement, Long Beach Judicial Partners (a project company of Meridiam Infrastructure) financed, designed, and built the project, and will operate and maintain it as part of a private consortium for 35 years.
The new 531,000-square-foot courthouse replaces an older facility that outlived its life expectancy. The project occupies six acres in the city’s redevelopment area, bounded by West Broadway, Maine Avenue, West Third Street, and Magnolia Avenue. The facility houses 31 courtrooms — with expansion space for six more — offices for county justice agencies, retail space compatible with court uses, and an interior courtyard. The scope of work includes renovation of the nearby parking structure and enhancement of surrounding streetscapes. As the designer, we factored durability, resilience, and access to the justice system into the building’s design, which responds to varying adjacent building heights, expresses the civic purpose of the court, and creates a less stressful experience for those in the building. The project was completed in August 2013, under budget and 11 days ahead of schedule.
Client
Judicial Council of California
Services
- Architecture
- Interior design
- Court consultant
- Structural, mechanical and security engineering
- Construction administration
