CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The engineering firm responsible for how additional space will be created at the Kanawha County Judicial Building presented three different floor plans to the Kanawha County Commission on Thursday.
Jody Driggs of Silling Architects met with Commissioners during their meeting and introduced three options that they came up to address some spacing and security issues with the building.
Last month, a five-person committee chose Silling Architects to be the ones responsible for how the additional space was going to be tacked on to accommodate the arrival of three new magistrates and one circuit judge to the county. The Judicial Building also presents some security concerns with the courtrooms that Silling was asked to figure out in their project plans.
Silling has also been figuring out a redesign plan for the fifth floor of the Judicial Building for the visiting judge’s space.
Driggs said over the past few weeks of planning, they have designed the three options which all have different price points, but all try to fix the issues that have been brought up by Kanawha County circuit judges, magistrates, and security team. Driggs said they had “hit the ground running” on this project.
“We needed to find the needs of this project in October and we need to have construction documents wrapped up by February of 2024 with the idea of bidding the project in March,” said Driggs.
As described by Driggs, Option A is the least impactful to existing conditions and the least expensive. Option B is somewhere in the middle with a significant reorganization of interior spaces. Option C is a full on building expansion and the most expensive by far.
The Kanawha County Commission has not yet issued a budget for Silling to operate within. Driggs did show the three options with the following estimated costs in his presentation:
Option A: 5,280 square feet of renovated space, $2.89 million
Option B: 11,995 square feet of renovated space, $6.85 million
Option C: 15,557 square feet of renovated space, $9.85 million
“This is also an expensive project because whether we are adding on or just renovating the interior of the building, the building is not going to shut down,” Driggs said, meaning he expects a lot of the construction work will be done at night.
For Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, the Commission can either go the cheap route or go more expensive. He expressed his concerns with the cost per square footage.
“The cost per square foot is really high right now,” Salango said. “When we’re talking about Option C, we’re looking probably in the range of $700 per square foot.”
Driggs told the commission the options are not definitive and simply what they have brainstormed so far since being tasked with the project.
The West Virginia Supreme Court requires a minimum office space of 100 square feet for magistrates. Diggs said the office space varies with each option but they all meet that minimum required space.
January of 2025 is the target date to get this project finished. Salango said it will be tough to get Option C completed in that timeframe with the arrival of the new magistrates and circuit judge coming 13 months from now.
Driggs projects a bidding process for the construction to go out starting sometime in February 2024 with construction to follow soon after.
Commissioner Salango also suggested that Driggs and Silling Architects meet with judges from each of the courts to get their take on the possible plans.